Esterification of Crude Palm Oil with Low Ultrasonic Intensity

Abstract

This article studies on esterification of crude palm oil to reduce free fatty acid of 11.3% to less than 3% before transesterification. Methanol and sulfuric acid were used in process under ultrasonic assisted reactor. Relevant parameters were optimized to give a highest free fatty acid (FFA) conversion rate. The analysis was shown that the reaction time is the most significant to FFA conversion rate. It was found that for 12:1 methanol to oil molar ratio, 2 %wt sulfuric acid and 70 minutes reaction time, the FFA conversion rate was highest at 94.38% and FFA decreases from 11.3% to 0.63%. This study shows that ultrasonic assisted esterification can reduces the time and the energy used in the esterification reaction compared to other works.