Partial hydrogenation of calophyllum inophyllum methyl esters to increase the oxidation stability

Calophyllum inophyllum methyl esters have a low oxidation stability value (5-6 h) caused by high amounts of polyunsaturated fatty acid methyl esters (fame),especially methyl linoleate. partial hydrogenation was done to reduce the number of polyunsaturated fame to transform them into mono-unsaturated. this was performed at 6 bar and 900 rpm with pd/al2o3 solid catalyst in a reactor with a capacity of 1 liter. the research purpose was to learn the effects of reaction temperature (80; 100; 120°c) and time (1; 1.5; 2 h) on the fame composition. the optimum condition of the experiment was obtained at 120°c for 1 h,with 15.47 h as the oxidation stability value,17.8°c as the cloud point value,and 51.17 as the cetane number. under this condition,the methyl linoleate content decreased by 59.89% w/w (from 21.869% to 8,770% w/w) and methyl linoleate hydrogenated into methyl elaidate. meanwhile,the methyl linolenate content decreased by 85,37% w/w (from 0.205% to 0.030% w/w) and methyl linolenate hydrogenated into methyl linolelaidate. these results show that the research met the following standards: a minimum oxidation stability value of 10 h in accordance with the world wide fuel charter (wwfc) 2009,a maximum cloud point value of 18°c and a minimum cetane number 51 in accordance with sni 7182-2012. the physical properties values of the calophyllum inophyllum methyl esters were predicted using the empirical equations. © 2015 published by itb journal publisher.