SINTESIS BIODIESEL MENGGUNAKAN KATALIS LEMPUNG PALAS: AKTIVASI NaOH DAN KALSINASI PADA 500oC

Abstract

Biodiesel is a renewable alternative fuel that is derived from the transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat and alcohol using a catalyst. In this research, transesterification of oil into biodiesel was conducted using a heterogeneous catalyst of Palas clay that was activated with NaOH and calcinated at 500oC. The method carried out to obtain optimum biodiesel result was done by varying the weight of the catalyst and percentage of NaOH/clay. The optimum biodiesel produced was 89.92 %, that was obtained at the condition of the catalyst weight of 3 g, NaOH/clay 20 %, and the mole ratio of oil : methanol (1:6) treated for 8 hours at temperature of 60oC. The optimum biodiesel produced was characterized by the standards of ASTM (American Standards for Testing and Materials) including water content, specific gravity, viscosity, carbon residue, acid number, saponification number, iodine number, flash point and cetane number. The results showed that the optimum biodiesel is in the range of SNI -04-7182- 2006 for biodiesel