M.I.P.I. Vol.15, No 3, December 2021 - (161-167) E-ISSN 2541-1233 161 THE SYNTHESIS OF COCONUT METHYL ESTER USING ORGANIC CATALYTIC AGENTS Muhammad Ihsan Sofyan 1 , Muhammad Ma’ruf 1 , Mas Ayu Elita Hafizah 2 , Azwar Manaf 2 1 National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Indonesia 2 Postgraduate Program of Materials Science Study, Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, University of Indonesia, Jakarta-Indonesia E-mail: muhammad.ihsan.sofyan@gmail.com ABSTRACT Biodiesel is one of the biomass materials or renewable energy, which is needed today to replace fuel from fossil energy, which can reduce global warming and has a high renewability cycle. Biodiesel is derived from plants, therefore it is also called biofuel. One type of biodiesel group is coconut methyl ester (CME), which is biodiesel obtained from coconut oil as a raw material. In this study, a synthesis of used coconut oil and methanol has been carried out with an organic catalyst based on coconut coir called the ASK catalyst. The results of transesterification have provided some important information, including: the yield is 15-19.5% after usage of the ASK catalyst consisting of amorphous phase and crystalline phase ClK0.8Na0.2, with the density and viscosity of products are 0.788-0.802 g/ml and 0.6-1 mm 2 /s. These results allow it to provide a distinctive advantage in its application. Keywords: CME; FAME; biomass; transesterification; organic catalyst Received: 2021-10-11; Revised: 2021-11-16; Accepted: 2021-11-16 INTRODUCTION According to data from the Directorate General of New Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, it is estimated that there will be a gap in demand for and supply of crude palm oil (CPO) in 2030. For biodiesel, where the demand is estimated to be about 17 million tonnes, whereas the stock or availability is only about 15 million tonnes [1]. To anticipate this, it is possible to develop a diversification to respond to this enormous demand. Biodiesel is one of variables in the government's renewable energy program, whose total energy consumption from all variable value is targeted to increase from 9% MTOE in 2019, to 23% MTOE in 2025 [1]. Coconut as one of edible oils feedstock for biodiesel which had become a potential ogled after palm, both in terms of availability [2] and from a technical point of view because of its physical-chemical properties [3], and its application which tend to be superior to another feedstock [4]. Meanwhile, from an economic standpoint, the use of coconut oil as a raw material in production costs is less competitive because of the price of raw materials. In view of this situation, cooking oil as a raw material can be taken into account in the production of biodiesel, where numerous studies have been shown successfully [5], [6]. Additionally, all parts of the coconut also have many benefits, such as skin or shell. The use of coconut as a catalytic agent for biodiesel has been carried out by several researchers [7], [8], which provided information that the yield produced is around 90%. Therefore, it is possible to use it on a commercial scale with used coconut cooking oil to support the 3R (reuse, reduction, recycling) program campaign necessary for environmental sustainability. METHODS The research flow chart which becomes the reference for this research activity is shown in Figure 1. The rectangular symbol represents an activity or process, while the diamond symbol represents a process with a number of conditions for which a decision is required.