Publication: Cu2+ Montmorillonite K10 Clay Catalyst as a Green Catalyst for Production of Stearic Acid Methyl Ester: Optimization Using Response Surface Methodology (RSM)
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Date
2018
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Univ Diponegoro
Abstract
Clay catalyst has received much attention to replace the homogeneous catalysts in the esterification reaction to produce fatty acid methyl ester as the source of biodiesel as it is low cost, easily available, as well as environmental friendly. However, the use of unmodified clay, in particular montmorillonite K10 (MMT K10), for the esterification of fatty acids showed that the acid conversion was less than 60% and this is not preferable to the production of biodiesel. In this study, synthesis of stearic acid methyl ester using Cu2+-MMT K10 (Cu-MMT K10) was successfully optimized via response surface methodology (RSM) based on 3-variable of Box-Behnken design (BB). The parameters were; reaction time (5180 minutes), reaction temperature (80-120 degrees C) and concentration of Cu2+ in MMT K10 (0.25-1 M). The use of RSM in optimizing the conversion of stearic acid was successfully developed as the actual experimental conversion of stearic acid was found similar to the actual values under the optimum conditions. The model equation predicted that the following conditions would generate the maximum conversion of stearic acid (87.05 % reaction time of 62 minutes, a reaction temperature of 80 degrees C and catalyst used is 1.0 M Cu-MMT K10. This finding can be considered as green catalytic process as it worked at moderate reaction temperature using low cost clay catalyst with a short reaction time. Copyright (C) 2018 BCREC Group. All rights reserved.
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Keywords
Montmorillonite K10, esterification, response surface methodology, stearic acid methyl ester