Production of Methyl Ester from Coconut Oil using Microwave: Kinetic of Transesterification Reaction using Heterogeneous CaO Catalyst

Methyl ester derived from coconut oil is very interesting to study since it contains free-fatty acid with chemical structure of medium carbon chain ($C_{12}-C_{14}$), so the methyl ester obtained from its part can be a biodiesel and another partially into biokerosene. The use of heterogeneous catalysts in the production of methyl ester requires severe conditions (high pressure and high temperature), while at low temperature and atmospheric conditions, yield of methyl ester is relatively very low. By using microwave irradiation trans-esterification reaction with heterogeneous catalysts, it is expected to be much faster and can give higher yields. Therefore, we studied the production of methyl ester from coconut oil using CaO catalyst assisted by microwave. Our aim was to find a kinetic model of methyl ester production through a transesterification process from coconut oil assisted by microwave using heterogeneous CaO catalyst. The experimental apparatus consisted of a batch reactor placed in a microwave oven equipped with a condenser, stirrer and temperature controllers. Batch process was conducted at atmospheric pressure with a variation of CaO catalyst concentration (0.5; 1.0; 1.5; 2.0, 2.5%) and microwave power (100, 264 and 400 W). In general, the production process of methyl esters by heterogeneous catalyst will obtain three layers, wherein the first layer is the product of methyl ester, the second layer is glycerol and the third layer is the catalyst. The experimental results show that the yield of methyl ester increases along with the increase of microwave power, catalyst concentration and reaction time. Kinetic model of methyl ester production can be represented by the following equation: $-r_{TG}=1.7{\cdot}10^6{_e}{\frac{-43.86}{RT}}C_{TG}$.