Synthesis Of Heterogenic Carbon Sulfonate Catalyst From Corn Cob Waste (Zea Mays L.) For The Production Of Biodiesel Additives Dian Ratna Suminar (a,b), Iman Rahayu(a), Eko Andrijanto (b), Cinantya Zahrina Pribadi(b), Qonita Rahmah Fitriana(b), Diana Rakhmawaty Eddy(a*)
(a)Department of Chemistry, Universitas Padjadjaran, Sumedang, Jawa Barat, Indonesia-45363
*diana.rahmawati[at]unpad.ac.id
(b)Department of Chemical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Bandung, Gegerkalong Hilir, Bandung Barat, Jawa Barat, Indonesia - 40559
Abstract
The use of energy in Indonesia still depends on fossil energy. If it is used continuously, it cannot provide energy in the future. The increase in fossil energy consumption also causes global warming. This has encouraged Indonesia to switch to renewable energy. Ethyl levulinate is a biomass-based chemical compound with various functions, one of them can be used as a fuel additive. This research was conducted to make Ethyl levulinate from levulinic acid and ethanol using a catalytic esterification reaction with carbon sulfonate as heterogeneous catalyst. Heterogeneous catalysts of carbon sulfonate were obtained from corn cobs waste which had been carbonized at 3000C for 6 hours and sulfonated using 98% sulfuric acid for 8 hours, and the acid density obtained was 0,726 mmol/gram. The catalyst were used for the esterification reaction with the operating variables that defined by the Box Behnken Design and the interaction between the variables was evaluated by the response surface methodology using Minitab software. The results illustrated that the optimum conditions were at an esterification time of 9 hours, a molar ratio of levulinic acid:ethanol = 1:10, and a 15%-wt catalyst loading to achieve a levulinic acid conversion of 93.51%. Meanwhile, based on the experimental results, the highest conversion of 83,15% was effected by the higher catalyst loading and reaction time at catalyst loading of 10%-wt, 9 hours of esterification and the molar ratio of levulinic acid:ethanol = 1:10.
