Biodiesel Production from Crude Palm Oil off-grade Over a ZnO Catalyst Presipitant Zinc Carbonate

Abstract

Crude Palm Oil off-grade (CPO off-grade), a CPO product contains high free fatty acid‘s content (FFA > 5%). This oil is produced from Palm fruit off-grade which have categorized includes abnormal size, immature, pass to mature, and decay. In the refinery industries, this oil is rejected because it can be generate a low quality of cooking oil. Generally, this oil has been used to produce a biodiesel or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) over a catalysts. In this research, this oil is converted to a crude biodiesel over Zinc oxide (ZnO) as a heterogeneous catalyst. This catalyst was prepared from zinc carbonate precipitant by a hydrothermal method. The ZnO catalyst can be made easily and the raw materials is cheap. The goal of this research is to increase CPO off-grade added value and determine the catalytic activity of the ZnO catalyst. The activity catalytic of ZnO is evaluated by regenerating the spent catalyst and it is reused several times in the transesterification reaction cycles. Results, yield of crude biodiesel is obtained maximally 96%. The catalytic activity of ZnO catalyst is high, and it cam be re-used determined by regenerating the spent catalyst, then it was regenerated and r-used four times in the transesterification reaction cycles. The catalytic activity of ZnO catalyst till retain in the 4th. reaction cycle giving the yield of crude biodiesel in the range of 96 – 71%. Overall, conversion CPO off-grade to crude biodiesel over ZnO catalyst was significant high. This ZnO catalyst is potential as a catalyst in the biodisel production