IOSR Journal of Applied Chemistry (IOSR-JAC) e-ISSN: 2278-5736.Volume 9, Issue 1 Ver. I (Jan. 2016), PP 16-29 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/5736-09111629 www.iosrjournals.org 16 |Page Chemometrics Applied In Esterification Of Waste Cooking Oil For Biodiesel Synthesis Michael Terungwa Abatyough 1 , Jude Onwuka 2 , Ogadimma Ikechukwu Alisi 3 , Umar Sani 4 1 Department of Chemistry, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria 2 Federal University Lafia 3 Federal University Dutsinma, 4 New castle University. UK. Abstrat: Chemometric techniques are used as monitors in pretreatment of Waste Cooking Oil as a viable feedstock for biodiesel production at optimal reaction conditions using AlCl 3 catalyst. The experimental design of three level- two factorial, response surface method (RSM) was able to effectively combine all the factors with factor interaction and response surface plot showing a good interaction of varrying parameters and % free fatty acid (% FFA) conversion as response. Individual effect of factors indicated that Catalyst contributed 26.05 % to the responses while Alcohol-Oil molar ratio and Time combined, contributed 16.45% , all the three factors together had 20.97% effect on the responses. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) succesfully classiffied responses into two groups of moderate (1) to excellent (2), with corrected values after cross-validation having proportions of close to 1.000. Principal component analysis and fourier transformed infrared spectra (PCA-FTIR) analysis performed using log transformed spectra intensity of selected spectra regions from experiments showed component one (PC1) to be responsible for 85.64 % of variation in results while predictions were carried out by Principal component analysis and partial least square (PCA-PLS) methods. The high F-value (45.75) and coefficient of determination R 2 close to one (0.8185) at 95% confidence level indicated the efficiency of the model. KeyWords : RSM; PCA; FTIR; PLS; LDA; Chemometrics, waste cooking oil, biodiesel I. Introduction In the last century, the consumption of energy has increased due to the change in human activities and significant growth of population. Petroleum fuels have been a key factor in the growth of industry, transportation, agricultural sector and many other areas serving basic human needs. The World’s energy is mainly supplied by fossil fuels estimated at about 35.3% of the total in 2008. Present projections suggest an increased demand to 16 million tonnes per day (116 million barrels a day) by 2030. However, a global peak in oil production before 2035 has been predicted. The transport sector is a major consumer of petroleum fuels such as diesel, gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and compressed natural gas (CNG)’ [10]. Recently, many fuel developers have showed interests in alternative renewable fuels to substitute or compliment petroleum-based fuels. An alternative fuel shall be easily available, environment friendly and techno-economically competitive [1, 2]. Biodiesel or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) is receiving increasing attention as an environmentally friendly and renewable alternative for the petroleum based diesel fuel [6]. The United State Standard Specification for Biodiesel (ASTM 6751) defines Biodiesel as a fuel comprising mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats which can be used in diesel engines and heating systems [20]. Currently, the cost of biodiesel is high compared to conventional diesel oil because most of the biodiesel is produced from pure vegetable oil. Extensive use of edible oils may cause other significant problems such as starvation in developing countries. In Nigeria for instance, non-edible plant feedstock like jatropha has