Untitled

Abstract

Kemiri sunan oil is non-food oil. Kemiri sunan oil can be a potential raw material for biodiesel synthesis. Kemiri sunan oil has relatively high free fatty acid content so that before the transesterification stage, it is necessary to lower the levels of free fatty acids through an esterification reaction. In esterification, the moisture content in oil and fat as raw material for biodiesel affects the conversion rate of free fatty acids into biodiesel, so this needs to be studied. The purpose of this study was to study the effect of the moisture content in kemiri sunan oil on the conversion of free fatty acids into biodiesel at the esterification stage. The moisture content in kemiri sunan oil was varied through the evaporation step at 105°C for 1, 1.5 and 2 hours' time variations. Kemiri sunan oil with various moisture content was further esterified at 60°C, the mole ratio of oil to methanol was 1:6, the reaction time was 1.5 hours, and 1%(v/v) was catalyzed by 98% sulfuric acid. The results showed that the less moisture content in kemiri sunan oil, the less free fatty acid content was present in the biodiesel from the esterification results. This shows that the less moisture content in kemiri sunan oil at the esterification stage, the higher the conversion of free fatty acids to methyl esters or biodiesel. The highest conversion of free fatty acids into biodiesel of 91.89% was achieved when esterification was carried out on kemiri sunan oil with the lowest moisture content, namely 0.15%.