Author(s)

Konan Edmond Kouassi^1,2, Abollé Abolle Abolle^2*, Kouassi Benjamin Yao¹, David Boa², Kopoin Adouby¹, Patrick Drogui³, Rajeshwar Dayal Tyagi³

¹Laboratoire de Procédés Industriels, de Synthèse, de l’Environnement, et des Energies Nouvelles, Groupe des Procédés et Environnement, Institut National Polytechnique Félix Houphouët-Boigny, Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire.
²Laboratoire de Thermodynamique et Physico-Chimie du Milieu, UFR Sciences Fondamentales et Appliquées, Université Nangui Abrogoua, Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
³Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS-Centre Eau, Terre et Environnement), Université du Québec, Québec, Canada.

The development of biofuels is driven both by concern about the greenhouse effect and by interest in the opportunities for exploitation of biomass of agricultural origin. In order to improve the yield and quality of biodiesel through modeling and optimization, several studies are in progress. In this paper, biodiesel produced from rubber seed oil in the homogeneous transesterification is studied using a Plackett-Burman experimental design, a full factorial design, a central composite design and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) coupled with a Genetic Algorithm (GA).Variables such as temperature, stirring speed, reaction time, type of alcohol, and type of catalyst are studied to obtain the best specific gravity and kinematic viscosity. Type of alcohol and type of catalyst have the greatest effect on the two responses, with ethanol (alcohol) and sulphuric acid (catalyst) producing the best results. The specific gravity and kinematic viscosity changes recorded during the transesterification process followed the first and second order polynomial models, respectively. The ANN coupled with GA was used to optimize the two responses simultaneously. Global optimal values of specific gravity (0.883) and kinematic viscosity (6.76 cSt) were recorded when a temperature of 90°C, a stirring speed of 305 rpm, and a treatment time of 141 min were imposed.

Rubber Seed Oil, Biodiesel, Transesterification, Specific Gravity, Kinematicviscosity

Kouassi, K. , Abolle, A. , Yao, K. , Boa, D. , Adouby, K. , Drogui, P. and Tyagi, R. (2018) Optimization of Rubber Seed Oil Transesterification to Biodiesel Using Experimental Designs and Artificial Neural Networks. Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 8, 39-61. doi: 10.4236/gsc.2018.81004.