Biopetrol syhthesized from stearic acid - heterogeneous catalytic cracking by zeolite

• Main Author: Mohamad Naquib Fitri, Mohd Nadzri
• Format: Undergraduates Project Papers
• Language: English
• Published: 2010
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/3142/1/14.Biopetrol%20synthesis%20from%20stearic%20acid%20-%20heterogeneous%20catalytic%20cracking%20by%20zeolite.pdf; http://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/3142/

Biopetrol is the alternative way to reduce the application of using petroleum where it is a new technology that more environmental friendly and furthermore it is the latest finding in research after biodiesel, bio-ethanol and bio-butanol. Biofuel is defined as fuel produced from derivation of vegetable oils and specifically, biopetrol is defined as fuel which has the same characteristic with the petrol, but is produced from stearic acid that is contained in palm oil where the conversion of stearic acid is done to get the molecular formula and structure of isooctane. Due to reduction of fossil fuel, environmental issues, and rising of petrol price, biopetrol can be the alternative fuel to the fossil fuel. In this research, stearic acid are used as a raw material, catalytic cracking are method that used together with zeolite as a catalyst. The experiment starts with heating the Stearic Acid until it melts at 69.6oC, and then 10 grams of zeolite being added and the heating process proceed until the temperature reached 98oC as the isooctane produced at level 1.The next experiment is repeated with different level of speed at level 2, 3 and 4. All the product samples are analyzed with Gas Chromatographer (GC). The isooctane concentrations are increased when the speed of stirring are increased, but not obviously. From the result obtained from the Gas Chromatogram result, the percentage of actual concentration of isooctane obtained for level 1 is 5.873%, level 2 is 5.921%, level 3 is 5.886% and level 4 is 5.873%. These yields are much higher than the yields produced from normal catalytic cracking method which is from 3% to 6 %. It showed that the heterogeneous catalytic cracking method will produce much higher yields for biopetrol synthesized compared to normal catalytic cracking method. This experiment should be conducted in more proper dynamic method to optimize the yields.