Catalytic Transesterification of Rubber Seed Oil to Biodiesel Using SrO/Al₂O₃: A Statistical Approach

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, SIMATS, Saveetha University, Chennai 602105, Tamil Nadu, India.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, P V P Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada. India.
³ Department of Mechanical Engineering, P V P Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada. India.
⁴ Professional trainer, Saudi Electrical Services Polytechnic, Ras Tanura, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Sri Venkateshwara College of Engineering, Bengaluru - 562157.
⁶ Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET) Deemed University, East Coast Road, Kanathur, Chennai.

^* Corresponding author: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Published online: 29 May 2026

Abstract

This work is focused on studying biodiesel synthesis from Rubber Seed Oil (RSO) with SrO/Al₂O₃ heterogeneous catalyst to optimise the parameters for improved biodiesel production. The transesterification reaction is carried out under different process variable conditions such as feed temperature, catalyst loading and molar ratio of methanol/oil. The Taguchi approach is applied to establish nine experimental runs in order to efficiently study the influence of these factors and also to reduce the experimentation work. The yield of biodiesel is calculated for each experiment and the results are analysed by statistical methods, such as S/N ratio and ANOVA to find out the most influential factor. According to the results, catalyst concentration and methanol-to-oil ratio are most crucial factors to improve biodiesel yield and ideal temperature plays an important role for effective reaction kinetics. Overall, This study suggests potential usage of non-edible rubber seed oil with solid base catalyst for the sustainable and low-cost production of biodiesel which in turn helps to the development of renewable energy technologies.