| dc.description.abstract | Methyl Ester Sulphonic Acid (MESA) is a chemical compound that has ability as a surface active agent (surfactant). Surfactant can decrease the surface tension and interfacial tension, so it has been used as adhesives, agent for puffing, wetting, and forming the emulsion. It also has been applied in various fields such as food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, agriculture, paint, paper, and mining (as oil well stimulation agent in enhanced oil recovery process). MESA is synthesized through sulfonation of methyl ester. Methyl ester is obtained by esterification-transesterification of triglycerides (oil). If the next process like bleaching and neutralization have been done, the MESA will be converted to MES (Methyl Ester Sulphonate) that known as commercial product. MES has a good detergency (even if it is used in hard water) and good tolerance to the presence of calcium. MES is derived from renewable raw materials that based on oil /fat. One source of oil that can be used is palm oil. This research used Crude Palm Oil (CPO). This raw material is potential to be developed as surfactant because of its supply availability and the suitability of its fatty acid composition. Based on the Foreign Agricultural Service (2009), Indonesia's CPO production increased from 9.1 million tons (year 2002) to 17.82 tons (2008). In the next year, it even reached 20.2 million tons (Department of Industry, 2009). Beside that, based on the fatty acid composition, CPO methyl esters consisted of 46% palmitic acid as C16 carbon chain source and also 3.6% stearic acid, 39% oleic acid, 11% linoleic acid, and 1.5% linolenic acid as C18 carbon chain source (Ketaren, 2005). According to Watkins (2001), MES C16 showed the best detergency, then followed by C18 and C14. Therefore, the MES from vegetable oils containing C16-18 carbon atoms is used for detergent powder and liquid detergents (heavy duty detergent). The main process of MES synthesis was the sulfonation to produce MESA, an addition of sulfonation reactant to make sulfonate group on the methyl ester’s hydrocarbon chain. Sulfonation reactant could be H2SO4, NH2SO3H, H2SO4.nH2O, or which was used in this research, SO3/dry air. SO3/dry air is highly reactive, suitable for continuous production, and can form a sulfonate group optimally. The sulfonation in this research used a Single Tube Falling Film Reactor (STFR) 6 meters in length and 4 liters organic material feed capacity. The temperature of reaction was 100oC with mole ratio of reactants 1:1,3 between methyl ester and SO3. The purpose of this research was to determine the sulfonation period that can produce MESA CPO with the stable performance and characteristics. This research was conducted by complete randomized experimental design with a single factor. The factor studied was sampling period, from 10 minutes up to 100 minutes sulfonation with sampling interval 10 minutes. The synthesized MESA had density value 0.9416-0.9915 gram/cm3, viscosity value 30-102.5 cP, pH 2.98-3.33, and 13.97-21.05% active ingredients. | en |
