TRANSFORMATION OF BENTONITE INTO ZEOLITE-A AS CATALYST FOR PYROLYSIS OF CRUDE PALM OIL
Kamisah Delilawati Pandiangan, Wasinton Simanjuntak, Diky Hidayat, Franky Gomgom N, Qori Hikmah Faranida, Maulana Bintang Rabbani, Muhammad Sabil, Diska Indah Alista, Nurul Fajriyati, Erwanda Lili Utari

Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Science, Lampung University, Lampung

Abstract

This research was carried out to study pyrolysis of crude palm oil using zeolite-A resulted from transformation of bentonite. Transformation of bentonite was attempted by adjusting the Si/Al ratio to 1.5 using food grade aluminium foil (FGAF) for addition of aluminium. A specified mass of FGAF was dissolved in sodium hydroxide solution to obtain sodium aluminate solution and then a specified mass of bentonite was added into the solution. The mixture was magnetically stirred to homogenized the sample and then transferred into Teflon lined autoclave. For crystallization process, the autoclave was placed in an oven set at 100 oC for 72 h. The produced solid was then subjected to calcination at different temperatures of 600, 700, and 800 oC for 8 hours, characterized using XRD and SEM, and then used as catalyst. The experimental results demonstrated that partial conversion of bentonite into zeolite-A was confirmed by XRD and SEM. Pyrolysis experiments demonstrated that the catalysts display promising potential as reflected by the presence of hydrocarbons as a main component with the highest relative percentage of 89.91% in the bio crude oil (BCO) produced with the use of catalyst calcined at 700 oC.

Keywords: bentonite, zeolite-A, pyrolysis, palm oil, bio crude oil

Topic: Chemistry