Isolation of Methyl Laurate from Coconut Oil as Raw Material for Fatty Alcohol Sulfate

• Main Authors: Rita Arbianti, Tania Surya Utami, Astri Nugroho
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universitas Indonesia 2010-10-01
• Series: Makara Journal of Technology
• Subjects: methyl laurate, coconut oil, fatty alcohol sulfate, transesterification
• Online Access: http://journal.ui.ac.id/technology/journal/article/view/144

<p>Methyl laurate is a raw&nbsp;or base material for many industries, including surfactant industries. In this research, coconut oil (VCO) is&nbsp;transesterified with methanol to produce methyl ester, using NaOH as the catalyst. Methyl laurate is then separated by&nbsp;method based on the difference in melting point. This research focuses at determining the effects of some variables in&nbsp;transesterification on the concentration of produced methyl laurate. The variables are temperature (40 oC, 50 oC, 60 oC,&nbsp;80 oC), time of transesterification reaction (0,5 hour, 1 hour, 1,5 hours, 2 hours, 3 hours), and the percent weight of the&nbsp;catalyst NaOH (0,5 %, 1 %, 1,5 %, 2 %, 3 %). Research showed the concentration of methyl laurate increased,&nbsp;following the increased temperature, time, and percent weight of catalysts. Optimal conditions were acquired at reaction&nbsp;temperature of 60oC, reaction time of 2 hours, and percent weight of the catalyst NaOH of 2 %. Laurate acid conversion<br>to methyl laurate that yielded from optimal conditions, after the separation based on melting point, was 55,61 %.</p>