Crystallization of potassium chloride from its solution containing sodium chloride with alcohol addition.

Aligning with the government's target to increase the renewable energy mix to 31% by 2050, the usage of biomass waste in Indonesia has increased as an alternative to fossil fuels through combustion and has been considered to be carbon neutral. Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) is a solid waste produced by the palm oil industry. The ash extract from the combustion of EFB contains a high amount of alkali metals including potassium, a crucial element to produce fertilizer. Indonesia is still a net importer of fertilizer, therefore the utilization of extracted potassium from the ash would be beneficial to reduce the import quantity of fertilizer. However, potassium is commonly present as a mixture with sodium salts that have the same solubility range in water at room temperature. Some organic compounds, specifically alcohols, can decrease the solubility of many kinds of salts. This research is therefore focused on understanding the effect of alcohol added to the potassium recovery, in the form of KCl, from its solution containing NaCl through crystallization with alcohol addition whilst obtaining the solubility of the salts in alcohol concentration and temperature variations. The largest reduction of KCl solubility was obtained by the addition of propanol up to 50%-wt. of solvent, resulting in an 88.01% decrease. To identify the recovered crystal, the experiment used Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) instrument. The highest purity and yield of KCl were obtained through the addition of propanol up to 50%-wt. of solvent, which was 88.85% and 52.65%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]