Study of Making Green Diesel Using Catalysts Mg-Zn with Decarboxylation Thermal Method from Palm Stearin
Achmad Chumaidi, Heny Dewajani, Hadi Priyo Sudarminto
Chemical Engineering Department, State Polytechnic of Malang, Malang, Indonesia
Abstract
Increasing demand for fossil fuels and environmental awareness are encouraging people to obtain alternative fuels from biological sources. Oil and fat are candidates for raw materials that have high potential in producing renewable fuels. The production of renewable diesel fuels is an emerging choice to increase the availability of liquid fuels. The raw material used in this study was palm stearin which was saponified with a KOH catalyst and added Mg-Zn as a catalyst for the decarboxylation reaction. The independent variables used in this study, namely the weight of catalyst from 1% -7% and the decarboxylation process time of 0.5 hours-2 hours. The results showed the best conditions at 5% catalyst weight during 1 hour processing time, with C2-C7 composition at 33.10%, C8-C11 composition at 51.56%, C12-C24 composition at 15.34%, -C- composition at 67.37%, composition -CO- by 1.44%, and composition -COO- by 31.19%.
Keywords: decarboxylation, fuel, catalyst, palm stearin
Topic: Chemical Engineering