Effect of methanol to oil molar ratio for biodiesel production from rubber seed oil using alumina supported calcium oxide / Abdul Muqmin Hamzah @ Husaini

Biodiesel is an alternative source of energy that is sustainable, renewable,
biodegradable and has potential to replace petro-diesel fuel.The rubber seed oil
contains free fatty acid (FFA) and also has potential to be used as biodiesel
feedstock. The objective of this study is to determine the effect of methanol to oil
molar ratio on the percent yield of biodiesel The conversion of rubber seed oil to
biodiesel by the process of transesterification reaction was studied. The catalyst that
was used in this study was a heterogeneous base catalyst which was alumina
supported calcium oxide, Al2O3-CaO. The characterization of the catalyst was
conducted by using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) and
Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The analysis of FTIR shows that
the catalyst was produced successfully as there are presences of bands indicating the
necessary functional group. FESEM analysis shows that the mixture of Al2O3-CaO
was successfully done as the CaO supported the Ab03 well The transesterification
reaction was carried out in the fixed condition where the loading amount of catalyst
was 1 g. the reaction temperature was 60°C, three hour reaction time and 600 rpm
for the agitation rate. The different molar ratio of methanol to oil studied were 3:1,
6:1, 9:1 and 12:1. The result shows some difference on the percentage yield of
biodiesel The optimum molar ratio is 9:1 that produced the highest percentage yield
which was 77.1%. The types of fatty acids that present in the rubber seed oil was
determined by using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The
analysis of the GC-MS shows the present of stearic, oleic, palmitic, linolenic and
linoleic acid in the rubber seed oil. As the conclusion, the catalyst Al2O3-CaO has a
good potential for producing biodiesel