Biodiesel Production from Free Fatty Acid using ZrO2/Bagasse Fly Ash Catalyst

Abstract

This study utilizes ZrO2/Bagasse Fly Ash as a solid catalyst to convert Free Fatty Acid (FFA) from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate (PFAD) into biodiesel. The ZrO2/Bagasse fly ash catalyst was characterized by several physicochemical techniques, i.e., N2 adsorption-desorption, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and X-ray fluorescent (XRF). The catalyst was then applied for FFA esterification under different conditions. The highest FFA esterification conversion was 90.6%, which was reached at the optimal reaction condition as follows: methanol/PFAD mass ratio of 10:1; catalyst amount of 10 wt%; and reaction temperature of 60 o C. It was also found that the catalyst could be reused up to four times by an activation process. This study presented the Eley-Rideal kinetic model to describe the reaction mechanism. The model demonstrated an excellent fit to the experimental result with an R 2 value of 0.99, showing that Eley-Rideal is a valid model to describe the reaction and that the surface reaction step acts as the rate-determining step. Additionally, the reaction kinetics and adsorption equilibrium parameters were determined using non-linear regression. The correlation between the parameters with temperature was evaluated using Arrhenius and van't Hoff equations.

Study of Solid–Liquid Extraction Kinetics of Oil from Dried Avocado (Persea Americana) Flesh Using Hexane as A Solvent

“…Table 3 required for oil extraction to begin (Ramesh, Yasin, and Arshad, 2020). Furthermore, a positive Ea indicates that the process is endothermic (Rahma and Hidayat, 2023). The energy required to overcome the endothermic nature of the process is provided by heating during extraction.…”

A Novel Kinetic Model of Enzymatic Biodiesel Production in a Recirculating Fixed Bed Reactor

“…Various kinetics models have been developed to illustrate the initial rate of ester production by incorporating stepwise transesterification. These models are designed to predict reactant, by-product, and product concentrations concerning both time and substrate concentration (Rahma and Hidayat, 2023;Ezzati, Ranjbar, and Soltanabadi, 2021;Calabrò et al, 2010;Pessoa, Magalhães, and Falcão, 2009;Xu, Du, and Liu, 2005). While biodiesel synthesis often involves transesterification reactions, many models simplify the process by assuming a single substrate, typically triglyceride concentration (Fedosov et al, 2013;Al-Zuhair, Ling, and Jun, 2007;Al-Zuhair, 2005).…”