ESTERIFICATION REACTION KINETICS OF THE MANUFACTURING OF TWO-BASED ESTER BASED LUBRICANTS

• Main Author: Fitri, Zakiatul
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknik kimia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/70064
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

With increasing technological developments and the use of machines in industry and automotive at this time, the need for lubricants will increase. However, declining reserves of crude oil as a raw material for making lubricants and the need to reduce pollution from mineral lubricants have prompted waste and pollution reduction technologies to reduce environmental problems and raw materials that can be renewed. One of the realizations is alternative lubricants called vegetable lubricants or bio-lubricants which are superior in solving environmental problems and have good lubricating properties. However, bio-lubricants have drawbacks, namely low oxidative stability and poor fluidity at low temperatures. This is due to the presence of ?-hydrogen in the glycerol molecule. Glycerol can be replaced with polyols or diols which lack ?- hydrogen such as 1,2 propanediol. In this study, the esterification reaction of oleic acid with 1,2 propanediol was carried out using sulfuric acid as a catalyst. The reaction variables carried out were catalyst weight percent and temperature with a fixed feed molar ratio. From the research, it was found that the higher the temperature of the esterification reaction, the greater the ester conversion obtained with the maximum conversion value at 150 oC at 2% sulfuric acid weight percent for 5 hours amounting to 82.7%. From the experiment, it was also determined that the esterification reaction for the production of this bio-lubricant was a triple reaction with an activation energy value of 46052 J/mol. The biolubricant product obtained had an acid number in the range of 36 - 55 mg- KOH/g-sample and a kinematic viscosity value (at 40 oC) of 20.980 cSt - 38.366 cSt. Bio-lubricant products are classified as ISO VG 22 and ISO VG 46 lubricants.