Production of fatty acid methyl ester using potassium metal supported on oil palm kernel shell activated carbon / Maizatul Sofia Muhamad Jihadi

One of the major’s by-product of the production of palm oil is palm kernel shells. Waste palm kernel shells can be utilised as a catalyst to produce biodiesel. In addition to having numerous natural elements, the cost of the catalyst made from these materials is also reasonably low when compared to other catalysts, making the manufacturing of biodiesel more economically friendly and sustainable. The process that involved during production of the fatty acid methyl ester is transesterification process. To make vegetable oils less viscous and better suited for use as fuel, transesterification methods have been extensively used. However, a number of parameters, such as the alcohol to catalyst molar ratio, the presence of water, the amount of free fatty acids in the oil samples, the reaction temperature, the reaction time, and the agitation rate all have a significant impact on the transesterification reaction. This research is aim to study the reaction temperature in the production of fatty acid methyl ester. The procedure that imply to produce fatty acid methyl ester consists of five steps which is preliminary clearing process, preparation of activated carbon, preparation of catalyst, transesterification process and analysis sample. The reaction temperature that used is 50 ˚C, 55 ˚C and 60 ˚C. The percentage yield of fatty acid methyl ester of 20 wt.% active metal catalyst will be observed to compared a better yield at three different reaction temperature.