Abstract: Bio-lubricant was produced via double transesterification process of Jatropha oil with Ethylene Glycol as a polyol in the presence of potassium hydroxide catalyst. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) using Central Composite Design (CCD) was performed by Design expert v10 software to determine the optimum operating conditions for bio-lubricant Lubricity. In this study, the process variables optimized were temperature, catalyst concentration and reaction time. From the Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA), the most influential parameter on bio-lubricant production was catalyst concentration. The predicted lubricity was found in good agreement with the experimental value, with coefficient of determination (R2) = 0.9785. The optimum bio-lubricant lubricity of 517.030 was achieved at 2.62 hr reaction time, with 0.95 wt% of catalyst concentration and with temperature of 149.73oC. Major lubricating properties of the product such as: density at 100 ºC, kinematic viscosity at 40 oC, viscosity at 40ºC, viscosity index, and the pour point were found to be: 0.922mg/l, 5.58 mm2/s, 35.8N.s/m2, 169 and -7 oC respectively. The bio-lubricant produced is comparable to the standards commercial lubricants ISO VG-46 for light and industrial gears applications.

Keywords: Bio-lubricant, Jatropha, Double Transesterification, Response Surface Methodology (RSM) and Central Composite Design (CCD)

| DOI: 10.17148/IARJSET.2019.6505