The Synthesis of Biodiesel from Crude Palm Oil (CPO) using CaO Heterogeneous Catalyst Impregnated H2SO4,Variation of Stirring Speed and Mole Ratio of Oil to Methanol

Abstract

Biodiesel is a diesel engine fuel produced from renewable material and contains fatty acid alkyl ester from triglyceride or oils through transesterification reactions with short chain alcohols and catalysts. In this study biodiesel was synthesized using crude palm oil (CPO) using CaO catalyst from blood cockle shells calcined at 900 °C for 5 hours and impregnated with H2SO4 (1,2 and 3M). The catalyst was characterized by XRD and XRF. The biodiesel was synthesized with variation of stirring speed (300, 400, 500, 600 rpm) and mole ratio of oil to methanol (1:6, 1:9, 1:12, 1:15 and 1:18. The maximum biodiesel results obtained on a H2SO4 (3M)/CaO catalyst with a stirring speed of 500 rpm and mole ratio of oil to methanol was 1:12 at the transesterification reaction stage and using a CaO catalyst calcined at 900 °C for 5 hours produced a yield of 96.69%. The characteristics of biodiesel produced was water content 0.05%, specific gravity 890 kg/m3, viscosity 4.46 mm2s−1, carbon residue 0.05% and acid number 0.5 mg KOH g−1. It can be concluded biodiesel, meets the quality requirements of SNI 7182-2015