ABSTRACT

The purpose of this experiment is to study the method to synthesize biodiesel from palm oil by using methanol and sodium hydroxide as a catalyst. This method is known as transesterification process. Transesterification requires 3 mol of alcohol for each mole of triglyceride to produce 1 mol of glycerol and 3 mol of methyl esters. Sodium hydroxide will act as a catalyst to enhance the yield of biodiesel. The reaction time is varied which is 40C and 60C in order to study its effect towards the yield of biodiesel. From this experiment, the yield of biodiesel at 40C is 88.89% while for the 60C the yield is 89.22%. This is due to theoretical factor that the product is increased with the increase of reaction temperature. When the reaction temperature increased, the reaction time will also increased which leads to the increased in the product yield. Besides, the quality of the biodiesel product at 60C is better than 40C because the product is much clearer. The method to synthesis biodiesel by transesterification is studied at the end of the experiment as well as the effects of reaction temperature towards the yield of biodiesel production.