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The inability of oils and hydroelectric sources to meet the ever growing demand experienced in global energy in recent years has generated a lot of concern. The continuous increase in the demand for energy and the dwindling tendency of petroleum resources has steered endless search for alternative renewable and sustainable fuel. This study adopts a novel combination of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Kendall's Coefficient of Concordance (KCC) to analyze some factors that affect rubber seed oil-based biodiesel production which has been found to be a good substitute and most advantageous over petrol diesel because of its environmental friendliness. The KCC was used to analyze the data matrix generated by thirteen Judges who were requested to rank the thirty-one variables identified from relevant literature that influence biodiesel production in descending order of importance upon which basis an index of concordance in ranking among the judges was computed as W = 0.84. PCA was used to analyze the outcomes of the questionnaires crafted with thirty-one of the well-ordered variables, purposively selected, using statistiXL software. The results obtained by KCC provide basic insight into how consistent the Judges were in ranking the variables. The results by PCA shows that significant parsimony was achieved in factor reduction from thirty one variables to mere seven factors creatively labeled Chemical Process Dynamics, Reaction Circumstance, Factors Affecting Mixing, Miscellany and Rancidity which represent the principal factors that influence rubber seed oil-based biodiesel production. It is believed that the results of this study will be helpful and insightful in understanding the dynamics of interplay among the identified factors with respect to the quality of rubber seed oil-based biodiesel produced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of biodiesel viewed by pundits as a renewable alternative fuel to diesel engines that could partially or fully replace or reduce the use of petroleum diesel fuel has been gaining great importance worldwide for its good quality exhaust, sustainability and biodegradability. The irregularity in production output, low quality, wastes, and downtimes appears to be a serious production problem being faced by manufacturers of biodiesel products which this study seeks to address. This study seeks to analyze some factors affecting the production process of rubber seed oil based biodiesel using opinion discrimination analysis. The research entails the application of survey method to gather relevant information required to build appropriate data matrix of 31 factors that were used to craft questionnaire administered to 100 respondents for their expert evaluation. Rensis Likert's 5-point attitudinal scale was used in dimensioning the respondent's responses, which were recorded in descending order of rating and were captured in a 100 × 31 data matrix and subsequently analyzed with the use of opinion discriminative analytical tool to obtain the discriminative powers (DP). The result of the DP-values obtained enabled us to appreciate the main factors that significantly influence the rubber seed oil based biodiesel production. In particular their relative influence is indicative of the magnitude of the DP-values. This study has revealed that the opinion discrimination analytical approach employed is effective in dealing with the problem of process variability and degraded output. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]