Investigation of the Catalyst Type Effect on Biodiesel Production from Nyamplung Seed Oil and Ethanol

Abstract

Indonesia's oil production in 2004 amounted to 400,486 barrels, while the produced oil in 2012 only reaches 163,633 barrels. The decline of production is so significant, while consumption level increased. All Indonesian people should be aware to this condition, and play an active role to reduce dependence on petroleum. Biodiesel is an environmentally alternative fuel, which can be an interesting solution. Based on the previous description, it needs a real effort to develop biodiesel from plants (vegetable raw materials) which have a good quality. One of the plants were able to answer the problem is the nyamplung seed that contains very high oil, around 40% to73% [1]. This research will study the effect of the catalyst type in the manufacture of biodiesel from the nyamplung seed oil. Esterification –transesterification process takes place for high acid number oil. So it needs the special treatment to reduce the sap, which is the degumming process. In degumming, 2% (w) phosphate acid is added into 100 gram of nyamplung seed oil. Then, estherification process is done by adding ethanol and H2SO4 at 60 – 70oC. This process use constant mixing. The resulting solution of esterification is separated by a separator funnel for 2 hours. Weight the resulted oil and enter the oil into a three-neck flask with a varied of reaction time and catalyst type. Separating the transesterification results by a separator funnel for 2 hours. Oil is washed with warm water (50°C) for twice, and separated again with a separator funnel for 1 hour. Then, the separated oil is heated in the oven with the temperature of 90- 95oC. Analysis of the results is done by measuring the density, viscosity, volume, and mass of biodiesel. The result showed that the viscosity of biodiesel is fluctuated to the ratio of reactants and catalyst type. Maximum volume and mass produced biodiesel were 98.15 mL and 90.26 gram, respectively, which they are obtained at 90 min reaction time and K2CO3 as catalyst.