<![CDATA[Kinetika esterifikasi asam lemak bebas dari sludge CPO telah dilakukan dengan pereaksi etanol dan menggunakan katalis komposit montmorillonite/karbon tersulfonasi dari tetes tebu. Esterifikasi dilakukan dengan memvariasikan temperatur (60, 70, dan 80 oC) dan rasio mol antara etanol dan asam lemak bebas (10, 13, 16, 19, dan 22). Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa semakin tinggi temperatur, akan meningkatkan laju reaksi esterifikasi, konstanta laju reaksi dan konstanta kesetimbangan reaksi esterifikasi asam lemak bebas. Hal ini menunjukan bahwa reaksi esterifikasi merupakan reaksi endoterm. Sementara itu, semakin besar rasio mol antara etanol dan asam lemak bebas, akan menurunkan laju reaksi. Konstanta Arrhenius dari reaksi esterifikasi tersebut adalah sebesar 2,7183 dan energi aktivasi sebesar 17,9366 kJ/mol. Hasil uji validasi persamaan model kinetika menggunakan nilai R2 dan slope dari grafik perbandingan antara nilai x hasil eksperimen dan x hitung model kinetika. Nilai R2 dan slope dari grafik mendekati angka 1 yang menunjukkan bahwa model persamaan yang digunakan dapat diterima dan layak untuk menghitung kinetika esterifikasi asam lemak bebas.Kinetics of Esterification of Free Fatty Acids from Crude Palm Oil (CPO) Industrial Sludge Using a Montmorillonite/Sulfonated Carbon Composite Catalyst from Molasses. Kinetics of esterification of free fatty acids from crude palm oil sludge esterification has been carried out with reagent ethanol and using the composite catalyst of montmorillonite/ sulfonated carbon from molasses. Esterification was done by varying the temperature (60, 70, and 80 °C) and the mole ratio between ethanol and free fatty acids (10, 13, 16, 19, and 22). The results showed that the higher temperature would increase the rate of esterification reaction, the reaction rate constants, and the equilibrium constants esterification of free fatty acids. These findings show that the esterification reaction is an endothermic reaction. Meanwhile, the larger mole ratio between ethanol and free fatty acids would decrease the reaction rate. Arrhenius’s constant value of the esterification reaction is 2.7183 and the activation energy is 17.9366 kJ/mol. The results of the validation test of the kinetic model equation using the value of R2 and the slope of the comparison graph between the x value of the experimental results and the calculated x of the kinetic model. The value of R2 and the slope of the graph is close to 1 which indicates that the equation model used is acceptable and feasible to calculate the kinetics of free fatty acid esterification. ]]>
