The Effect of the Number of Stirrer Blades in the Transesterification Reactor on the Characteristics of Biodiesel and Diesel Engine Performance

Biodiesel is one of the alternative fuels that can be used in diesel engines instead of diesel oil. Transesterification is used to create biodiesel from cooking oil. The stirring procedure in the reactor is one of the elements influencing the transesterification process. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of the number of stirrers in the transesterification reactor on biodiesel and diesel engine performance. This study was carried out by converting cooking oil into biodiesel via a transesterification process. Stirrers with one pair, two pairs, and three pairs of stirrer blades are employed in the stirring process in the transesterification reactor. The resulting biodiesel was tested for its properties before being used in a diesel engine to determine the performance of a diesel engine using transesterified biodiesel fuel. The resulting biodiesel is utilized as a diesel oil substitute at a ratio of 20% biodiesel to 80% diesel oil (B20). To determine diesel engine performance, the fuel mixture was tested on a diesel engine. The results demonstrated that the produced biodiesel met the Indonesian National Standard (SNI). Diesel engine performance demonstrates that there is no substantial change in the performance of diesel engines using Pertamina (Indonesian State Oil and Gas Mining) diesel fuel.