Effect of Different Base and Different Catalyst in the Bioalcohol Production from Palm Kernel oil

The catalyst addition in bioalcohol production from palm based source is driven by the low yield of bioalcohol produced. The ideal objective of this project is to integrate bioalcohol and biodiesel production as to reduce the production cost. However, current bioalcohol and biodiesel that are bei...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Khairul Nina Azreena binti Mohd. Khir, Khairul Nina Azreena
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Universiti Teknologi Petronas 2009
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Online Access:http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/547/1/khairulnina_azreena_bt_mohd_khir.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/547/
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Summary:The catalyst addition in bioalcohol production from palm based source is driven by the low yield of bioalcohol produced. The ideal objective of this project is to integrate bioalcohol and biodiesel production as to reduce the production cost. However, current bioalcohol and biodiesel that are being produced in a different chemical plant due to its low and uncertainty yield. This project is meant to obtain high yield of bioalcohol. The bioalcohol produced is through partial saponification process of ester. Palm kernel oil is used as raw material due to its abundance in Malaysia. Three experiments have been carried out. The first experiment is to produce bioalcohol without the presence of catalyst and the second experiment is to produce bioalcohol with presence of sodium methoxide as catalyst. Next is the third experiment, whereby calcium methoxide is used as base and catalyst to produce bioalcohol. The bioalcohol products are sent to gas chromatography to be analyzed. As for experiment 1, the concentration of biomethanol 0.0027M while the concentration of bioethanol is 0.026. Besides, the volume of biomethanol is 4.58m1 and bioethanol is 4.41ml. In experiment 2, as catalyst 0.05 and 0. lwt% sodium methoxide by weight of oil is added in the experiment, the concentration of biomethanol and bioethanol increase to 0.1247M and 0.0028M respectively. The volume and yield of biomethanol also increase as the amount of catalyst increases. The volume and yield of biomethanol after putting 0. lwt% of sodium methoxide are 47m1 and 12% respectively. However, the volume and yield of bioethanol decrease as the amount of catalyst sodium methoxide increases. The volume and yield of bioethanol after putting 0. lwt% sodium methoxide are decrease to 1.09m1 and 0.0098% correspondingly. This is due to the methoxide ion that exhibits more biomethanol rather than bioethanol. Thus, the production of biomethanol is favoured. The optimum amount of sodium methoxide is 0. lwt% by weight of oil. Starting from 0.3wt% of sodium methoxide, the reaction formed high yield of soap and less yield of bioalcohol. This had cause the reacted product unable to be distillate using rotary evaporator. As for experiment 3, biomethanol produced also increases as calcium methoxide amount increases, while bioethanol yield is optimized at 0. lwt% of calcium methoxide. The biomethanol rises from calcium methoxide are slower as compared to sodium methoxide usage. Experiment 2 and 3 are known as autocatalytic reaction whereby the product itself is the catalyst for that reaction. In the discussion part, the increment of bioalcohol, the yield of bioalcohol and the bioalcohol amount that should be produced by sodium methoxide and calcium methoxide are discussed. As conclusion, bioalcohol production by using sodium methoxide is favoured over calcium methoxide as it gives high yield and fewer amounts needed. For recommendations, the calcium methoxide concentration needs to be varied to see its effect upon bioalcohol yield. Use of high temperature rotary evaporator is needed to observe the production of propanol and butanol, wherebypropanol and butanol will be distillated more at high temperature