Abstract:
The biodiesel produced from Croton macrostachyus (CM) leaves mostly contains unsat urated fatty acid esters with low stability of oxidation. A Croton macrostachyus (CM)
leaf, a non-edible resource, was utilized to produce biodiesel. This novel work focuses
on the trans-esterifcation of species known as CM leaves oil to produce biodiesel with
the help of CaO nanoparticle (CaO NPs)–catalyzed technique. The esterifcation process
is optimized utilizing response surface methodology (RSM) based on central compos ite design (CCD). Four parameters that afect the production of biodiesel from Croton
macrostachyus (CM) leaves oil have been examined. The optimum operating conditions
for the selected four factors have been investigated as reaction time 25.95 min, tem perature 63.325 °C, methanol to oil ratio 28.093:1 in mg/L, and catalyst concentration
3.001%wt with a desirability value of 1. Under the predicted parameters, to optimize
the production of biodiesel, the quadratic mathematical models were developed. The
optimized trans-esterifcation result showed that a 96.375% yield of biodiesel (FAME)
was found. Three diferent experimental runs were carried out to validate the proposed
model by using the optimized process parameters, and 95.818% (average) of experimen tal yield have been found. The CM leaves oil biodiesel physicochemical properties were
obtained, and it was observed all the tasted properties agree with fuel specifcations set
by ASTM D6751 standards. In conclusion, this work formulates the baseline and the
need for future exploration of CM leaves oil for biodiesel production through diferent
methods
