Autocatalytic Hydrolysis of Palm Oil for Fatty Acid Production by Using Hydrothermolysis Process

Abstract

As the world major leader in the palm oil production, Indonesia need to develop a new efficient technology to replace the conventional production process of fatty acid from palm oil. Auto catalytic hydrolysis reaction of palm oil in a hydrothermal reactor offers several benefits in fatty acid production. This research objective was to determine the rate constant of hydrothermal auto catalytic hydrolysis reaction of palm oil in fatty acid production. The Auto catalytic hydrolysis reaction of palm oil was conducted in several reaction temperatures (130- 150°C) at a different time (5-30 minutes). The research results show that at all the temperature applied, along with the increasing of reaction time, the fatty acid obtained were increasing also, while the highest fatty acid concentration was obtained from the auto catalytic hydrolysis reaction of palm oil performed at temperature of 130°C.