ENIVRONMENT ASIA

Volume 14, No. 01, Month JANUARY, Year 2021, Pages 23 - 32

Production of biodiesel from low-grade crude palm oil using hydrochloric acid

Nichmon Puagsang, Issara Chanakeawsomboon, Suchada Chantrapromma and Arkom Palamanit

Abstract Download PDF

In this study, low-grade crude palm oil (LGCPO) containing 13.81 wt.% free fatty acid (FFA) was used as raw material. This study aimed to investigate the eff ects of LGCPO preparation methods on biodiesel basic properties, easing environmental impacts from sulfur emissions, and getting to zero-sulfur biodiesel. Hence, hydrochloric acid, which is an eff ective and environmentally friendly homogeneous acid catalyst, was selected as the catalyst to reduce FFA in pretreatment and to produce green biodiesel. The results indicate that the use 0.25 wt.% of hydrochloric acid as a catalyst in biodiesel production could effi ciently reduce the FFA content to a standard level ( < 2.00 wt.%) at 0.56 wt.% (FFA conversion 95.95%). The fi nal ester contents were 98.05 and 97.31 wt.% for washed esterifi ed palm oil (EPO) and for rinsed EPO without washing, respectively. Consequently, hydrochloric acid is a suitable catalyst and could replace the conventional sulfuric acid in biodiesel production from low quality crude palm oil. This would reduce the environmental impacts, especially sulfur emissions. High FFA leads to soap formation in fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) saponifi cation causing problems in phase separation and emulsion formation during the purifi cation stage, so catalytic preprocessing is a necessity

Keywords

Biodiesel; Free fatty acid; Hydrochloric acid; Low-grade crude palm oil; Sulfuric acid

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