Faculty of Engineering – After previously successfully developing ADA-KAMI (Rice Husk Ash Adsorbent) as a solution for ethanol fuel production. Now, three students of the Department of Chemical Engineering Diponegoro University have successfully developed MER-C (Membrane Separation & Catalyst) derived from marble powder waste for the production of biodiesel as an environmentally friendly diesel fuel substitute.
The three students are Misbahudin Alhanif, Ari Purnomo and Ummi Az Zuhra with supervisors Prof. Dr. Andri Cahyo Kumoro, S.T., M.T.
The head of the Mer-C PKM team, Misbahudin Alhanif, said that the increasing need for diesel fuel has led to the high number of diesel imports. On the other hand, alternative fuel to diesel, namely biodiesel, is still limited in use. This is because the production of biodiesel is not a simple process, requiring high energy consumption. This causes the price of biodiesel to be twice as expensive as diesel.
“Based on the consideration of the production process, energy consumption and the high selling price of biodiesel, a simple method of making and purifying biodiesel is developed by utilising waste cooking oil as raw material using a membrane derived from marble powder waste. Membrane is a thin layer that is usually used in water purification,” he said.
Different from previous research, biodiesel production using marble powder waste membrane can be done continuously and simultaneously. This will increase the amount of biodiesel that can be produced to obtain biodiesel at a low price. In addition, the process of making biodiesel using membrane technology is very simple, namely by heating a mixture of used cooking oil and methanol with filtering during the process until biodiesel is obtained. So, people can actually produce biodiesel at home by heating used cooking oil and alcohol (methanol) using this Mer-C membrane.
“In this research, marble powder waste from the Tulungagung Regency marble craftsmen industry was used. The high CaO content (60%) of marble powder waste is a great potential to be used as a base catalyst in membrane manufacturing. In addition, the raw material for making biodiesel also comes from used cooking oil, which has been a waste that is difficult to handle,” he added.
“We hope that this new innovation, which has successfully received a research grant from Kemenristekdikti’s Student Creativity Programme for Research in 2018, can answer the problem of biodiesel production as an environmentally friendly diesel replacement fuel so that biodiesel can be produced with a simple method, low energy consumption and has a selling price that can compete with fossil fuels, as well as further utilising marble powder waste and used cooking oil which are still underutilised,” he concluded.