Pembuatan Katalis CuO-ZnO dengan Penyangga gamma-Al2O3 untuk Transesterifikasi Minyak Biji Kapuk (Ceiba Pentandra L.)

Abstract

Biodiesel is a promising energy alternative to substitute fossil fuels. Another reason is the production
process using a homogeneous catalyst that has many disadvantages. Raw materials using palm oils which is expensive, also compete with the food industry. Heterogeneous catalyst substitution of homogeneous catalysts and using kapok seed oil as raw material is a promising strategy for mass biodiesel production. This research focuses on developing heterogeneous catalyst CuO-ZnO buffered γ-Al₂O₃ for transesterification of kapok seed oil. We concern about the effect of calcination temperature and CuO loading. Catalyst synthesis using the sol-gel method. Catalyst characterization by X-ray diffraction (XRD) method, scanning electron microscope-EDX (SEM-EDX) and Brunnauer-Emmet Teller (BET). The catalyst activity test was applied to the transesterification of kapok seed oil with methanol in glass type batch reactor. CuO-ZnO/γ-Al₂O₃ was successfully synthesized quite well and potentially could be used as heterogeneous catalyst from kapok seed oil.