A. Santoso, A.A. Wijaya, S. Sumari, A.R. Wijaya, I.B. Rachman, M.R. Asrori
Crude Palm Oil (CPO) with low qual-ity was known as Off Grade CPO. It is potential as biodiesel feedstock. The study was to synthesize methyl esters from Off Grade CPO using a CaO/α-Fe2O3 catalyst. The experimental laboratory carried out: activation of natural zeolite, characterization of Off Grade CPO, refinement, synthesis of CaO/α-Fe2O3, esterification, trans-esterification using CaO/α-Fe2O3 with mass variation (8:2, 7:3, 6:4), charac-terization, and identification by GC-MS test. The results showed that Off Grade CPO had the charac-teristics, i.e: 0.923 cm-3 density, 52.27 cSt viscosity, and 15.20% free fatty acid (FFA). CaO/α-Fe2O3 catalyst was successfully synthesized by wet impregnation. The best conditions for trans-esterification occurred at a mole ratio of oil:methanol (1:12), cata-lyst 3% wt of oil, 60 °C, 3 hours, and mass ratio of CaO:α-Fe2O3 (8:2). The synthesized methyl ester had the characteristics of: 0.851 g.cm-3 density, 4.790 cSt viscosity, 1.447 refractive index, and 0.50 acid number which was suitable with SNI Biodiesel 7182:2015 © 2023, Latin American Applied Research.All Rights Reserved.
Chemistry Department, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Grad/ Sch. Enginee. Sci, Shibaura institute of Technology, Saitama, 337-8570, Japan