CRACKING OPTIMIZATION OF PALMITIC ACID USING Fe³⁺ MODIFIED NATURAL MORDENITE FOR PRODUCING AVIATION FUEL COMPOUNDS

Natural mordenite from Turen village Malang district Indonesia has been modified to Fe³⁺-mordenite for heterogenous catalyst in cracking process of palmitic acid to produce Aviation fuel components. Cation exchange method has been used in mordenite modification using FeCl₃. The Fe³⁺-mordenite was characterized by structure analysis, Fe content, Si/Al ratio, number of acid sites, pore size, pore volume, and surface area. The catalytic per-formances, conversion, and selectivity were measured at 583 K by GC-MS for 1, 2, and 3 hours. The high content of Fe in mordenite has larger Brønsted-Lewis’s acid site, pore volume and surface area than the natural mordenite. The crystal structure of Fe³⁺-mordenite is still the same with natural mordenite. The Fe³⁺-mordenite also has a smaller pore size than the natural mordenite. In cracking process of palmitic acid, Fe³⁺-mordenite performed 61.94 % of conversion and 92.90 %, which produced aviation fuel compounds, namely alkanes, alkene, cycloalkane and aromatic.