Biodiesel, in the form of a blended fuel (BXX) with 20%-vol biodiesel (B20), has been on sale on the Indonesian market since early 2016. There is a plan to increase its percentage by up to 30% by ...2020, as stated in the biodiesel mandatory phase implementation report. One of the important parameters in biodiesel quality for the implementation of higher biodiesel percentage is monoglyceride content. Monoglyceride presence in biodiesel is caused by the incomplete conversion of raw material oils during the transesterification process, with alcohol, and it remains in the biodiesel product. The presence of monoglyceride in BXX fuel, especially at low-temperature conditions, can cause the formation of a precipitate that accelerates fuel filter clogging. The monoglyceride impurities, even in very low amounts, can trigger the formation of a precipitate. The amount of precipitate is an important factor that can affect the time taken before the fuel filter becomes blocked. The determination of the newly proposed upper limit of monoglyceride content parameter in biodiesel standard is necessary for B30 implementation so the potential amount of monoglyceride precipitate can be anticipated. The limit was proposed to be determined by benchmarking the amount of precipitate formed in B20 or B10 at various temperature conditions. The research was carried out by applying a modified cold soak filtration test method of ASTM D7501 for the precipitation test. Monopalmitin was added to biodiesel with low monoglyceride content to vary monoglyceride content so that each sample had approximate monoglyceride contents of 0.17%, 0.2%, 0.4%, 0.6% and 0.8%. Each biodiesel sample was then blended with petroleum diesel fuel to produce B10, B20 and B30. Each 100 ml sample was separately soaked in the cooling chamber at constant temperature conditions of 15 °C, 20 °C and 25 °C and at a room temperature condition for 21 days. Each sample was then filtered, washed with petro-ether, vacuum-dried and weighed for a constant amount of precipitate retained on the filter. The proposed upper limits of monoglyceride content in biodiesel for B30 with respect to the same amount of precipitate at each corresponding temperature condition in B20 and B10 were found to be 0.62% and 0.50%, respectively. However, with respect to the same amount of precipitate at room temperature in B20, the proposed upper limit of monoglyceride content in biodiesel for B30 was found to be in the range of 0.40–0.62%, while in the range of 0.33–0.51% for B10. From these results, the upper limit of monoglyceride content in biodiesel for B30 implementation should be lower than the current standard limit to achieve the same quality as biodiesel for B20 use.
Abstract
The valorisation of oil palm solid wastes is always a fascinating subject. The palm oil industries produce millions of tons of these high lignocellulose materials in empty fruit bunch, palm ...kernel shells, fronds, and others. The technological considerations are always based on selecting the best pretreatment methods, fermentation, and chemical processing technologies. Nevertheless, the selected method faces multiple concerns, such as practical, environmental, and economic ones. For example, can we get highly value-added products from these resistant materials without compromising the environment? This mini-review paper discusses various alternatives for solid waste treatment of solid waste to produce high-added-value materials by collecting the previous study from other publications. The development of oil palm biomass biorefinery is expected to increase the sustainability and profitability of the palm oil industry. Further research related to combined technology, economic assessment, and life cycle analysis is required to show the feasibility of the available technology.
Nitrogen is one of the essential nutrients for plants. Even though its availability in the air is abundant, it cannot be utilized yet due to its structure. Plasma electrolysis by air injection is ...effectively degrade organic textile dyes waste. In this study we propose a novel air plasma electrolysis (APE) where direct air injection into plasma zone inside electrolysis plasma can converts air into nitrate, while simultaneously the degradation of dyes waste produces organic nitrogen. Degradation of organic textile dye by APE can also transform nitrogen‐rich organic wastewater into nitrogen fertilizers. In this experiment, Remazol red as a compound in the azo dye group was used as a model for organic textile dye wastewater. Air plasma electrolysis reactor equipped with a stainless‐steel cathode, a tungsten anode, with various air injection rates and electric power. The results show 99.82% Remazol red degradation and 41.41 mmol of nitrate production. Preliminary efficacy tests on tomato plants showed that the nitrogen fertilizers produced from Remazol red produce the best plant growth. This study shows that APE simultaneously reduces organic textile dye waste, transforms them into potential organic fertilizer, and at the same time, synthesizes nitrates.
Tetraselmis chuii
is a potential microalgae that is in consideration for producing bioethanol owing to its large content of carbohydrates. The glucose production from
T. chuii
through an enzymatic ...process with cellulase and xylanase (pretreatment process) and α-amylase and glucoamylase (saccharification process) was studied. The mechanism of the enzymatic process was developed and the kinetic models were then evaluated. For the pretreatment process, enzymes with 30% concentration reacted at 30 °C for 40 min resulted in 35.9% glucose yield. For the saccharification process, the highest glucose yield of 90.03% was obtained using simultaneous α-amylase (0.0006%) and glucoamylase (0.01%) enzymes at 55 °C and for 40 min. The kinetic models fitted well with the experimental data. The model also revealed that the saccharification process performed better than the pretreatment process with a higher kinetic constant and lower activation energy. The proposed kinetic model plays an important role in implementing processes at a larger scale.
The kinetic model was developed to confirm the enzymatic mechanisms for the pretreatment and the saccharification processes. The proposed kinetic model fitted well with the experimental data.
The reason for such enormous efforts in palm oil mill effluent research would be what has been singled out as one of the major sources of pollution in Malaysia, and perhaps the most costly and ...complex waste to manage. Palm oil mill final discharge, which is the treated effluent, will usually be discharged to nearby land or river since it has been the least costly way to dispose of. Irrefutably, the quality level of the treated effluent does not always satisfy the surface water quality in conformity to physicochemical characteristics. To work on improving the treated effluent quality, a vertical surface-flow constructed wetland system was designed with Pennisetum purpureum (Napier grass) planted on the wetland floor. The system effectively reduced the level of chemical oxygen demand by 62.2 ± 14.3%, total suspended solid by 88.1 ± 13.3%, ammonia by 62.3 ± 24.8%, colour by 66.6 ± 13.19%, and tannin and lignin by 57.5 ± 22.3%. Heat map depicted bacterial diversity and relative abundance in life stages from the wetland soil, whereby bacterial community associated with the pollutant removal was found to be from the families Anaerolineaceae and Nitrosomonadaceae, and phyla Cyanobacteria and Acidobacteria.
Biosurfactant is produced by a certain microorganism to reduce surface tension. Microbial enhanced oil recovery (MEOR) is one of the many applications of biosurfactant. However, the biosurfactant for ...MEOR needs to be able to withstand the extreme environment of oil reservoirs with high temperature and high salinity. Halomonas meridiana BK-AB4 is a halophilic bacterium obtained from the Bledug Kuwu crater in Central Java, Indonesia. The similarity of both environment condition indicates the potential to produce suitable biosurfactant. This study evaluates the potential of Halomonas meridiana BK-AB4 in producing biosurfactant compared to several bacteria isolated from the crater. The blood agar test of Halomonas meridiana BK-AB4 exhibited greenish discoloration around the colony, indicating the ability of type α-hemolysis. The interfacial tension was measured using the Du Nouy ring method to represent the biosurfactant activity, with the results of 0.014 dyne/cm. These results showed that Halomonas meridiana BK-AB4 has a very good potential for producing biosurfactant for MEOR. The optimum time of the culture starter for production is 6 hours, as determined from the bacterial growth curve.
The most considerable solid waste from crude palm oil plants is oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) which contains cellulose, lignin, and hemicellulose. Hemicellulose can be hydrolyzed to xylose and ...then converted to furfural via dehydration. Pretreatment is one of the steps in the bioconversion of lignocellulose material to reduce lignin. This study developed a one-pot process to conduct pretreatment and furfural production simultaneously. This process uses a green solvent called ternary deep eutectic solvent (DES). DES was synthesized by mixing choline chloride, oxalic acid, and ethylene glycol with a molar ratio of 1:1:2 (CHOAEG). Simultaneous delignification and furfural production were carried out in a stainless steel reactor. The temperature was varied at 100, 120, and 150 °C, with the various processing time at 30, 60, and 90 min, respectively. The highest furfural concentration reached 9.68 g/L, and the delignification was achieved up to 55.81% at 150 °C for 90 min. The OPEFB pretreated was hydrolyzed by cellulase and achieved 90.79% glucose yield. Overall, the simultaneous delignification and furfural production process by ternary DES CHOAEG demonstrated a novel and efficient process by reducing the number of complex processes stages of biorefinery lignocellulose.
Bioplastic is one of the breakthroughs in the effort to reduce plastic waste. The bioplastic can be produced from microalgae with a high protein content, such as Spirulina platensis. The aim of this ...research was to produce S. platensis-based plastic with mechanical properties that mimics the commercial plastic bags. The microalgae were mixed with polyvinyl and maleic anhydride as compatibilizer to strengthen the bond between the microalgae and polymer. Glycerol was added as plasticizer to increase the flexibility. Observation was carried out on tensile strength and elongation of bioplastic with a variation of 15, 20, 25, and 30 wt% of glycerol content. The results show that the optimum plasticizer composition for this S. platensis-based bioplastic film was 30 wt%, which shows the tensile strength at 27.7 kgf/cm
2
and elongation at 66%. The tensile strength was very close to that of commercial plastic bags. The elongation property should be improved in order to be utilized for plastic bags. However, this bioplastic is very suitable for food, pharmacy, and cosmetic packaging materials that do not need high elongation.
World energy consumption continues to escalate annually in line with current world development. Meeting this burgeoning demand necessitates the exploration of renewable energy. Biofuel is one of the ...promising alternatives for renewable energy sources. However, biofuel has a disadvantage in its lower overall performance than fossil fuel. The application of additives such as ethyl levulinate emerges as a potential solution to enhance biofuel performance. This research aims to investigate the effect of ethanol:water ratio and reaction time on the formation of ethyl levulinate from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB). The OPEFB to be utilized was pretreated with 3% NaOH at a solid-to-liquid ratio of 1:8. The reaction was conducted at 120oC, with varying ethanol:water ratio and reaction time in the presence of H2SO4 as the catalyst. The reaction products were extracted using ethanol and analyzed with gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. The optimum reaction conditions obtained were 90 minutes and ethanol:water ratio of 99.1:0.9, resulting in a yield of 1.01%.
Solanesol (C45H74O) is an aliphatic terpene alcohol of nine isoprene units found in the tobacco plant (Nicotiana Tabacum L.). The long and complex biosynthetic pathway of solanesol makes the ...extraction method still the best way to obtain solanesol. This work evaluates the optimum conditions for sequential extraction from tobacco leaves using microwave-ultrasound-assisted extraction (MUAE) as a green extraction method. There were two stages of extraction (sequential): first, microwave-assisted extraction (MAE), followed by ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE). At the MAE stage, dry tobacco powder was extracted with variations of water-to-solid (feed) ratio (S/F) from 1:1 to 10:1 (mL/g), power from 200 to 800 W, and time from 0.5 to 2 min. Optimum conditions were obtained at 6:1 (mL/g), 400 W, and 1.5 min, respectively. The UAE stage was fixed with the solvent-to-solid (feed) ratio (S/F), solvent ratio (v/v), time, and temperature of 40:1, 1:2 (PE:ethanolic acid), 30 min, and 40 °C, respectively. The optimum solanesol yield was 3.0 % (w/w), and a nicotine yield of 1.41 % (%w/w) was obtained under the same conditions. The resulting crude solanesol was then purified using silica gel column chromatography (CC), resulting in a purity of 85 %. The yield of extracted solanesol is much higher than in other studies due to the use of fresh leaves and MUAE method.
•This work developed a rapid procedure by combining the two extractions in one sequential.•If the conventional extraction requires more than 1 h, only 31.5 min was required in this study (1.5 min MAE, 30 min UAE).•The optimal solanesol yield was 3.0 % (w/w) and the nicotine yield was 1.41 % (%w/w), which was reached after 1.5 min, power 400 W, and water to solids (S/F) ratio of 6:1.•The resulting crude solanesol was then purified using silica gel column chromatography (CC), resulting in a purity of 85 %.
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