SYNTHESIS OF SODIUM METHOXIDE FROM SODIUM HYDROXIDE FOR TRANSESTERIFICATION CATALYST

• Main Author: Nabilah Putri Setiawan, Azizah
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Teknologi kimia industri
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/79566
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Biodiesel in Indonesia is currently increasingly developing and has become an environmentally friendly alternative fuel. However, even though the use of biodiesel is increasing in Indonesia, there are still several obstacles in its production, such as the lack of infrastructure to distribute biodiesel throughout Indonesia and the lack of sufficient raw materials to produce biodiesel in larger quantities. One of the raw materials for making biodiesel is sodium methoxide (NaOMe) which acts as a catalyst. Sodium methoxide (NaOMe) is a catalyst commonly used in biodiesel production. At this time, there is no information indicating that sodium methoxide catalyst production is carried out in Indonesia. The initial study of the synthesis of this catalyst was the equilibrium of NaOMe in methanol, with a theoretical Kc value of 5x10-4 and the experimental Kc value for each variation in the number of moles was (3.3-3.7)x10-5. The amount of reactant does not affect Kc and temperature does. The higher the temperature, the Kc value decreases. The bubble column reactor method was explored and succeeded in reducing the water content to 0.79%. Analysis of the presence of methoxide studied using FT-NIR proved that there was a different peak pattern compared to NaOHMethanol- Water. Catalyst performance evaluation is carried out to review the activity of the synthesized catalyst. The %-methyl ester content for the synthetic catalyst was 98.88% and commercial 98.39%.