The Production of Surfactant Anionic Methyl Ester Sulfonate (MES) from Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) with Ultrasound-Assisted

Virgine coconut oil (VCO) is a vegetable oil that has many ingredients that can be used, one of the highest ingredients is lauric acid about 41-51%. It can be used to synthesis of surfactants, which is the surfactant anionic methyl ester sulfonate (MES). However, time of transesterification and sulfonation needed is very long in the conventional process. Because of that, some researchers have proved that ultrasound-assisted can accelerate and increase the yield because ultrasound can directly cavitation that help the rupture mechanism of matrix cells. In the sulfonation process, methyl ester is reacted with sodium bisulfite (NaHSO3) with several predetermined variables. After being reacted, the mixture of methyl ester and NaHSO3 used a separating funnel and then purified using 50% of methanol, then evaporated and neutralized using 20% of NaOH. The measured quantities include yield, density, viscosity, surface tension, FT-IR analysis and Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. In transesterification, the optimum conditions were obtained in 1:6 of mole ratio in 3 minutes, the yield of 90%. In sulfonation, the optimum conditions were obtained in temperature at 65 C in 30 minutes. With the resulting viscosity of 4,04 cSt, the yield is 98%, and the surface tension is 32,028 dyne/cm.