Analisis kinerja dan efisiensi energi prototipe alat penyulingan untuk industri kecil minyak nilam

Abstract

Patchouli oil is high value essential oil of Indonesia that is produced by the steam distillation process from patchouli plants (Pogostemon cablin benth). As an export commodity, patchouli oil is quite substantial to fulfill the world demand in perfumery, cosmetic and pharmacy industries. Patchouli oil has always been possessed an increasing world market in spite of facing hard competition and nontariff barrier in the world trade. Therefore it needs to increase continuously the productivity and efficiency of essential-oil agroindustries. Distillation process for patchouli oil in small scale in general still represent simple technology process with equipments which are made from corrosive material. The most common method of essential oil production is water and steam distillation and conducted only based on experience so that the efficiency is usually low. Therefore this research evaluate aimed to the efficiency both kohobasi system and non kohobasi system. The objective of this research were to study and examine the performance of distillation equipment, analyze energy efficiency of distillation system prototype and analyze the quality of patchouli oil. The distillation method of 37,5 kg of patchouli plants was water and steam distillation with kohobasi system and non kohobasi system for 8 hours period. The distillation equipment to produced patchouli oil were retort with furnace, condenser and separator. This research used biomass energy such as fire woods as fuel. Furnace performance analysis based on several parameters which were surface area of heat transfer, woods burning process and the usage of fuels. The wide surface of heat transfer on retort is 1,70 m2. Distillation process with kohobasi system used dry fire woods of 143,32 kg and non kohobasi system used 138,2 kg of dry firewoods. The energy from firewoods used for boiling dan vaporize water in retort. According to the result, in kohobasi system the energy is needed to boiling and vaporize the water into steam is 644,51 MJ and the energy from firewoods is 2.579,85 MJ. The retort efficiency at that condition is 25 %. In non kohobasi system the energy is needed to boiling and vaporize the water into steam is 572,24 MJ and the energy from the fuel is 2487,6 MJ. The retort efficiency at that condition is 22,99 %. Retort performance bases on several parameters like bulk density, distillation rate and steam penetration. Bulk density for kohobasi system was 0,09 kg/l and 0,096 for non kohobasi system. Distillation rate for kohobasi system was 0,74 l/hour and 0,63 for non kohobasi system. Condenser efficiency for kohobasi system is 79 % and 99,26 % for non kohobasi sytem. The difference efficiency between kohobasi sytem and non kohobasi system is influenced by cold water flows. Cold water flows continuously in non kohobasi system result in higher efficiency than in kohobasi system. Average distillate temperature for kohobasi system was 31,56 °C and 30,35 °C for non kohobasi system. The yield of patchouli oil for kohobasi system was 2,29 % (dry basis) and 2,2 % (dry basis) for non kohobai system. The quality of patchouli oil produced by kohobasi system and non kohobasi system is quite comparable, the oil has specific gravity 0,9583 for kohobasi system and 0,9582 for non kohobasi system. Refractive index of the oil for kohobasi system was 1,5075 and for non kohobasi system was 1,5073. Optical rotation for kohobasi system was (-) 64,5 and for non kohobasi system was (-) 62,47. The acid number for kohobasi system was 3,18 and for non kohobasi system was 3,19. Ester value for kohobasi system was 8,75 and for non kohobasi system was 5,55. Solubility in alcohol 90 % 1 : 1 until 1 : 7. The increase of distillation period results the increase of specific gravity, refractive index, optical rotation, acid value and ester value.