A green heterogeneous catalyst production and characterization for biodiesel production using RSM and ANN approach

In this work, naturally available moringa oleifera leaves are chosen as a heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production from palm oil. The dry moringa oleifera leaves are calcinated up to 700 °C for 3 hours to improve their adsorbing property. The calcinated catalyst characterization analysis from XRD and EDX highlights the presence of calcium, potassium, and other elements. Response surface method (RSM) optimization and artificial neural network (ANN) modeling were carried out to elucidate the interaction effect of significant process variables on biodiesel yield. The results show that a maximum biodiesel yield of 92.82% was achieved at optimum conditions of catalyst usage (9 wt.%), molar ratio (7:1), temperature (50 °C) and reaction time (120 min). The catalyst usage (wt.%) was identified as a significant process variable followed by molar ratio. Furthermore, the significant fuel properties of the biodiesel related to thermal, physical, chemical, and elemental match with the established standards of ASTM. The reutilization analysis of the catalyst reveals that more than 50% of the biodiesel yield was achieved after five cycles of reuse.