Perkembangan Proses Produksi Biodiesel Sebagai Bahan Bakar Alternatif

Biodiesel has become more attractive recently because of its environmental benefits and the fact that it is made from renewable resources. Biodiesel can replace diesel oil without requiring modifications to the engine and advantageously produces cleaner emissions. Productions of biodiesel by various process methods, i.e. homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalysts, have advantages and disadvantages. Advanced methods, such as supercritical, microwave, and ultrasonic, still leave the problem despite the high yield of biodiesel produced. Utilizing of fixed bed catalytic reactor in a continuous process can produce biodiesel with a yield of higher than 90%. The newly developed plasma technology can produce biodiesel in a very short time (120 s) with mild operating conditions. This paper reviews briefly the literatures on transesterification reaction using homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalysts as well as advanced methods (supercritical, microwave, ultrasonic, and plasma technology)