APPLICATION OF HETEROGENEOUS CATALYST OF Meti SHELLS (Batissa violecea L. von Lamark 1818) IN THE PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL BASED ON MORINGA SEED OIL

Meti shell contains calcium carbonate which can be calcined into CaO and used as a heterogeneous catalyst in biodiesel synthesis. This study evaluated the ability of CaO catalyst from Meti shell with concentrations of 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5% for the synthesis of biodiesel from Moringa seed oil at various transesterification times (1, 2, 3, and 4 hours). The presence of CaO in the Meti shell was indicated by diffraction at 2θ angles of 32.47o , 37.74o , 54.22o , 64.65o , and 67.67oC. Utilizing CaO 3% and a transesterification reaction time of 3 hours resulted in an Rf value corresponding to the standard biodiesel Rf ranges, i.e. 0.69 and 0.66, respectively. The synthesized biodiesel has the highest methyl oleate content of 59.16% with characteristics that have met Indonesian National Standard (SNI 04-7182-2006), including water content of 0.004%, an acid number of 0.06 mg KOH/g, saponification number 273.6 mgKOH/g, iodine number 78.678 g iodine/100 g, the cloud point is 10oC, the pour point is 21oC, however, the cetane number is still below the minimum number of 51.