The Effects of Catalyst Weight and Mole Ratio of Oil-Methanol on Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Esterification using H2SO4 (3M) / Clay Catalyst

Abstract

This study aimed to synthesize biodiesel from CPO using heterogeneous clay catalyst activated with H2SO4 (3M) in the esterification step. The catalyst was synthesized by the method of reflux at a temperature of 85 °C. The catalyst was characterized using XRD and XRF. The synthesized catalyst was used to make biodiesel from CPO by esterification process with the variations of catalyst weight and the mole ratio of oil to methanol. The purity of biodiesel was analyzed using GC. The XRD results showed that sulfuric acid activated clay consisted of sharp intensities of silica and this was supported by XRF results in which the silica content was 87.05% while Al2O3 was 11.90%. Heterogeneous acid catalyst of H2SO4 / clay with 3M H2SO4 concentration could reduce a free fatty acid content of the oil as much as 85.2%, ie from 6.61% to 0.98%. The maximum Biodiesel yield after the process of transesterification using CaO catalyst from shells of blood cockle (anadara granosa) was 71.90%. The maximum Biodiesel yield was obtained at the optimum esterification reaction conditions that were the weight of the catalyst of 2%, the mole ratio (oil: methanol) 1:18 with a reaction temperature of 65 ± 2 °C for 3 hours.