Utilization of a cost effective Lapindo mud catalyst derived
from eruption waste for transesterification of waste oils
a b s t r a c t
The most remarkable property of heterogeneous-catalyzed transesterification is its recyclability which
surpass the issue by homogenous catalyst. Lapindo mud (LM), an eruption waste from Indonesia, was
treated into an active catalyst for transesterification. LM is reasonably tolerant to FFA, as no visible soap
layer was observed during transesterification of high acid value WCO (20.723 mgKOH/g) and POME
(120.48 mgKOH/g) with FAME yield of 96.6% and 91.69%, respectively. The reaction conditions obtained
for both reaction are mild and comparable to currently reported conditions except LM effectively accelerated
the transesterification process of WCO. Reusability test showed that LM exhibited a stable performance
with less than 10% declined in FAME after the seventh run with 95% catalyst recovery. Kinetic
analysis showed that both WCO and POME transesterification fitted well with Langmuir–Hishelwood first
order reaction. The activation energy for WCO and POME transesterification were 55.7 and 59.75 kJ/mol.
This findings shows the possibility of LM as a catalyst in general heterogeneous reaction and particularly
for transesterification to produce FAME.
