Fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel), prepared from transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, have gained great importance in substituting petroleum based diesel for combating environmental problems and higher diesel prices. Moringa oleifera fatty acids are among the newly investigated potentials for biodiesel production in recent years. In getting rid of soap formation and thus large waste washing water from biodiesel produced from homogenous catalysts, the use of heterogeneous catalysts is currently preferred due to easily separation and purification of the final products. In this study, biodiesel was produced from moringa oleifera oil using sulfated tin oxide enhanced with SiO2 (SO42−/SnO2−SiO2) as super acid solid catalyst. The experimental design was done using design of experiment (DoE), specifically, response surface methodology based on three-variable central composite design (CCD) with alpha (α) = 2. The reaction parameters in the optimization process were reaction temperature (60°C to 180°C), reaction period (1 to 3 hrs) and methanol to oil ratio (1:6 to 1:24 mol/mol). It was observed that the yield up to 84wt% of moringa oleifera methyl esters can be obtained with reaction conditions of 150°C temperature, 150 minutes reaction time and 1:19.5 methanol to oil ratio, while catalyst concentration and agitation speed are kept at 3wt% and 350 rpm respectively.
