SYNTHESIS OF HIERARCHICAL ZSM-5 ASSISTED WITH POLYETHYLENE GLYCOL (PEG): IMPROVING PERFORMANCE IN CRACKING PALM OIL

• Main Author: Septino Faril Nanda, Arxhel
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Subjects: Kimia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/82840
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Increased consumption of fossil fuels always occurs every year. However, fossil fuel production can only sometimes meet human needs because, over time, it will run out. Therefore, alternative sources of fuel are needed so that fuel needs can be met. Alternative raw plant materials can be converted into biofuel (plant-based fuel). Indonesia is the largest exporter of palm oil in the world. Based on this, the primary material for producing biofuel is palm oil, converted into biofuel through the catalytic cracking method. This method is a method of breaking down large molecular hydrocarbons into smaller ones with the help of a catalyst. In the petroleum industry, zeolits are used as catalysts in the FCC (Fluid Catalytic Cracking) process, where zeolits act as solid acid catalysts that provide Brønsted and Lewis acid sites to convert crude oil into more valuable products, such as gasoline and olefins. Zeolits are generally synthesized at high temperatures, which require large amounts of energy. So, it is necessary to synthesize zeolits at low temperatures to solve this problem. The disadvantage of ZSM-5 is its micropore porosity size, which can cause diffusion obstacles for large molecules. This diffusivity problem is fundamental when applied to the palm oil cracking process. The feed from palm oil has a larger molecular size than the ZSM-5 zeolit pores. Thus, reaching the active site inside the zeolit pore is difficult. The solution to this problem is to create a hierarchical ZSM-5. Hierarchical zeolits have at least one additional porosity besides micropores, namely mesopores or macropores. Additional pores can increase the surface area of the catalyst. Then, large molecules can quickly diffuse without hindrance. Thus inhibiting coke formation. In hierarchical ZSM-5 synthesis, polymers are used to do it. The polymer used as a template is polyethylene glycol (PEG). This polymer has various molecular weights: PEG-400, PEG-4000 and PEG-5800. This research is divided into three stages, namely first, the synthesis of hierarchical ZSM-5 zeolit with the help of Polyethylene Glycol (PEG), second, the characterization of ZSM-5 with FTIR, Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) in cracking palm oil and LDPE (Low-Density Polyethylene) plastic. PEG can act as a mesoporogen where in this study, SZ-4000 provided optimum mesopore formation with a pore size of 4-11 nm, as well as increasing SBET from 287 m2/g to 400 m2/g and also increasing SEXT from 134 m2/g to 198 m2/g. However, the number of acid sites produced will decrease. The hierarchical character of zeolit increases with the addition of PEG, which influences its application in converting palm oil into gasoline. In the catalytic activity test, the use of PEG showed an increase in the gasoline product COM (25,71%) < SZ (30,28%) < SZ-5800 (32,24%) < SZ-400 (32,79%) < SZ-4000 (34,21%) mass, and the quality of the gasoline could be improved where all samples have RON values greater than COM. Cracking LDPE plastic shows that it is easy for the reaction to occur, as indicated by the low Eobs value compared to blank (LDPE), where SZ-4000 has the most negligible activation energy, 215.438 kJ/mol. This aligns with the most considerable gasoline results in the SZ-4000 sample.