Factors Affecting the Quality of Biodiesel from Palm Fatty Acid Distillate at Palm Oil Refining Plant

Abstract

A study on factors affecting biodiesel quality of agricultural by-products, namely palm oil derived using palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), collected from the Oleen Palm Oil industrial refining plant. This PFAD showed free fatty acid content and a saponification value of 88.4 % and 204 mg KOH/g, respectively. An acid catalyst was successfully used to produce biodiesel in the esterification reaction, and a 97.11% conversion to biodiesel based on the European Standard EN 14214:2003 was achieved under the conditions (PFAD to methanol molar ratio 1:3.71 with 1.834 % H2SO4 catalyzed at 121 °C for 15 minutes). Overall, this novel process achieved highly enhanced FAME (95.82% to 97.31%) with a significantly increased reaction time (10 to 30 minutes) and catalyst requirements (1.834 % H2SO4).