Reduction of high content of free fatty acid in sludge palm oil via acid catalyst for biodiesel production

In this study, sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) was used in the pretreatment of sludge palm oil for biodiesel production by an esterification process, followed by the basic catalyzed transesterification process. The purpose of the pretreatment process was to reduce the free fatty acids (FFA) content from high content FFA (> 23%) of sludge palm oil (SPO) to a minimum level for biodiesel production (> 2%). An acid catalyzed esterification process was carried out to evaluate the low content of FFA in the treated SPO with the effects of other parameters such as molar ratio of methanol to SPO (6:1-14:1), temperature (40-80 °C), reaction time (30-120 min) and stirrer speed (200-800 rpm). The results showed that the FFA of SPO was reduced from 23.2% to less than 2% FFA using 0.75% wt/wt of sulphuric acid with the molar ratio of methanol to oil of 8:1 for 60 min reaction time at 60 °C. The results on the transesterification with esterified SPO showed that the yield (ester) of biodiesel was 83.72% with the process conditions of molar ratio of methanol to SPO 10:1, reaction temperature 60 °C, reaction time 60 min, stirrer speed 400 rpm and KOH 1% (wt/wt). The biodiesel produced from the SPO was favorable as compared to the EN 14214 and ASTM D 6751 standard.