Purification of glycerol from biodiesel by-product by using kitchen vinegar

Abstract

Indonesia is a country that produces large amounts of palm oil. Oil palm plantations are often found in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Palm oil is usually used as a raw material for making cooking oil. Apart from that, it can be used as a raw material for biodiesel production from vegetable oil taken from palm oil. The production of biodiesel from palm cooking oil produces a by-product in the form of glycerol, where the glycerol is still in the form of crude glycerol which cannot be utilized. Glycerol purification is carried out by the method of acidification and evaporation to remove the KOH catalyst and methanol that are still present in the crude glycerol. The acid used was 2 ml of kitchen vinegar and was carried out 3 times. The purpose of this study was to obtain glycerol and water content. The results of this study showed that the highest glycerol content was 83.47%, the lowest water content was 1.83%, the lowest pH was 12.00 and the color of glycerol was blackish brown.