Malaysian Journal of Analytical Sciences Vol 22 No 2 (2018): 270 - 278

TRANSESTERIFICATION OF WASTE COOKING OIL IN BIODIESEL PRODUCTION UTILIZING CaO/Al₂O₃ HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST

(Transesterifikasi Sisa Minyak Masak Dalam Pengeluaran Biodiesel Menggunakan CaO/Al₂O₃ Mangkin Heterogenus)

Norshahidatul Akmar Mohd Shohaimi* and Fatin Nur Syahirah Marodzi

Faculty of Applied Sciences,

Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang, 26400 Bandar Tun Abdul Razak Jengka, Pahang, Malaysia

*Corresponding author: akmarshohaimi@pahang.uitm.edu.my

Received: 4 December 2016; Accepted: 1 December 2017

Abstract

The increasing demand for fossil fuel brings a great concern as it is natural and non-renewable sources. There are several studies on biodiesel using renewable sources such as waste cooking oil. The process of transforming waste cooking oil into biodiesel is called transesterification reaction which involved one step (esterification) and two step (esterification-transesterification) reaction. The performance of the CaO/Al₂O₃ catalyst was investigated. The parameters studied were reaction time and catalyst loading. In this study, it was found that the highest yield was obtained from the two step transesterification reaction, 30.91% with optimum condition of 3 wt.% of Ca/Al₂O₃ catalyst, 12:1 methanol to oil ratio, reaction temperature of 65 ºC for 3 hours. Esterification reaction reduce the free fatty acid (FFA) content in the feedstock, because, in order to achieve high biodiesel yield, the acid value of feed stock should below than 1 mg KOH/g oil. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry results showed that six methyl ester species was found in the product and this finding reveals that the FFA had successfully converted to methyl ester by using two step esterification-tranesterification reaction.

Keywords: biodiesel, heterogeneous catalyst, transesterification, waste cooking oil

Abstrak

Permintaan yang semakin meningkat bagi bahan api fosil membawa kebimbangan besar kerana ia adalah sumber semula jadi dan tidak boleh diperbaharui. Terdapat beberapa kajian mengenai biodiesel menggunakan sumber yang boleh diperbaharui seperti sisa minyak masak. Proses mengubah sisa minyak masak kepada biodiesel dipanggil tindak balas transesterifikasi yang melibatkan tindak balas satu langkah (pengesteran) dan dua langkah (pengesteran- transesterifikasi). Prestasi pemangkin CaO/Al₂O₃ dikaji. Parameter yang dikaji ialah masa tindak balas dan jumlah pemangkin. Dalam kajian ini, didapati bahawa hasil tertinggi diperoleh daripada tindak balas transesterifikasi dua langkah, 30.91% dengan keadaan optimum daripada 3% berat pemangkin Ca/Al₂O₃, 12: 1 metanol kepada nisbah minyak, suhu tindak balas 65 ºC selama 3 jam. Tindak balas pengesteran mengurangkan kandungan asid lemak bebas (FFA) dalam bahan mentah, kerana untuk mencapai hasil biodiesel tinggi, nilai asid stok suapan sepatutnya kurang dari 1 mg KOH/g minyak. Keputusan kromatografi cecair spektrometri jisim menunjukkan bahawa enam spesies metil ester ditemui dalam produk dan penemuan ini mendedahkan bahawa FFA telah berjaya ditukar kepada metil ester dengan menggunakan dua langkah tindak balas pengesteran- transesterifikasi.

Kata kunci: biodiesel, mangkin heterogenus, transesterifikasi, sisa minyak masak

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