PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POTASSIUM BASED CLAY CATALYST FOR BIODIESEL PRODUCTION

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel for diesel engines consisting of the mono alkyl ester of fatty acids that is produced from the vegetable oils or animal fats. Most of the biodiesel is made from the reaction of methanol, solid catalyst and palm oil, under trans-esterification process. The usage of heterogeneous catalyst is very important to increase the yield of biodiesel in this process, plus make it more environmental friendly and economically viable. In fact, there are many researchers still focusing on the use of heterogeneous catalysts for biodiesel production, especially solid base catalyst. From the previous research, this type of catalyst is more effective compare to solid acid catalyst. However, there are still some gap exist in the preparation of solid base catalyst, that can lead to a higher conversion of biodiesel in the trans-esterification process. Thus, a potential application of Potassium based MK-10 clay as a most effective catalyst for biodiesel production had been studied. KOH and K2CO3 have been prepared by wet impregnation method with the MK-10 clay catalyst. The ratio between different types of Potassium with MK-10 clay catalyst is 1:10. The characterization of both Potassium based MK-10 clays has been conducted by X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET). The effects of the catalyst on the yield of biodiesel were investigated. The highest yield of biodiesel recorded was 72% with KOH/MK-10 catalyst. It was obtained at reaction time 4 hour, 2% wt catalyst, methanol to oil ratio of 10, and the reaction temperature at 60°C. Further studied on yield of biodiesel was done using KOH/MK-10 with different reaction temperature. The optimum temperature recorded for highest yield of biodiesel was at 60°C for 10 hour.