Castor seeds were processed and the oil was extracted from the paste by cold pressing and the yield obtained was 42.80%. Moisture content of 4.38% was found. The crude oil was obtained as clear, viscous, pale-yellow liquid. of crude castor oil with methanol to produce in the presence of calcium oxide (CaO) as a catalyst was carried out. This study the fuel properties of ; the FTIR spectrum for the revealed the functional groups with characteristics bands, C=O, (CH2) n-, C-O, C=C, OH and C-H in the spectrum. From the result of the FTIR and GC-MS, the methyl ester groups present in the produced was determined and 9-Octadecenoic acid-12-hydroxy- methyl ester was identified as the most abundant compound in the which have all the functional groups as revealed by the FTIR. The experimental design as well as statistical analysis were done and using Response Surface Methodology (RSM) design expert 12.0 version software which was also used for the optimization of the three process parameters. The optimum conditions for production were a reaction temperature of 620C, methanol to oil ratio of 11:1 and a catalyst of 3.5 of oil at 1hour. The content under these optimum conditions was 54%. R2 value of 0.9996 was obtained showing good fitting
APPLICATION OF RESPONSE SURFACE METHODOLOGY FOR THE OPTIMIZATION OF BIODIESEL PRODUCTION VIA TRANSESTERIFICATION OF CASTOR OIL WITH CALCIUM OXIDE