Research on the production of biodiesel with Artemisia argyi

The pretreatment conditions of esterification to Artemisia argyi are optimized by response surface methodology. It is proved that the best condition for the esterification is 67.8°C of pretreatment temperature, 1.2% of concentrated sulphuric acid catalyst and 1 hour of reaction time. The acid value of Artemisia argyi after pretreatment is 0.42 mgKOH/g. The transesterification between the treated Artemisia argyi and methanol is studied by using KOH as catalyst. The results show that the optimum reaction condition is 70°C of reaction temperature, 0.5% of catalyst dosage, and 0.5 hour of reaction time. The conversion of tranesterification under this condition is 95.46%.