Effect of reaction temperature and time on neem methyl ester yield in a batch reactor

Experimental investigation of neem methyl ester yield in a batch reactor at different process conditions of temperature and reaction duration was carried out using a 2-factor, 5-level full factorial experimental design. Reaction temperature was varied between 40 °C and 60 °C, while reaction time was studied in the range of 30–120 min. The study, which was carried out using 1% w/w catalyst amount and alcohol to oil ratio of 6:1, showed that reaction temperature had a highly significant effect (p < 0.01) in comparison with reaction time, which had a significant effect (p < 0.05) on methyl ester yield. Six (6) empirical models were developed for the response variable of methyl ester yield using a non-linear regression analysis method, facilitated by NLREG version 6.3 software. Results showed that the mean predicted ester yield values and mean experimental values were not statistically different at the 95% confidence level, whereas the maximum deviation observed was 6.9%.