Effect of choline hydroxide catalyst in the production of methyl ester from crude palm oil

Abstract

Ionic liquids as catalysts are very potentials for transesterification reactions for biodiesel synthesis. Choline hydroxide (ChOH) has a better catalytic reaction than other ionic liquids because during the reaction takes a shorter reaction time and only requires a small dose of catalyst, the conditions required to produce biodiesel with very high yields. Determination of the optimum conditions for methyl esters resulting from the transesterification reaction of crude palm oil (CPO) using response surface methodology (RSM). The experimental design used three variables, the use of catalyst dose, the molar ratio of crude palm oil (CPO) to methanol and reaction time. Optimal conditions showed the highest methyl ester content was 99.45% at 60 ° C, the molar ratio of methanol: CPO 12: 1 and catalyst dose of 3% and a time of 60 minutes. The final product met the selected biodiesel fuel properties by European Standard (EN) 14214. ChOH showed high potential to be used as a low-cost, easy to prepare and high-performance catalyst for biodiesel synthesis.