KINETIKA REAKSI ESTERIFIKASI PADA PRODUKSI BIODIESEL DARI PALM FATTY ACID DISTILLATE (PFAD) DENGAN KATALISATOR ZIRKONIA TERSULFATASI

• Main Authors: , Dyah Retno Sawitri, , Prof. Ir. Arief Budiman, M.S., D.Eng
• Format: Theses and Dissertations NonPeerReviewed
• Published: [Yogyakarta] : Universitas Gadjah Mada 2013
• Subjects: ETD
• Online Access: https://repository.ugm.ac.id/118767/; http://etd.ugm.ac.id/index.php?mod=penelitian_detail&sub=PenelitianDetail&act=view&typ=html&buku_id=58743
• Institution: Universitas Gadjah Mada

Biodiesel is an environmentally friendly and renewable alternative biofuel derived from renewable sources. However, biodiesel cost is more expensive than that of fossil diesel due to high price of virgin vegetable oil. The possible way of reducing biodiesel cost is by using low cost feedstocks containing high level of Free Fatty Acid (FFA). Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) is byproduct of palm oil refining process which contains 80-90% FFA and 10-20% triglycerides. Therefore, it can be used as low-cost feedstock for biodiesel production. Biodiesel production from PFAD via esterification using sulfated zirconia prepared by solvent-free method as heterogeneous solid acid catalys has been studied. The esterification reaction was carried out in a stirred-batch reactor at the different temperature to obtain the kinetic data. The effect of reaction condition such as methanol to PFAD molar ratio (5-15), stirring speed (700-950 rpm) and catalyst concentration (1%-3%) on FFA conversion were also investigated. The experimental data was interpreted with a second order heterogeneous kinetic model involving the rate of mass transfer and the rate of reaction. The proposed kinetic model and the experimental data show a good agreement. Activation energy of 144,9194 kJ/mol and pre-exponential factor of 5,1362x1018 dm6.gkat-1.mol-1.s-1 were obtained in the range of temperature of 328-338 K. The optimum condition for the esterification of PFAD was as follows: 83,3% FFA conversion within 180 minute reaction time, temperature of 333 K, catalyst concentration of 3%, methanol to PFAD molar ratio of 10, and stirring speed of 800 rpm.