Calcium Soap from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate for Ruminant Feed: The Influence of Initial Mixing Temperature

Abstract

Abstract The breastfeeding dairy cows often go through metabolic disturbances and low milk production due to the use of stored body fat and minerals to assist milk production. Those problems can be solved by feeding feed supplement to the dairy lactating cows. Calcium soap is a well-known lactating dairy cattle feed supplement, which gives energy in the form of protected fat so it can increase milk productivity of dairy cattle. This research studied the use of PFAD (Palm Fatty Acid Distillate) as the free fatty acids source and calcium oxide as a calcium source to produce calcium soap using modified fusion method with water as the reaction catalyst. This study evaluated the initial mixing temperature of PFAD as the parameter affecting the conversion of PFAD, which was determined by the product acid value. The result showed that, at the same mole ratio of calcium source to PFAD, the lower initial mixing temperature gave higher reaction conversion of PFAD. The recommended initial temperature for mixing was found to be 60 °C, which gave the acid value of the product in the range of 2.96 - 3.14 mg KOH/g sample for mole ratio of CaO/PFAD 1 - 1.15.