Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification

Conventional biodiesel production from palm oil requires separate extraction and transesterification steps, leading to increased costs and complexity. This study introduces an innovative in-situ transesterification method utilizing oil palm pulp, eliminating the need for oil extraction and simplify...

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Main Authors: CHEN XI LIM, ramli Mat
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: UNIMAS Publisher 2025-04-01
Series:Journal of Applied Science & Process Engineering
Subjects:
Online Access:https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/JASPE/article/view/9188
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author CHEN XI LIM
ramli Mat
author_facet CHEN XI LIM
ramli Mat
author_sort CHEN XI LIM
collection DOAJ
description Conventional biodiesel production from palm oil requires separate extraction and transesterification steps, leading to increased costs and complexity. This study introduces an innovative in-situ transesterification method utilizing oil palm pulp, eliminating the need for oil extraction and simplifying the production process, which ultimately reduces costs. The effects of catalyst type, methanol-to-pulp ratio, and hexane addition on biodiesel yield were systematically evaluated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to confirm the biodiesel purity and assess the composition. Results showed that sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) outperformed sodium hydroxide (NaOH) due to reduced soap formation, which hindered phase separation. The highest biodiesel yield of 38.79% was achieved at 75°C, using 3 wt% sulphuric acid, a 2:1 methanol-to-pulp ratio (ml:g), and a 24-hour reaction time, with no hexane addition. The presence of hexane as a co-solvent had minimal impact on biodiesel yield. This study demonstrates a cost-effective, simplified process for biodiesel production from oil palm pulp, offering significant potential for scaling up production. Future research could focus on conducting a detailed cost analysis and exploring the scalability of the in-situ process to validate its commercial viability.
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spelling doaj-art-1a4fba4f0f484346901f879a975363fd2025-08-20T02:20:08ZengUNIMAS PublisherJournal of Applied Science & Process Engineering2289-77712025-04-0112110.33736/jaspe.9188.2025Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification CHEN XI LIM0ramli Mat1Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, MalaysiaFaculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM Skudai, Johor, Malaysia Conventional biodiesel production from palm oil requires separate extraction and transesterification steps, leading to increased costs and complexity. This study introduces an innovative in-situ transesterification method utilizing oil palm pulp, eliminating the need for oil extraction and simplifying the production process, which ultimately reduces costs. The effects of catalyst type, methanol-to-pulp ratio, and hexane addition on biodiesel yield were systematically evaluated. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was employed to confirm the biodiesel purity and assess the composition. Results showed that sulphuric acid (H₂SO₄) outperformed sodium hydroxide (NaOH) due to reduced soap formation, which hindered phase separation. The highest biodiesel yield of 38.79% was achieved at 75°C, using 3 wt% sulphuric acid, a 2:1 methanol-to-pulp ratio (ml:g), and a 24-hour reaction time, with no hexane addition. The presence of hexane as a co-solvent had minimal impact on biodiesel yield. This study demonstrates a cost-effective, simplified process for biodiesel production from oil palm pulp, offering significant potential for scaling up production. Future research could focus on conducting a detailed cost analysis and exploring the scalability of the in-situ process to validate its commercial viability. https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/JASPE/article/view/9188In-situ transesterification, biodiesel, extraction, palm oil pulp, co-solvent
spellingShingle CHEN XI LIM
ramli Mat
Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
Journal of Applied Science & Process Engineering
In-situ transesterification, biodiesel, extraction, palm oil pulp, co-solvent
title Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
title_full Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
title_fullStr Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
title_full_unstemmed Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
title_short Exploring Oil Palm Fruit Pulp for Direct Biodiesel Production via In-Situ Transesterification
title_sort exploring oil palm fruit pulp for direct biodiesel production via in situ transesterification
topic In-situ transesterification, biodiesel, extraction, palm oil pulp, co-solvent
url https://publisher.unimas.my/ojs/index.php/JASPE/article/view/9188
work_keys_str_mv AT chenxilim exploringoilpalmfruitpulpfordirectbiodieselproductionviainsitutransesterification
AT ramlimat exploringoilpalmfruitpulpfordirectbiodieselproductionviainsitutransesterification