(546w) Effect of Reaction Time on the Yield of Biodiesel Produced from Yellow Oleander Seed Oil.

Biofuel production has continued to gain global increase, the use of biofuel produced from biological resources have resulted in environmentally friendly diesel fuel characterized with release of less harmful gases such as carbon dioxide when compared to fossil diesel. In this study, the effect of reaction time on the yield of biodiesel produced from yellow oleander seed oil was analyzed. Transesterification procedure was carried out to convert the seed oil to its methyl ester, at constant methanol/oil ratio, temperature and catalyst amount of 2g and 6g. The yield of the biodiesel was found to increase as the reaction time increased from 50 – 60 minutes, further increase in reaction time resulted in lower yield. It was concluded that reaction time above 60 minutes favored backward reaction.