Potash/PVA as heterogeneous catalyst for biodiesel production from palm oil /
Scarcity of petroleum and constant concern over environmental problems caused by diesel fuels have promoted production of biodiesel from renewable sources. Biodiesel synthesized from transesterification methods in the presence of catalyst requires huge amount of solvent, particularly from alcohol to...
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Kuala Lumpur :
Kulliyyah of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia,
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Click here to view 1st 24 pages of the thesis. Members can view fulltext at the specified PCs in the library. |
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| Summary: | Scarcity of petroleum and constant concern over environmental problems caused by diesel fuels have promoted production of biodiesel from renewable sources. Biodiesel synthesized from transesterification methods in the presence of catalyst requires huge amount of solvent, particularly from alcohol to affirm high production yield. Transesterification in batch system using homogeneous catalyst demands complex product separation steps and the catalyst is not reusable for repeated thus it is economically inviable. In the current work, it has been demonstrated transesterification reaction in a packed bed column using heterogenous catalyst which was derived from fruit waste. Potash extracted by calcination was analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to determine its elemental composition and morphology properties. Potash was supported on polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) to retain its mechanical stability and was used in the conversion of palm oil to fatty acid methyl ester. Optimization study using Central Composite Design (CCD) of Response Surface Method (RSM) revealed a maximum biodiesel yield of 95.55% was obtained at optimum temperature of 60˚C, 2.50 wt.% catalyst and 12:1 of methanol:oil molar ratio. Evaluation on catalyst reusability indicated that it was reusable for three times while maintaining over 90% biodiesel yield. Investigation on the kinetics characteristics of the reaction specified that the reaction followed pseudo first order reaction with k-value ranged from 0.0139 to 0.0209 min-1 and activation energy, Ea of 12.64 kJ/mol. Ea obtained was smaller than other heterogeneous catalysts tested in other studies. Hence there are possibilities of scaling up the process at industrial level. |
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| Physical Description: | xiii, 121 leaves : colour illustrations ; 30cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-109). |