After developing ADA-KAMI (Rice-Husk Dust Adsorbent) as product of ethanol fuel, now three students of Undip’s Chemical Engineering successfully made MER-C (Membrane Separation & Catalyst) from waste marble flour for producing biodiesel or alternative environmental-friendly diesel fuel. The three students are Misbahudin Alhanif, Ari Purnomo and Ummi Az Zuhra in mentoring by Prof. Dr. Andri Cahyo Kumoro, S.T., M.T.
Chairperson of PKM Mer-C team, Misbahudin Alhanif, said that the increasing need of diesel fuel has effected to more imports of the fuel. On the other hand, alternative fuels have been using in limited numbers as production process of biodiesel did not apply a simple way and consumed high-energy. Therefore, the price of biodiesel is twice as much fossil fuel.
“Considering the production process, energy consumption, and higher price of old biodiesel, so we develop a simple way of biodiesel producing and refining by using waste cooking oil and membrane of waste marble flour. The membrane is from a thin layer of usual material for water refining,” he said.
It is different from prior research, as the biodiesel producing by using membrane of waste marble flour can continously and simultaneously do. It will increase number of produced biodiesel, and then the producer will obtain biodiesel in cheap price. Beside that, the production process by using membrane technology is very simple, by heating combination of waste cooking oil and methanol as well as by filtering during the process. Actually, each people can produce this biodiesel by self, by heating waste cooking oil and methanol as well as using membrane Mer-C.
“In this research, waste marble flour are took from Tulungagung marble craftsmen. The high-CaO content (60%) of waste marble dust are big potentials for being alkaline catalyst in membrane making process. In spite of that, raw material of this biodiesel is waste cooking oil, which have been difficult to handle,” he said.
“We hope this new innovation, that has obtained research grant funds of 2018 Student Creativity Program of Ministry of Research, Technology, and Higher Education, can solve production problems of biodiesel as an environmental friendly alternative of diesel fuel and people can produce it by self in simple way, low-energy consumed, and competitive price compared to fossil fuel, as well as this innovation utilized waste marble flour and waste cooking oil that was something people rarely made use of,” he said.
For further information: (Misbahudin Alhanif/082282982551)