DefinePK

Abstract

Human dependency to fossil fuels are currently facing a depletion threat as the number of oil reserves are clenching and this matter can be solved by interchanging the usage of diesel to biodiesel. The production of biodiesel can be achieved by the transesterification process. In this study, transesterification of waste frying oil (WFO) which catalyzed by dolomite have been investigated. The characteristic of the catalyst were tested using XRD (X-Ray Diffractometer) and SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) to confirm the mineral presents and the morphology of raw dolomite and calcined dolomite, respectively. Transesterification process was perform to see the influence of alcohol: oil molar ratio, weight percentage of catalyst, reaction time and reaction temperature towards product yield. From the characterization, calcination of dolomites results in the formation of the MgO-CaO form, which is the active catalytic component and led to the changing of its morphological properties. The transesterification of WFO with methanol can be actively catalyzed over dolomite catalysts with amount of 1.5wt.% at reaction temperature of 60°C, methanol/oil molar ratio, 6:1 and reaction time of 120min. With this reaction conditions, it can produce highest FAME up to 96.7 wt.%.