Abstract

Nowadays biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester, FAME) has been becoming an important issue as a desired alternative of energy products because of non-toxic, biodegradable properties, and lower exhaust emissions. During esterification of fatty acids or transesterification of oils and fats with short chain alcohols by the alkali-catalyzed methanolysis, FAME and unrefined glycerol are generated. Quantification of glycerol as a by-product is important because of a determinant of biodiesel quality. However, the glycerol analysis by gas chromatography (GC) method has laborious works with sample preparation, long time and cost of sample analysis. Thus, there is a need to analyze glycerol more simply. Herein we demonstrate that the colorimetric assay for glycerol analysis conducted by UV-vis spectrophotometer at the wavelength 617 nm whose peak is maximum intensity of malachite green, resulting in the red-shift occurred proportionally as a function of glycerol amount. Thus, it is considered the solvent media for malachite green fading for biodiesel production: (1) water, (2) MeOH, and (3) EtOH. The resulting findings show that the peak intensity at 617 nm in glycerol-malachite green mixture had a relationship between glycerol concentration and degree of peak shift as increase in pure glycerol concentration approximately at pH 7.0. However,

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