Kinetic Study of Utilization of Used Cooking Oil as Biodiesel

Abstract

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel source to replace diesel fuel made from vegetable oil or animal fat, does not contain sulfur and is odorless. Biodiesel is produced by reacting vegetable oil with alcohol using a base as a catalyst at a certain temperature and composition. In this study, used coconut oil (jelantah) was used which can be used as a raw material for making biodiesel. The study was conducted on the transesterification reaction of used cooking oil with methanol where two stages were carried out, namely the esterification reaction of used cooking oil (jelantah) with methanol using H2SO4 catalyst to reduce free fatty acids, and the second stage of the transesterification reaction of used coconut oil (jelantah) with methanol using NaOH catalyst. The kinetics of the reaction of making biodiesel from used cooking oil and methanol with NaOH catalyst is a first-order reaction. By using 300 grams of oil and 101.5 grams of methanol and variations in catalyst weight of 1.0 grams, 1.2 grams, 1.4 grams of catalyst heated at a temperature of 60oC, the optimal results were obtained, namely the reaction rate constant of 0.086 exp