Yield and Purity Improvements Of Lactic Acid From Chemical Conversion Of Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB)

• Main Author: Prasetya, Kevin
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik (Rekayasa, enjinering dan kegiatan berkaitan)
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/38528
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Biodegradable plastics are one of the solutions to reduce plastic waste, where poly lactic acid is one those. Poly lactic acid or PLA is a polymer of lactic acid monomers. Empty Palm Fruit Bunch (EFB) is one of the biomasses that can be used to be converted into lactic acid. For PLA production, the lactic acid needs to be highly pure. This research is divided into several main steps. The steps are EFB pretreatment, lactic acid production from chemical reaction and purification of lactic acid produced from catalytic reaction. The pretreatment is used to reduce the size of EFB until the range or 60-80 mesh, followed by soaking in NaOH and then given hydrothermal treatment. Lactic acid synthesis is done in an autoclave using PbCl2 as the catalyst. The purification of lactic acid is done through three steps: esterification, hydrolysis and vacuum steam distillation. The solvent used for the first step is n-butanol, for the second step is demineralized water. The catalyst used for the first two steps is Amberlyst-15. Lactic Acid presence is identified and quantified using HPLC. The yield of lactic acid from catalytic conversion is 84,8% at temperature 220 oC, PbCl2 concentration 0.026 M, 4 h reaction time. The recovery for esterification and hydrolysis process are 94,55% and 93,94% respectively. The operation temperature is 90oC, using Amberlyst-15 catalyst at 2.5%-mass concentration for 6 h and 4 h respectively. The solvent proportion for both process are 1:1 initially, while for esterification will end at 1:3 feed to solvent ratio and for hydrolysis will end at 1:6 feed to solvent ratio. Steam distillation is applied to the product of hydrolysis to remove HMF and other impurities. Steam distillation is tested for its feasibility from separating lactic acid and impurities. The main purification of hydrolysis product is done, with a yield of 13,5% and purity of 93,05%. There is no HMF identified in the product of steam distillation.