DETERMINATION OF BIODIESEL AMOUNT IN VARIOUS BIODIESEL-DIESEL BLENDS

Biodiesel is an alternative which are non-toxic with low emission profiles, biodegradable and does not contribute to environmental pollution. This study focused in the optimization process of base-catalyzed transesterification of palm oil which produced 97.44 % methyl ester with the reaction temperature of 60 oC, methanol/oil mass ratio, 9:1, and 1.2 wt% of catalyst amount within 1 h. A series of diesel-biodiesel blends of B7, B20, B30, B40 and B100 is then prepared by mixing the biodiesel prepared with pure diesel. B100 showed the highest value for the all tested parameters (acid value: 0.2596 mg KOH/g; peroxide value: 11.7992 meq/kg; moisture content: 0.45%, flash point: 175 oC, kinematic viscosity: 5.57 mm2/g and density: 0.8686 g/cm3). The correlation coefficient of the relationship between acid value, peroxide value, moisture content, density and viscosity are 0.9256, 0.8351, 0.8378, 0.8345 and 0.8452 respectively. Nevertheless, all the tested parameters positively accepted according to ASTM - D6751 standard method. Thus, may gained benefits to the related industries as well as monetary gain in countering any false claim on the % blend.