Synthesis of Biodiesel from Kapok Seed Oil using CaO/Dolomite Catalyst and Its Comparison with Homogeneous Catalyst. Issue 1 (April 2020) - Sutrisno, Bachrun
Abstract: Biodiesel as renewable energy resources has been attracted more intense study because of the alternative effort to reduce dependency of fossil fuel. Commonly biodiesel production is produced using edible oils as feedstock. However, the problems related to the competition between foods versus energy supply have been concerned in the past few decades. The dependency on edible oils as biodiesel feedstock could be reducing by using non edible oils. Furthermore, using non edible oil as feedstock will make the biodiesel prices appropriate to compete with fossil fuel prices. In this research, synthesis of biodiesel from kapok seed oil using CaO/Dolomite catalyst as heterogeneous catalyst and its comparison with homogeneous catalyst was studied. The properties of CaO/Dolomite catalysts were determined in term of porosity analysis (adsorption and desorption of N2 ), crystaline structure (X-Ray Diffraction), and analysis of element compositons (X-Ray Fluorescence). The biodiesel yield as high as was 92.9% achieved at following reaction conditions: 60°C of reaction temperature, 3:1 methanol to KSO mass ratio, and catalyst amount 10 wt. % of KSO.