Kinetics of Homogeneous Reaction of Potassium Methoxide Based on K2CO3 Catalyst in Transesterification of RBDPO to Biodiesel

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Biodiesel production is generally catalyzed by potassium methylate or sodium methylate catalysts based on KOH and NaOH and these catalysts are still imported. The search for a cheap and effective catalyst continues to be carried out by researchers. One of the catalyst support materials currently in use involves impregnating K2CO3 with various substances, resulting in a heterogeneous catalyst. In this study, it was tried to use K2CO3 dissolved in methanol to produce a homogeneous potassium methylate catalyst. Potassium methylate-based homogeneous catalyst K2CO3-methanol is proven to have a very high function in the transesterification reaction of Refined Bleached Deodorized Palm Oil (RBDPO) into biodiesel, this is evidenced by the use of a catalyst percentage of 2% w and 30% w methanol to the weight of RBDPO resulting in an acid content in biodiesel of only 0.12% and a total glycerol of 0.124% in reaction time 3 hours, with the purity of the methyl ester in biodiesel reaching 98.80%. Meanwhile, for the calculation of homogeneous reaction kinetics, a reaction rate equation is produced where the order of the RBDPO transesterification reaction is order 2 (two) and the reaction rate constant is 0.0044.