PROCESSING AND CHARACTERIZATION OF OIL PALM LOOSE FRUITS AS A RAW MATERIAL FOR BIODIESEL

Abstract

The main product of oil palm plantations is oil palm fresh fruit bunches. However, there are loose oil palm fruits detached from the ripe fresh fruit bunch or found during the cutting process at harvest. Biodiesel can be obtained by processing crude palm oil (CPO) through a trans-esterification process; however, CPO is an important source of food, especially for cooking oil. Biodiesel production as a source of new renewable energy increases could threaten the food security programs. The oil palm loose fruits as industrial waste were investigated for renewable energy sources to overcome the conflict between the renewable energy program and food security. This research found that oil palm loose fruits consisted of about 55% of mesocarp (flesh of fruit) and around 45% of the seed. Increasing delays in the processing of oil palm loose fruits led to a decrease in the oil, and a processing delay of 12 days resulted in a significant reduction in extract yield. Increasing processing delay reduced the iodine value, and the study showed that oil palm loose fruits after 12 days have a high level of oil saturation and free fatty acid of CPO was 37%. Esterification followed by transesterification was conducted to synthesize biodiesel. The biodiesel was produced by transesterification, resulting in a yield of 14.5% and free fatty acid of 1.3%, while fatty acid methyl ester was achieved at 70.24%. Hence, we could convert oil palm loose fruits into biodiesel as a strategy to meet the renewable energy requirement produced from non-food crops.