Relations Between Parameters in SNI Biodiesel : Total Glycerol, Ester Content, Viscosity and Temperature Distillation on Biodiesel from Palm Oil and Jatropha M. D. Solikhah, K. Amri, O. Fariza, I. Paryanto Center for Design Engineering and Technology Systems-BPPT Gedung 480 Kawasan PUSPIPTEK, Serpong, Tangerang, Indonesia Telp (021) 7563213/7563217 Fax (021) 7563273 E-mail: ranids@webmail.bppt.go.id , ranids@yahoo.com Abstract Biodiesel or methyl ester is a product resulting from the transesterification of vegetable oils (mono-, di-, tri-glyceride) with methanol. In terms of quality biodiesel namely SNI 04-7182-2006 Indonesia, there are 18 parameters that become the standard quality test. Testing all of these parameters requires a long time and the cost is quite expensive, hence creating a barrier for small- to medium-scale industry. Among the 18 parameters, there are parameters of the total glycerol content, alkyl ester content, viscosity, and temperature of distillation. Total glycerol is the amount of glycerol in the form of mono-, di-, and tri-glyceride (glycerol bound) and glycerol (free glycerol) contained in biodiesel. The level of an alkyl ester is methyl ester purity of its impurities that can be either a total glycerol, free glycerol, water and dirt. Viscosity is one of the parameters to test the feasibility of the fuel into fuel for diesel engines. Transesterification of vegetable oils will lower viscosity of about 40 cSt to a range of 2.3 - 6 cSt. These characteristics are associated with oil content remaining in the biodiesel. 90% distillation temperature is a method to measure the temperature at the time of the sample distillated 90% by weight. The higher boiling point of fractions is such as triglycerides, the higher 90% distillation temperature is. Several parameters are related to the amount of triglycerides remaining in the biodiesel. Therefore, this paper aims to study the relationship between the parameters of the total glycerol content, alkyl ester content, viscosity, 90% distillation temperature on biodiesel from palm oil and jatropha. Eventually one of the main parameters was obtained namely total glycerol that could represent the fourth as a means of rapid testing / quick tests that are necessary for small- to medium-scale biodiesel industry. Keywords: SNI, Biodiesel, total glycerol, quick test 1. FOREWORD Geographical condition of Indonesia as an archipelago country currently makes some difficulty in the fuel distribution. Therefore, small- to-medium scale biodiesel plants, usually operated in batch process, become interesting solution to overcome distribution problem because they use raw material available in the biodiesel plant location. The challenge for small to medium scale biodiesel plant is how to do quality control with an accurate, but low cost. As it is known that the cost to do biodiesel analyses required by SNI 04-7182-2006 reaches IDR 8,000,000 per sample (Lemigas, 2010). Sampling for quality control purposes has to be carried out for every batch, causing analysis cost per liter biodiesel higher for smaller volume of batch production. This will be disadvantageous for small-medium scale industry. The other problem is the time needed to carry out biodiesel test according SNI 04-7182-2006 is more than 7 days. The analysist time is too long especially for quality verification in the biodiesel product handling in the bulk storage. The time to determine whether the product is met the standard and ready for shipment is expected at maximum of 4 hours. Thus, it is needed to develop a method of quality test which can represent all standard parameters, but still maintain quality of biodiesel produced so that it is safe for users. This paper will only discuss the correlation between some parameters related to SNI 04-7182- 2006 that explain the success rate of biodiesel production process, including total glycerol, ester content, viscosity and 90% distillation temperature. This correlation would be an alternative for biodiesel manufacturer in small-medium scale on a quick test to observe one parameter instead of total glycerol, ester content, viscosity or 90% distillation temperature.