Indonesia is one of the largest rubber producers worldwide. However, rubber seeds still garner less attention due to their low economic value. In fact, the rubber seeds contain 40–50% (w/w) of rubber seed oil (RSO), which is a potential candidate to be used as a feedstock in biodiesel production. In this regard, this study aims to model and simulate the production process of biodiesel from RSO via transesterification reaction, employing methanol and heterogeneous catalyst. The simulation was performed using ASPEN Hysys v11. Acid-based catalyzed esterification was implemented to eliminate soap formation, which may significantly lower biodiesel yield. The results showed that an RSO inlet rate of 1100 L/h with a methanol to oil molar ratio of 1:6 could generate around 1146 L/h biodiesel. Methanol recovery was conducted, an approximately 95% of excess methanol could be regenerated. Simulation results indicated that the properties of the biodiesel produced are compatible with modern diesel engines. Economic analysis also shows that this technology is promising, with excellent investment criteria.

Cassava is one of Indonesia’s original commodities and contains good nutrition and has high productivity and a relatively low price. Cassava flour has a high potential as a substitute for imported wheat flour that is widely used in noodle production. The main purpose of this research was to develop wet noodles from cassava flour that can compete with wet noodles from wheat flour. The research consisted of experiments with several variations of composition and production method for producing cassava flour-based wet noodles. The best result was then examined for its nutritional value, economical value, and market response, and also a comparison was made between the prepared wet noodles and the standard noodles made from wheat flour. The analysis was based on five characteristics: taste, texture, chewiness, aroma, and appearance. Relations between these characteristics with composition, materials used, and methods applied are discussed. The developed cassava flour-based wet noodle meets physical, nutritional, and economical standards. Raw materials of the noodle were cassava flour and a wheat flour composite with a 5:1 ratio, egg, gluten, soda-ash, water, and vegetable oil, while the process was completed in multiple stages. Market response showed that the cassava flour-based wet noodles were 80% similar to wheat-flour noodles

Cottonseed oil (CSO) is well known as one of the commercial cooking oils. However, CSO still needs to compete with other edible oils available in the market due to its small production scale and high processing cost, which makes it a potential candidate as a feedstock for biodiesel production. To date, transesterification is the most widely applied technique in the conversion of vegetable oil to biodiesel, with glycerol produced as a by-product. Large-scale biodiesel production also implies that more glycerol will be produced, which can be further utilized to synthesize hydrogen via the steam reforming route. Therefore here, an integrated biodiesel and hydrogen production from CSO was simulated using Aspen Hysys v11. Simulation results showed that the produced biodiesel has good characteristics compared to standard biodiesel. An optimum steam-to-glycerol ratio for hydrogen production was found to be 4.5, with higher reaction temperatures up to 750 °C resulting in higher hydrogen yield and selectivity. In addition, a simple economic analysis of this study showed that the integrated process is economically viable.

Cassava starch was used as the main chain in the copolymerization of a superabsorbent polymer composite (SAPC) based on acrylic acid and bentonite. The SAPC was synthesized through graft polymerization using nano-sized bentonite as reinforcement. The variables in this experiment were: bentonite concentration, acrylic acid to starch weight ratio, concentration of initiator, and cross linker. The product was characterized using FTIR, SEM and TGA-DSC. The results show that the polymerization reactions involved processes of incorporating starch chains as polymer backbone and grafting acrylic acid monomers onto it. The use of cassava starch in the polymerisation produced a very short reaction time (10-15 minutes), which led to SAPC production with higher efficiency and lower cost. Bentonite interacts with monomers via hydrogen and weak bonding, thus improving the thermal properties of the product. The maximum absorbance capacity obtained was at an acrylic acid to starch weight ratio of 5 and a concentration of initiator, cross linker and bentonite of 0.5, 0.05 and 2 weight percent, respectively. The product is suitable for agricultural and medical applications as well as common superabsorbent polymer applications

Synthesis and Characterization of Superabsorbent from Acrylamide Superabsorbent polymer (SAP) is a material that can absorb water in a large amount in a short time. In this research, the polymer has been synthesized from acrylamide monomer (Am) using N,N methylene bisacrylamide (MBA)as a cross-linker and ammonium persulphate (APS) as an initiator. Effects of MBA and APS on the SAP characteristic were studied by varying composition of MBA and APS each of 0.1%-wt, 0.2 %-wt, 0.6 %-wt and 1.0 %-wt. SAP was characterized by measuring its absorption capacity to distilled water. Based on the experiment, the highest absorption capacity for 1 gram SAP is 14.5 gram water. The highest absorption is produced by SAP with APS 0.2 %-wt and MBA 0.6 %-wt. Further studies by using SEM showed that SAP which had high absorption capacity contained a lot of pores with the waving surface. Therefore, the surface contact area between SAP and water is high. Keywords: acrylamide, absorption capacity, superabsorbent polymerAbstrakSuperabsorbent Polymer (SAP) merupakan polimer yang dapat menyerap air dalam jumlah yang sangat banyak. Dalam penelitian ini, polimer tersebut disintesis dari monomer akrilamida menggunakan crosslinker N,N-metilene bisakrilamide (MBA) dan inisiator amonium persulfat (APS). Pengaruh crosslinker dan inisiator terhadap karakteristik SAP dipelajari dengan melakukan variasi komposisi APS dan (MBA) masing-masing sebesar 0,1 %-b, 0,2 %-b, 0,6 %-b, dan 1 %-b. Karakteristik produk SAP dipelajari dengan FTIR untuk menganalisis gugus fungsi yang terbentuk untuk menunjukkan bahwa polimerisasi betul terjadi dan produknya berupa SAP. Pengukuran kemampuan absorpsi SAP terhadap air destilasi menunjukkan bahwa kapasitas absorpsi terbesar yang dihasilkan oleh superabsorbent polymer dari penelitian ini sebesar 14,5 gram air dalam 1 gram produk SAP yang dibuat. Kapasitas terbesar ini dimiliki oleh SAP dengan 0,2 %-b APS dan 0,6 %-b MBA. Studi lebih lanjut dengan SEM menunjukkan bahwa SAP yang memiliki kapasitas absorpsi tertinggi itu mempunyai morfologi permukaan yang berombak dan jumlah pori yang tertinggi sehingga luas permukaan kontak antara SAP dan air juga tertinggi. Kata kunci: akrilamida, kapasitas absorpsi, superabsorbent polymer

The study was based on indonesia and global waste managament issue especially on non-biodegradable waste handling and the circular economy of the method to solve the problem. Non-biodegradable waste is a problem in the world and its management especially for non-recycled waste does not reflect the circular economy principle and not environmentally friendly. This needs a new method that can process this type of waste through an environmentally friendly recovery process. Zero Waste Management/Manajemen Sampah Zero (MASARO) technology presents a solution to this problem by processing non-recycled non-biodegradable waste through a plastic refinery unit in Non-Biodegradable Waste Management Installation/Instalasi Pengolahan Sampah Anorganik (IPSA). The application of the circular economy principle has been carried out in this MASARO plastic refinery where All non-biodegradable waste is processed into other useful products, such as: fuel, planting media, wood preservatives and organic pesticides. There is no non-biodegradable waste ended up in Temporary Waste Site (TPS) and Final Landfill (TPA). Therefore, MASARO plastic refinery is an environmentally friendly solotion for non-biodegradable waste and suitable for sustainable development.