Catalytic cracking of Jatropa curcas oil using natural zeolite of Lampung as a catalyst

Abstract

The scarcity of fossil fuel has led to the development of renewable energy sources, such as biofuel from plant oils. Jatropha curcas oil is one of the potential plant oil sources of biofuel. The conversion of Jatropha oil into biofuel can be achieved through catalytic cracking using the catalyst of Lampung natural zeolite. This study aimed to characterize the catalyst, to determine the optimum condition of the catalytic cracking process and to study the physicochemical characteristic of biofuel. The study was begun by activating Lampung natural zeolite, characterizing the catalyst, optimizing the catalytic cracking process and testing the biofuel. XRD result showed that the activated natural zeolite has a crystal structure, as suggested by the appearance of high-intensity peaks at 23.72°; 22.38° and 27.96°, which showed the generation of H-zeolite. Thermogravimetry analysis showed that H-zeolite started to decompose at 300 °C with 7.4% mass reduction and has thermal stability up until 700°C. The surface area of the zeolite was 53.2542 m2/g. The optimum condition for the cracking process was achieved at 375 °C for 2 hours and 5 % concentration of catalyst. The biofuel generated from this study consisted of 67.12 % gasoline (C5-C11), 11.87 % kerosene (C12-C15) and 21.01 % diesel (C16-C20). This biofuel has a density of 0.966 g/mL and pours point of 235°K.