Study of the interesterification process of palm oil into methyl esters with biocatalysts of aromatic compounds

The interesterification reaction of palm oil and methyl acetate to produce methyl ester and triacetin was conducted with biocatalysts of aromatic compounds, namely eugenol and cajuput oil. Aromatic compounds are the most efficient catalysts in the manufacturing process of biodiesel, leading to improved quality. Therefore, this study aimed to obtain a more effective and efficient biodiesel production process, with fewer procedural steps, in order to reduce production costs. The operating conditions of the study included 250 g of palm oil mass, a molar ratio of palm oil to methyl acetate at 1:6, a reaction temperature of 60oC, 300 rpm stirring speed, the catalyst mass of 0.75% palm oil mass, as well as reaction time of 15, 30, 45, 60, and 75 minutes. The molecular behaviour and parameters were the bond distance between atoms before and after the addition of the biocatalyst, potential energy, kinetic energy, and dipole moment, determined by the simulation using ChemDraw software.