Potential of Ripe Plantain Fruit Peels as an Ecofriendly Catalyst for Biodiesel Synthesis: Optimization by Artificial Neural Network Integrated with Genetic Algorithm

Anietie O. Etim, Eriola Betiku, Sheriff O. Ajala, Peter J. Olaniyi and Tunde V. Ojumu
Additional contact information
Anietie O. Etim: Department of Chemical Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Osun State, Nigeria
Eriola Betiku: Department of Chemical Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Osun State, Nigeria
Sheriff O. Ajala: Department of Chemical Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Osun State, Nigeria
Peter J. Olaniyi: Department of Chemistry, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Osun State, Nigeria
Tunde V. Ojumu: Department of Chemical Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife 220005, Osun State, Nigeria

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 3, 1-15

Abstract: The present work was aimed at assessing the possible use of ripe plantain fruit peel as a green-base catalyst in synthesizing Azadirachta indica oil methyl esters (AIOME). The free fatty acid content of the oil (5.81 wt %) was initially reduced to 0.90 wt % using methanol: oil at 2.19 v / v , Fe 2 (SO 4 ) 3 at 6 wt %, time of 15 min and temperature of 65 °C. The pretreated oil was converted to AIOME in a transesterification process with calcined ripe plantain peel ash (CRPPA) at 700 °C as catalyst. The process was modeled by artificial neural network and optimized using genetic algorithm. The effectiveness of the developed CRPPA is ascribable to its high K content and microstructural transformation. The reliability of the model obtained was confirmed with a high coefficient of determination ( R 2 ) of 0.996 and a low mean relative percentage deviation (MRPD) of 8.10%. The best operating variables combination for the process was methanol:oil of 0.73 v / v , CRPPA of 0.65 wt % and time of 57 min while the temperature was kept constant at 65 °C with a corresponding AIOME yield of 99.2 wt %. The results of this work demonstrated the potentials of ripe plantain peels and neem oil as cheap feedstocks for biodiesel production.

Keywords: artificial neural network; biodiesel; heterogeneous catalyst; modeling; optimization; transesterification (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/707/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/3/707/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:3:p:707-:d:134823

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().