MODELING AND SIMULATION OF CATALYTIC CONVERSION OF EMPTY FRUIT BUNCH (EFB) TO POLYLACTIC ACID (PLA)

• Main Author: Fujiyama, Vika
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik kimia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/53290
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Empty fruit bunch (EFB) that used to be disposed as waste is one of potential lignocellulosic to be converted to lactic acid through catalytic conversion. Lactic acid is platform chemical and used as raw material of biodegradable plastic, known as poly lactic acid (PLA). In this research, process modeling of the catalytic conversion of EFB into polylactic acid (PLA) was carried out with Aspen Plus V10 simulator. Model was validated with the results of previous experiments. Feed compositions and operation conditions, including temperature, pressure and reaction time were extracted from previous experiments to predict the composition of the product at each stage of the process. In process simulation, EFB was assumed as cellulose because of high content in cellulose of 71,6% in pretreated EFB with alkaline hydrothermal and bleaching process. Model was developed to represent each of the four process stages of conversion EFB to PLA: catalytic conversion of cellulose to reflect the major component of EFB into lactic acid, catalyst separation, lactic acid purification, and lactic acid polymerization to PLA. The result of simulation shows that the lactic acid yield from catalytic conversion of cellulose with 50 grams feedstock in the presence of PbCl2 catalyst at 220oC and 20 bars was 44,04% compared with the previous research of 44,62%. Process modeling of PbCl2 catalyst separation was capable of separating PbSO4 precipitate with PbCl2 conversion of 95% in accordance with previous studies. The results of process simulation of esterification-hydrolysis at 90oC and 1 atm was able to recover lactic acid with a recovery value percentage of 76,21%-m/m compared with the previous research of 78,19%-m/m and separating HMF with a separation efficiency of 96,46%-m/m. Furthermore, the simulation results showed that the decrease in column pressure from 0,4 bar to 0,1 bar could increase the lactic acid recovery from 11,43% to 39,39%. The simulation results showed that the highest PLA molecular weight of 81394 gram/mol was achieved at 220oC, 50 torr, 30 hours reaction time with a ratio of lactic acid from catalytic conversion :commercial lactic acid 40:60, and 0,02 grams of HMF feed.