Kapok is a very versatile material. From stuffing to Kapok Seed Oil (KSO), there are tons of potential its hold. Along with the great news of spreading kapok distributors, some Indonesian studies find out that the KSO is potential future biodiesel. But does it? How could the non-edible oil have processed and turned into biodiesel? Here is the explanation.
The Concern About Fuel
Let’s talk about the world’s concern about fuel. The transportation sector is the main culprit of the fast depletion of fossil fuels. That is why you will find an increase in fuel price. Along with it, the use of factory-made products also worsening global gas emission and pollution. Thus, the only factor to solve the problem is by finding a new biofuel.
Vegetable oil and plant-based oil has major potential as feedstock and biodiesel. It also comes with advantages of large scale production and high environmentally friendly aspect. But worth noting, that the vegetable soil is also divided into two forms. The edible and the non-edible oil. Surprisingly, the non-edible product provides a higher chance of being natural fuel.
However, there is a big underline you should know. That is the renewable energy source can only be made by fusing some vegetable oil and some sort of chain alcohols. So, to make the KSO biofuel, people should add some kind of chemicals. Such as ethanol, methanol, butanol, that also supported by a catalyst. This process is called transesterification.
The Preparation
Based on some studies, the kapok distributor will provide the pretreatment stage that is the degumming process. They will do the extraction, and degumming process. After that, the crude oil will have a purification process before carrying out the esterification method. The esterification process will blend the kapok oil and methanol in a molar ratio of 1:6.
It is believed that the proportion will help the purification and the separation of water and oil content. Thus the initial Fatty acid methyl ester and the gas Chromatography will happen. Along with it, there is also the step where the distilled water is included inside the ratio. It also has to do transesterification using methanol as the chain alcohols.
Can You Use Kapok Seed Oil As Biodiesel Fuel?
After the long research and experiment, the result is very much success. The KSO shows a high value of free fatty acids (FFA). The esterification process successfully reduces the high 1,807 (FFA) and make it 1%. Thus, it triggers the catalyst composition and any other chain reactions. During the feeding of the methanol and KSO, it is concluded as potential fuel.
It is possible to use the KSO as the feeding for the biodiesel fuel. The transesterification of KSO with methanol gives many reactions. The yield of the energy can increase by adding CaO to the catalyst mixture. And then, the temperature will also affect the yield, which is then known as the big potential of natural biodiesel.
While the hype of synthetic products is starting to raise in these modern days, it is also followed by high gas emission problem. Another following issue is the demand for fossil fuel for transportation, that makes the fuel condition getting worse. That is why the utilization of KSO as biodiesel fuel is essential. You can check kapok seed oil prices and other products at kapokfibersuppliers.com.