Maximizing biodiesel yield of a non-edible chinaberry seed oil via microwave assisted transesterification process using response surface methodology and artificial neural network techniques

In this study, the non-edible Chinaberry Seed Oil (CBO) is converted into biodiesel using microwave assisted transesterification. The objective of this effort is to maximize the biodiesel yield by optimizing the operating parameters, such as catalyst concentration, methanol-oil ratio, reaction speed, and reaction time. The designed setup provides a controlled and effective approach for turning CBO into biodiesel, resulting in encouraging yields and reduced reaction times. The experimental findings reveal the optimal parameters for the highest biodiesel yield (95 %) are a catalyst concentration of 1.5 w/w, a methanol-oil ratio of 6:1 v/v, a reaction speed of 400 RPM, and a reaction period of 3 min. The interaction of the several operating parameters on biodiesel yield has been investigated using two methodologies: Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN). RSM provides better modeling of parameter interaction, while ANN exhibits lower comparative error when predicting biodiesel yield based on the reaction parameters. The percentage improvement in prediction of biodiesel yield by ANN is found to be 12 % as compared to RSM. This study emphasizes the merits of both the approaches for biodiesel yield optimization. Furthermore, the scaling up this microwave-assisted transesterification system for industrial biodiesel production has been proposes with focus on its economic viability and environmental effects. •The maximum biodiesel yield of 95 % was obtained.•The biodiesel yield predicted by ANN model was close to the experimental optimized yield.•The R2 value was close to one for the training and was 0.944 for validation.•RSM better described the interactions of individual parameters and ANN worked better for overall yield prediction.