Biodiesel, an alternative diesel fuel made from renewable sources such as vegetable oils and animal fats,
has been identified by government to play a key role in the socio-economic development of Ghana. The
utilization of biodiesel is expected to be about 10% of the total liquid fuel mix of the country by the year
2020. Despite this great potential and the numerous sources from which biodiesel could be developed in
Ghana, studies on the sources of biodiesel and their properties as a substitute for fossil diesel have tended
to be limited to Jatropha oil. This paper, however, reports the parameters that influences the production
of biodiesel from palm kernel oil, one of the vegetable oils obtained from oil palm which is the highest
vegetable oil source in Ghana. The parameters studied are; mass ratio of ethanol to oil, reaction
temperature, catalyst concentration, and reaction time using completely randomized 24
factorial design.
Results indicated that ethanol to oil mass ratio, catalyst concentration and reaction time were the most
important factors affecting the ethyl ester yield. There was also an interaction effect between catalyst and
time and ethanol- oil ratio and time on the yield. Accordingly, the optimal conditions for the production
of ethyl esters from crude palm kernel oil were determined as; 1:5 mass ratio of ethanol to oil, 1 %
catalyst concentration by weight of oil, 90 minutes reaction time at a temperature of 30 o
C.