Biodiesel production process without glycerol by-product with base catalyst: effect of reaction time and type of catalyst on kinetic energy and solubility

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable energy that is very potential to be produced because it has many advantages compared to diesel fuel. The process of making biodiesel which has so far been carried out is a transesterification process with glycerol byproducts. Glycerol has a low economic value and is usually only disposed of as waste. An alternative process for producing biodiesel with more valuable byproducts is interesterification. The by-product of the interesterification reaction is triacetin which is widely used in the chemical, food and pharmaceutical industries. From the analysis and calculation, the highest FAME yield was 87.18% at reaction temperature 60°C, the molar ratio of palm oil: methyl acetate = 1: 6, reaction time 1 hour, NaOH catalyst, stirring speed of 400 rpm and catalyst mass of 0.5% wt. oil. From the calculation of ChemDraw software for the triglyceride + methyl acetate + NaOH system had an energy kinetic of 2930.8062 kcal/kmol and a dipole moment of 12582.9333 debye, whereas the triglyceride + methyl acetate + KOH system had a kinetic energy of 3140.9573 kcal/kmol and a dipole moment of 9630.3735 debye so that the NaOH catalyst is superior in solubility and the KOH catalyst is superior in reactivity. Biodiesel produced had an acid value of 0.224 mg KOH/g and meets ASTM D664 for a maximum acid value of 0.5 mg KOH/g, and a density of 0.888 g/ml so that meets ASTM D1298 for a density between 0.86 – 0.89 g/ml.