Response surface methodology(RSM) was applied to determine optimal parameters for the reduction of free fatty acid content of palm kernel oil during its pretreatment for biodiesel production, with a view to reduce the number of experiments and obtaining the mutual interactions among the variables. A (2)4 full factorial central composite design was employed for experimental design and analysis of the results. Four independent variables, viz: methanol to oil ratio, sulfuric acid concentration, reaction time, temperature were tested. All the variables significantly affected the acid value of the product. The optimum values of the four variables were methanol to oil ratio0.255v/v, sulfuric acid concentration 1.591%v/v, reaction time 58.13min, temperature 64.22oC. The corresponding acid value produced was 2.6.After the pretreatment, transesterification reaction was carried out with 6:1 methanol to oil ratio and 0.75w/v KOH to produce biodiesel.The fuel properties biodiesel so obtained were compared with the standard biodiesel.The goodness of the fitness of the model was checked by the determination coefficient R2 which is 0.883 and which indicates that 88.3% of the variability in the response could be explained by the model.

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