Pengaruh penambahan sorbitol dan kalsium karbonat… (Senny Widyaningsih, dkk) THE EFFECT OF SORBITOL AND POTASSIUM CARBONATE ADDITION TO CHARACTERISTIC AND BIODEGRADABLE OF FILM BANANA SKIN STARCH ABSTRACTBanana skin is a waste from crispy chips of banana production industry. Starch content from banana skin can be made to biodegradable film. In order to repaire the characteristic film, it needs additive. The additive is sorbitol as plasticizer and sodium carbonate as filler. The results showed that the film had 3.11-6.12 g/cm 3 of density, 3.55-7.59% of hygroscopicity, 0.0017-0.0021 g/jam cm 2 of water vapour of transmission rate (WVTR), 2.54-59.01% of water solubility, 4.05-87.86% of acidic solubility, 2.73-179.61 MPa of tensile strength, 1.95 -19.81 MPa of elongation at break, and 5.73-85.08% of tear resistence. Biodegradable test showed that the range of film weight loss was 5.73-85.08%.

Transesterification of waste cooking oil into biodiesel using KOH catalyst with and without esterification process usingactivated natural zeolite (ZAH) catalyst has been carried out. Activation of the zeolite was done by refluxing with HCl 6Mfor 30 min, followed calcining and oxydized at 500oC for 2 hours, consecutively. The transesterification without esterificationprocess were done using KOH catalyst 1% (w/w) from oil and methanol weight and oil/methanol molar ratio 1:6 at 60oC. Theesterification reaction was also done using ZAH catalyst then continued by transesterification using KOH catalyst inmethanol media. In order to study the effect of ZAH catalyst concentration at constant temperature, the catalysts werevaried, i.e. 0, 1, 2, and 3% (w/w). To investigate the effect of temperature, the experiments were done at various temperaturefrom 30, 45, 60, and 70oC at constant catalyst concentration. The conversion of biodiesel was determined by 1H-NMRspectrometer and physical properties of biodiesel were determined using ASTM standard methods. The results showedthat the transesterification using KOH catalyst without esterification produced biodiesel conversion of 53.29%. The optimumcondition of biodiesel synthesis via esterification process were reached at 60oC and concentration of ZAH catalyst of2% (w/w), that could give biodiesel conversion = 100.00%. The physical properties were conformed with biodiesel ASTM2003b and Directorate General of Oil and Gas 2006 specification.

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Cellulose acetate (CA) is one of polymer which is usually used in industry. Kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus) pulp is one of non wood cellulose sources which can be used for producing CA. CA was produced in three step i.e. initial, acetylation, and hydrolysis. The characterization of CA kenaf had been conducted with analyzing function groups and determining relative molecule mass, acetyl content, and structure of CA. The result of infrared spectroscopy analyze showed that specific peak of acetyl group at 1237.4 cm -1 with acetyl content 40.40% and the relative molecule mass of CA was 1.15.10 4 with amorf structure.

Plastic has high potency to become material that much threats human living in this earth, because made from chemical which cannot degraded by microbes in environment. The successful production and marketing of biodegradable plastics will help alleviate the problem of environmental pollution. One of biodegradable plastic that used in our live is polyethylene. This research reveals that local microbes capable to degrading of polyethylene. Biodegradation test was carried out by using bacteria in soil which was obtained from Gunung Tugel disposal center, Banyumas regency. Kind of polyethylene is LDPE (Low Density Polyethylene) which was obtained from Setiakawan Plastic Factory, Kalibogor, Purwokerto formed to thin film. Characterization of the polyethylene used weight loss percentage method, melting point determination and FTIR. Soil bacteria isolated from Gunung Tugel disposal center, Banyumas regency, obtained 5 single colonies, which coded GT. Bacteria isolate which have highest activity in degrading polyethylene was GT 3, with increasing the time of incubation. Weight loss percentage up to 2.33% in 1 month. Melting point of polyethylene after biodegradation was decreased that initially 210-220 °C into 210-213 °C. FTIR spectrophotometer result of polyethylene after biodegradation showed intensity for methylene and methyl cluster was decreased.