Effects of catalyst dosage and reaction time in the esterification of PFAD to produce FAME

• Published in: AIP Conference Proceedings
• Main Author: Roslan M.F.; Wan Z.; Halim S.F.; Isa N.; Bashah N.A.A.
• Format: Conference paper
• Language: English
• Published: American Institute of Physics 2024
• Online Access: https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85189317343&doi=10.1063%2f5.0148610&partnerID=40&md5=f44536291e5578aafd7e32aa6ae691ef

Fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) or biodiesel is widely being highlighted for its role as an alternative source for fuel used in compression ignition engine. Cr-Ti mixed oxides catalyst was synthesized by using sol-gel method and used in the esterification of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) to produce FAME. The reactions were conducted in a batch reactor at the temperature of 160 °C. The effects of catalyst dosage and reaction time were studied. The catalyst dosage between 0.5 wt.% to 2.5 wt.% and reaction time between 1 h to 5 h shows effect on the FAME density obtained in the reaction. The results indicate that reaction time of 4 h and catalyst dosage of 2.0 wt.% obtained FAME density of 845 kg/m3. The value is closest to the standard palm oil biodiesel density of 864 kg/m3. It was also observed that Cr-Ti catalyst that was prepared at calcination temperature of 500°C and time of 2 h has good thermal stability. The significance of study is that Cr-Ti mixed oxides catalyst has shown good potential as heterogeneous catalyst for enhancing FAME production and the findings would contribute to the application of catalytic esterification process in biodiesel industry. © 2024 Author(s).