Separation and purification of triglyceride from nyamplung (Calophyllum inophyllum) seed oil as biodiesel feedstock by using continuous countercurrent extraction

Calophyllum inophyllum or commonly called nyamplung in Indonesia has the potential to be used as a biodiesel feedstock due to its high oil content. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of feed flowrate and solvent to oil mass ratio on triglycerides (TAG) and free fatty acid (FFA) contents in non-polar lipid fraction (NPLF) of C. inophyllum seed oil by using continuous counter-current extraction. The contents of TAG and FFA in NPLF of C. inophyllum seed oil each sample points in continuous countercurrent extraction equipment. It was expected that the TAG became purer and suitable for biodiesel purpose. Various factors applied in this study were the effect of solvent to oil mass ratio and the effect of n-hexane + oil to methanol feed flowrate in liter per hour. Crude C. inophyllum seed oil contained 63.91% TAG, 15.76% FFA, 12.25% monoglycerides (MAG), dan 4.66% diglycerides (DAG). Separation and purification of TAG were carried out by using a packed column with the principle of countercurrent flow using n-hexane and methanol technical grade as solvents. The product of extraction analyzed TAG content qualitatively by using TLC and quantitatively using HT-GC, while NPLF from each sample points were analyzed using HT-GC. The optimum results were obtained by using a solvent to oil mass ratio of 6 (w:w) and (n-hexane + oil) to methanol feed flowrate of 6:15 (L/h:L/h) with 92.85% content of TAG, 2.19% content of FFA and 74.79% yield of NPLF.