Abstract

Mustapha Aliru74877*, Olajide Aliru74878 and Afolabi Usman Oladayo74879

This work focuses on synthesizing and optimizing an ethylene glycol-based biolubricant derived from castor Ricinus communis seed oil to address environmental concerns associated with conventional lubricants. The process involved the extraction of Castor Oil (CAO), followed by physicochemical analysis and a two-step transesterification, resulting in a biodegradable and non-toxic CAO based biolubricant. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was employed using a Box-Behnken Design (BBD) to optimize the second esterification process. This study focused on investigating the effects of input variables temperature, mole ratio and reaction time on the yield of biolubricant. CAO is rich in unsaturated fatty acids, with ricinoleic acid being the predominant component. The optimization process utilized a quadratic statistical model, which effectively identified the optimal reaction conditions a temperature of 80ºC, a reaction time of 90 minutes, a molar ratio of 3:1 and a fixed catalyst dosage of 1.0%. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and model fittings showed the quadratic regression polynomial model is effective in optimizing biolubricant yield. The predicted yield of 85.96% closely aligned with the experimental value of 86.23% demonstrating the effectiveness of the model. The synthesized CAO based biolubricant affirms its quality and potential for industrial applications by meeting the requirements of International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Viscosity Grades 32 (ISO VG 32) and 46 (ISO VG 46).