Ir. Renita Manurung, MT , Rakhmat Akbar Sinaga , Rahmad Taufik Simatupang
Methyl esters have been widely used as the intermediate componds for a number of derivative products in oleochemical indutries, such as fatty alcohol, alkanolamide, monostearat glycerol and surfactant. The purpose of this research is to study the kinetics of amidation from methyl ester and diethanolamine by using sulfuric acid catalyst. The amidation, that is the reaction between methyl ester and diethanolamine was held in a glass batch reactor for 8 hours with mole ratio 1:1 using acid catalyst (H2SO4) 0,5 % (w/w) and 200 rpm stirring. The reaction temperature was varied from 120 to 160 0C, and sampling was performed every 30 minutes. The analysis includes Gas Chromatograpy-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) to determine the moleculer weight of methyl ester, analysis of ester value to know the number of amide that was formed, and Fourier Transfer Infra-Red (FT-IR) to know the structure of amide. The best result of the synthesis was obtained at temperature reaction of 160 0C (amide conversion of 98,36%). From the result of reaction was obtained that (-rA) = 0,02322� CA 0,1858 mol.dm-3.min-1 , k = 0,4069e(-2464,87/R)x1/Tand the activation energy was 2464,87 cal/mol.