Calcium soap from palm fatty acid distillate for ruminant feed: Calcium oxide particles size

High production of crude palm oil has led Indonesia to become one of the countries that have a large number of palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD) in the world. As a source of fatty acid, PFAD has wide range of uses, including as a fat supplement in the ruminant feed when reacted with a calcium source such as calcium oxide (CaO). At the working temperature above PFAD's melting point, those reactants form a homogeneous phase with the help of intensive stirring. By the presence of a small amount of water, the mixture will be saponified and become the calcium soap. This research studied how different particles sizes of CaO could influence the reaction conversions based on the acid value of the product. The CaO solid particles were sieved and separated into the different fraction of sizes (<177 mu m, 177-320 mu m, and 320-640 mu m). Smaller particle resulted in a lower acid value which indicates a high conversion of free fatty acid and lower moisture content which is preferable for the product.