Production of biodiesel from palm fatty acid distillate: simulation study / Zianatul Ashikin Mohd Ariffin, Dr Wan Zuraida Wan Kamis and Nur Alwani Ali Bashah

Palm fatty acid distillates (PFAD) is one of the new alternatives feedstock to produce biodiesel. It is a common residue found in palm oil refinery as it is a low value byproduct formed from the oil palm industry. It is high in free fatty acid (FFA) with palmitic acid and oleic acid as the major components. PFAD mainly used in soap industry, animal feed industry and in a manufacture of candles, cosmetics and toiletries. To produce biodiesel or fatty acid methyl ester (FAME), the PFAD is react with alcohol by esterification reaction. Production of FAME from PFAD gain the attention of the world and many experimental works on it but lack in simulation studies. Thus, this study aims to conduct a simulation study on esterification reaction of PFAD with methanol and to determine the optimum condition such as temperature and molar feed ratio of methanol to oil via sensitivity analysis by using ASPEN PLUS V8.8. The data need is obtained from the experimental works and previous study. The process flow diagram to produce biodiesel by reacting PFAD with methanol acquire from previous study and the sensitivity analysis done by varies the temperature and molar feed ratio of methanol to oil from 110oC to 200oC and from 1:1 to 6:1, respectively. At the end of the simulation, the result shows that at temperature of 170oC and molar feed ratio of methanol to oil is 2:1, the FAME percent content achieved until 80%. The result indicates that PFAD is a potential feedstock that can be utilize to produce high value products such as biodiesel. On this basis, it is recommended that future studies focusing more to increase the FAME percent content by PFAD by using another simulation software as alternative.