Asian Journal of Chemistry Vol. 22, No. 5 (2010), 3793-3801 Preparation of Aluminium Pillared Clay from Indonesian Montmorillonite and Its Catalytic Activity in Bio-Oil Cracking IS FATIMAH*, ARIF HIDAYAT† and KHOIRUL HIMMI SETIAWAN‡ Chemistry Department, Islamic University of Indonesia, Kampus Terpadu UII, Jl. Kaliurang Km 14, Besi, Yogyakarta, Indonesia Fax: (62)274895920; Tel: (62)274896439 Ext. 3002; E-mail: isfatimah@fmipa.uii.ac.id The preparation of aluminium pillared montmorillonite (Al-PILM) from Indonesian natural montmorillonite and its catalytic activity study in the bio-oil cracking has been investigated. The synthesis of Al-PILM catalyst was conducted through intercalation process of Al13 Keggin ion at the Al ratio of 5 mmol Al/g montmorillonite followed by dehydroxylation processing to get aluminium oxide pillar in montmori- llonite interlayer. Catalyst characterization performed by XRD, surface area analyzer and surface acidity measurement and SEM. Activity test of material as catalyst in bio-oil cracking focused on the effect of Al- PILM utilization to the product distribution and liquid product composi- tion. The result showed that Al-PILM has higher activity to produce lighter fraction of hydrocarbon than montmorillonite. The increase in liquid product and selectivity to produce smaller hydrocarbon compounds attributed to the improvement of catalyst performance after pillarization. Key Words: Montmorillonite, Pillared clays, Cracking, Bio-oil. INTRODUCTION High price of crude oil make some countries faced to the problem of oil crisis. The utilization of biomass as energy source is one of the best alternative solution. Beside of its renewable properties, biomass is still the cheapest fuel source available in Indonesia and it will be the major alternative fuel source in the future. An alter- native of biomass transformation is gasification process. Hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin as major components of biomass chemically can be covert to liquid and gas hydrocarbon by different mechanisms and pathways. Indonesia has good potency for this development due to the vast forestry area. Until 1999, it is reported that just 70 % of log core optimally used in industry, 30 % of these are forestry waste and it is reasonable to investigate and build biofuel based energy project specially from wood residue pyrolysis. As produced, biofuel has some undesirable properties as fuel e.g., some thermally unstable components which can lead to gum formation, low energy density because of dissolved water and highly oxygenated compounds, a corrosive organic acid †Chemical Engineering Department, Islamic University of Indonesia, Kampus Terpadu UII, Jl. Kaliurang Km 14, Besi, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. ‡Research and Development unit for Biomaterials, Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), Cibinong, West Java, Indonesia.