Effect of Different Base and Different Catalyst in the Bioalcohol Production from Palm Kernel oil

The catalyst addition in bioalcohol production from palm based source is driven by
the low yield of bioalcohol produced. The ideal objective of this project is to integrate
bioalcohol and biodiesel production as to reduce the production cost. However, current
bioalcohol and biodiesel that are being produced in a different chemical plant due to its low
and uncertainty yield. This project is meant to obtain high yield of bioalcohol. The bioalcohol
produced is through partial saponification process of ester. Palm kernel oil is used as raw
material due to its abundance in Malaysia. Three experiments have been carried out. The first
experiment is to produce bioalcohol without the presence of catalyst and the second
experiment is to produce bioalcohol with presence of sodium methoxide as catalyst. Next is
the third experiment, whereby calcium methoxide is used as base and catalyst to produce
bioalcohol. The bioalcohol products are sent to gas chromatography to be analyzed. As for
experiment 1, the concentration of biomethanol 0.0027M while the concentration of
bioethanol is 0.026. Besides, the volume of biomethanol is 4.58m1 and bioethanol is 4.41ml.
In experiment 2, as catalyst 0.05 and 0. lwt% sodium methoxide by weight of oil is added in
the experiment, the concentration of biomethanol and bioethanol increase to 0.1247M and
0.0028M respectively. The volume and yield of biomethanol also increase as the amount of
catalyst increases. The volume and yield of biomethanol after putting 0. lwt% of sodium
methoxide are 47m1 and 12% respectively. However, the volume and yield of bioethanol
decrease as the amount of catalyst sodium methoxide increases. The volume and yield of
bioethanol after putting 0. lwt% sodium methoxide are decrease to 1.09m1 and 0.0098%
correspondingly. This is due to the methoxide ion that exhibits more biomethanol rather than
bioethanol. Thus, the production of biomethanol is favoured. The optimum amount of sodium
methoxide is 0. lwt% by weight of oil. Starting from 0.3wt% of sodium methoxide, the
reaction formed high yield of soap and less yield of bioalcohol. This had cause the reacted
product unable to be distillate using rotary evaporator. As for experiment 3, biomethanol
produced also increases as calcium methoxide amount increases, while bioethanol yield is
optimized at 0. lwt% of calcium methoxide. The biomethanol rises from calcium methoxide
are slower as compared to sodium methoxide usage. Experiment 2 and 3 are known as
autocatalytic reaction whereby the product itself is the catalyst for that reaction. In the
discussion part, the increment of bioalcohol, the yield of bioalcohol and the bioalcohol
amount that should be produced by sodium methoxide and calcium methoxide are discussed.
As conclusion, bioalcohol production by using sodium methoxide is favoured over calcium
methoxide as it gives high yield and fewer amounts needed. For recommendations, the
calcium methoxide concentration needs to be varied to see its effect upon bioalcohol yield.
Use of high temperature rotary evaporator is needed to observe the production of propanol
and butanol, wherebypropanol and butanol will be distillated more at high temperature