Abstract:
Palm oil is an alternative energy source that is considered for the production of renewable fuel. However, the direct use of palm oil can causes durability problems in the engine because its high viscosity. Microemulsification is one of the alternative methods that can be used to reduce palm oil viscosity. Microemulsions involes mixing two immiscible liquid, non-polar oil phase and polar alcohol phase, with surfactants and co-surfactants is stabilizers. Microemulsion-based biofuel is a Winsor Type II (water in oil). The objective of this research is to study the effect of 3 types ester surfactants (methyl oleate, methyl ester and ethyl ester) on the microemulsion phase behavior, kinematic viscosity and fuel properties. Both methyl ester and ethyl ester were prepared from palm oil through transesterification the mixture using sodium hydroxide based catalyst. The result showed that methyl oleate and methyl ester is surfactant from single phase. The kinematic viscosity density, pour point and heat of combustion of microemulsion biofuels were in line with biodiesel. From our cost prediction for the production of microemulsion biofuels we found that using methyl ester in this procedure cause the lowest cost. In summary, the production of biofuels by microemulsion can use methyl esther instead of methyl oleate