Magnesium Soap Production from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate for Food Additive

• Main Author: Rahman Wicaksono, Firdan
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/41927
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Indonesia is the largest producer and exporter of palm oil in the world. In 2014, Indonesia produced 52% (30.68 million tonnes) of total world palm oil production with the total production area reached 10.9 million hectares. Palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) is a byproduct of the distillation of physical crude palm oil into refined bleached deodorized palm oil (RBDPO). PFAD production ranges from 4-5% of the production of CPO. As the largest palm oil producer, byproducts could be used to increase the value of the overall economy. One of the products that can be produced from PFAD is magnesium salt, which is magnesium stearate, where it can be used as anticaking agents, lubricants and emulsifiers. Magnesium salts making from PFAD is a saponification reaction between free fatty acids with a hydroxide or magnesium oxide. Modified fusion is one of the methods of saponification to manufacture magnesium salts. In this method, PFAD heated up to a temperature of 65-120°C and then treated with magnesium oxide. Water which serves as a catalyst in the reaction is added to the amount of 0.5-3 moles per magnesium oxide. This experiment shows that the mole ratios in the feed between PFAD and magnesium oxide affect the conversion of the reaction with the trend increasing from 58.32 to 91.35 along with the increase in the value of the mole ratio of the feed from 0.75 to 1.75. This applies vice versa to the magnesium salt combustion heat, where the value decrease from 35.38 to 30.65 as the MgO to PFAD feed mole ratio increase. However, the initial temperatures of the reaction are not affect the reaction convertion nor the product combustion heat. The density and moisture content of the resulting products are not affected significantly by the variation of mole ratios in the feed or the initial temperature of the reaction. Most of the free fatty acids composition present in the product is palmitate and oleate, just as the free fatty acid composition in the PFAD used.