Calcium soap is potentially used as fat supplements for ruminants since it contains high concentration of fat and calcium that are useful for ruminants. The consumption of calcium soap may increase the yield and the fat content of milk, as well as increase the ruminant’s fertility. Calcium soap can be produced from palm fatty acid distillate (PFAD), which is a by-product of crude palm oil (CPO) refining process, and calcium oxide (CaO). In this study, the effect of CaO quality on the acid value of the product has been observed. It was found that the reaction with lower concentration of active calcium of CaO resulted in products with a higher acid value, which indicates a lower reaction conversion. Thus, the produced calcium soap requires further treatment in order to remove the unreacted calcium and free fatty acid. Washing with hexane followed by either vacuum or convection drying has been found to be able to reduce the acid value of the product significantly.
PFAD can be utilized as raw material for producing calcium soap, a kind of ruminant feed supplement. It gives benefits to the ruminants’ health and increases the quantity and quality of cattle’s milk. This research evaluated the effect of stoichiometric mole ratio of Ca(OH)2 to PFAD and water temperature on calcium soap production using PFAD and calcium hydroxide as raw materials by applying modified fusion method. The result showed that the acid value of products decreased as the mole ratio of Ca(OH)2 to PFAD increased and the low water temperature lowered the acid value of products. The highest fatty acid conversion (98%) was achieved at the stoichiometric mole ratio of 3. However, the use of such high mole ratio is not preferable because the product will have excessive calcium, which may disturb the absorption of other minerals in ruminant’s digestion. Thus, further research related to operating condition and the use of other calcium sources in the calcium soap production is still required.
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