Comparative Study on Two-Step Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) Production from High FFA Crude Palm Oil Using Microwave Technique and Conventional Technique

Abstract:

The production of biodiesel from crude palm oil (CPO) using microwave technique is investigated and has been compared with conventional heating. Two-step biodiesel production process is applied to maximize the highest biodiesel yield in short reaction time using microwave method. Sulfuric acid (H2SO4) as acid catalysts is used in pre-treatment of feedstock by esterification process followed by potassium hydroxide (KOH) as base catalyst for transesterification process with low methanol to oil ratio. The main purpose of the pre-treatment process is to reduce the free fatty acids (FFA) content of CPO from higher value of FFA content (>6.8%) to a minimum level for biodiesel production (<1%). Esterification and transesterification is carried out in fully instrumented and controlled microwave reactor system to get higher yield in shorter time. This two-step esterification and transesterification process showed that the maximum conversion of palm biodiesel obtained is 95.1% with the process conditions of methanol-to-oil molar ratio of 6:1, reaction temperature 65oC, reaction time 15min, and 2% (wt/wt) KOH amount using microwave method compared to conventional heating where the palm oil methyl ester (POME) yield obtained is 81% at the same conditions. The result showed that, the biodiesel production using microwave technique proved to be a fast and easy route to get high yields of biodiesel.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volume 917)
• Pages: 87-95
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.917.87
• Online since: June 2014
• Authors: Suliana Abu Bakar, Suzana Yusup, Murni Melati Ahmad, Armando T. Quitain, Mitsuru Sasaki, Motonobu Goto, Yoshimitsu Uemura, Junaid Ahmad
• Keywords: Bio-Diesel, Conventional Technique, Crude Palm Oil, High FFA, Microwave Technique

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