The Taguchi optimisation method is used for the process optimisation of AKO transesterification. Taguchi’s method has become
increasingly popular for developing engineered products. Few
studies have compared this technique to other methods, either
analytically or experimentally, except for those comparing it to the
experimental design techniques from which Taguchi’s method is
derived [14]. In addition, few studies have attempted to improve
the method itself. Many experiments must be performed when the
number of process parameters is high. To overcome this issue, the
Taguchi method uses a special design of orthogonal arrays to study
the entire process parameter space with a relatively small number
of experiments [15].
Using an orthogonal array to design the experiment could help
the designers to study the influence of multiple controllable factors
on the average quality characteristics and variations in a fast and
economic way. The use of a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) to analyse
the experimental data could help the product designers or the
manufacturer to identify the optimal parametric combinations. In
general, S/N ratio analysis involves three categories of the quality
characteristic: the-lower-the-better, the-larger-the-better, and themore-nominal-the-better. The S/N ratio for each level of process
parameters is computed based on the S/N analysis. Regardless of
the category of the quality characteristic, a larger S/N ratio indicates
a better quality characteristic.
Therefore, the optimal level of the process parameters is the
level with the highest S/N ratio [14,15]. Furthermore, a statistical
analysis of variance (ANOVA) is performed to determine which
process parameters are statistically significant. The optimal
combination of the process parameters can then be predicted.
Finally, a confirmation experiment is conducted to verify the
optimal process parameters obtained from the process parameter
design.
In this study, the Taguchi approach is used along with orthogonal arrays in the statistical experimental design method. This
method enables the observation of the effects of catalyst