Scale Up and Process Optimization of 20 kg Palm Sucrose Ester Production

Indonesia is the world's largest producer of CPO, with a production volume of 48 million tons. The abundance of CPO production allows for the diversification of palm oil derivative products, including the development of sucrose ester surfactants. Sucrose ester is an ionic oleochemical surfactant with a high affinity for water. This study aims to determine the efficiency of scaling up sucrose ester production using methyl palmitate and stearate as raw materials, with different turbine and anchor mixers, in a batch stirred tank reactor made of stainless steel 304. Sucrose ester production employs a molar ratio of sucrose to methyl ester of 1:3, with a potassium carbonate catalyst concentration of 6% w/v. The optimization temperature was set at 60 °C and maintained for 30 minutes, then gradually increased to 100 °C over 90 minutes. The turbine stirrer produced better mixing homogeneity than the anchor stirrer, with palmitate sucrose ester yielding the best results, achieving an HLB value of 15–16, a yield of 84%, and surface tension and interfacial tension values of 22.62 dyne/cm and 2.16 dyne/cm, respectively. The sucrose ester produced aligns with the sucrose esters available on the market and can be commercialized as a surfactant in cosmetic products.