Distillation of Agarwood Oil (Aquillaria sp) using
Photovoltaic Methods
Nelly Safitri
1
, Teuku Rihayat
2
, Suryani
2
, Shafira Riskina
2
, Rudi Saputra
1
, Aida Safitri
2
,
Tjut Yayang Risqatia Hasnah
2
, Kiki Yolanda Putri
3
and Yuhanis Yunus
3
1
Departement of Electrical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Lhokseumawe, 24301, Aceh Indonesia
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Lhokseumawe, 24301, Aceh Indonesia
3
Department of Civil Engineering, Politeknik Negeri Lhokseumawe, 24301, Aceh Indonesia
Keywords: Agarwood, Solar Cell, Water Content, Hydro Distillation.
Abstract: The use of solar light is currently used as one of the renewable energy by utilizing sunlight, or commonly
called photovoltaic (PV). One of the technologies related to the application of solar panels to energy by
converting sunlight into electricity is called photovoltaic. The amount of solar energy that can be absorbed
depends on the cell size and absorption of solar cells on sunlight. Solar panels are known as WP (Watt peak)
where this amount is the maximum power produced by each panel unit with a capacity of 100 watts/hour, size
1200 mm x 550 mm with a thickness of 35 mm. The battery used is 12 Volt 200 Ah, and the heater used is
2000 Watt. Agarwood crust is obtained from the Aquillaria malaccensis tree, which is then soaked for 14, 16,
18, 20 and 22 days respectively. The best results of soaking are at 14 days, during which the immersion
process has expanded and finally broken, so that water enters the cell wall through diffusion and increases
turgor pressure. Soaking water becomes more acidic over time and damages the cell wall. This causes the
process of increasing cell wall destruction. However, a longer immersion time causes more oil content to be
wasted into soaking water. It was concluded that the most suitable immersion time for extracting agarwood
oil was 14 days. The results showed that high oil yield was obtained from oil extracted with a 10 hour hydro
distillation sample (0.44% analysis water content). Analysis of chemical compounds using GC-MS showed a
typical compound of agarwood namely Guaiol with the highest value 4.10% (GC-FID) and 1.95% (GC-MS).
Guaiol was used as a parameter to determine the quality of essential oils produced from the distillation process
that has been carried out because the area produced from the test results has an area greater than other
components contained in essential oils.
1 INTRODUCTION
Energy is the ability to do work. Energy is a force that
can be used to carry out various processes of activities
using mechanical energy, heat, and others. Therefore,
almost everyone in the world, based on energy
sources. There is some natural energy as alternative
energy that is not polluted, safe and collected not
limited to what is known as renewable energy [1].
New energy sources and resources that are renewed
in the future will increasingly have a very important
role in meeting energy needs. This is due to the use of
fossil fuels for conventional power plants for a long
time to drain oil, gas and coal sources whose reserves
are depleting [2].
In Indonesia, which is located in the tropics it
actually has a considerable advantage, namely
receiving continuous sunlight throughout the year.
Unfortunately, energy seems to be left in vain only
for natural needs [3]. In addition, solar energy can be
utilized with the help of other equipment, namely by
converting solar radiation to other forms. There are
two kinds of ways to convert solar radiation into other
energy, namely through solar cells and collectors [4].
There is no doubt that solar energy is an
environmentally friendly energy source and is very
promising in the future because there is no pollution
produced during the energy conversion process, and
also many energy sources available in nature [5].
Safitri, N., Rihayat, T., Suryani, ., Riskina, S., Saputra, R., Safitri, A., Risqatia Hasnah, T., Putri, K. and Yunus, Y.
Distillation of Agarwood Oil (Aquillaria sp) using Photovoltaic Methods.
DOI: 10.5220/0008853300570062
In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Chemical Science and Technology Innovation (ICOCSTI 2019), pages 57-62
ISBN: 978-989-758-415-2
Copyright
c
 2020 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved
57

The sun is a potential energy source for human
needs, where energy can be obtained from heat that
moves to the surface of the earth, or light that falls to
the surface of the earth. From several studies
mentioned that by changing sunlight, especially the
intensity of the sun with PV can be used as a source
of electrical energy for human consumption. The
choice of renewable energy sources is very
reasonable considering the supply of solar energy
from sunlight received by the earth's surface reaches
3 x 1024 joules per year [6]. The amount of energy is
equivalent to 10,000 times the energy consumption in
the world today. In Indonesia, the abundance of
sunlight distributed evenly and can be captured
throughout the Indonesian archipelago for most of the
year is a potential source of electrical energy[7].
Renewable energy has a very important role in
meeting energy needs, given the abundant source [8].
This problem because the use of fuel for conventional
power plants over a long period of time will deplete
oil, gas, and coal sources which are running low and
can also cause environmental pollution. Wrong the
only effort that has been developed is the Solar Power
Plant (PLTS).
Solar energy can be applied to produce heat
energy through solar heat collectors (SC) and produce
electrical energy through PV collectors. At present, it
is common practice to install it in two separate solar
collectors, one for solar thermal collectors and one for
photovoltaic modules[9]. Thermal photovoltaic /
hybrid (PV / T) systems are the integration of
photovoltaic and solar thermal components. This
produces electricity and heat from a combined system
[10]. It consists of a conventional heat collector with
an absorbent which is covered by a layer of PV. PV
modules produce electricity, and simultaneously the
heat energy absorbed is transported by the working
fluid [11].
In the industrial world, distillates of essential oils
are known as perfume seeds. The process of
extracting and refining essential oils requires
equipment at very expensive prices, so that essential
oils do not become a household industry with a small
scale of production. This essential oil is used in food,
medicine, and cosmetics, etc. So for this reason, it is
necessary to develop alternatives to develop PV
technology that is environmentally friendly in the
process of refining essential oils. This PV installation
has many advantages, said to be an overall increase in
efficiency, lower production and installation costs,
and less space requirements[12].
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to improve
the extraction efficiency of oil obtained from different
extraction methods and to identify optimal
parameters of agarwood extraction. The stages
carried out in this study were materials and tools,
refining techniques, photovoltaic methods, and
chemical analysis using Gas Chromatography-Flame
Ionization Detector (GC-FID) and Gas
chromatography with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).
2 MATERIALS AND METHOD
2.1 Plant Material
Agarwood crust from the Aquillaria malaccensis
stem used in this study was obtained from Keuramat,
North Aceh intersection, water, and a set of hydro
distillation devices.
2.2 Optimization Technique
The technique used in this distillation process is
hydro distillation process. In this case, the sample size
and immersion time as a control to get the maximum
value from the optimal parameters. Agarwood
samples are initially ground into powder using a
grinding machine (FRITSCH). Agarwood samples
were immersed in 1 liter glass with sample variations
of 14, 16, 18, 20 and 22 days respectively. Samples
were distilled using photovoltaic technology for
approximately 6 hours a day.
Hydro distillation: 15-liter distilled water is
poured into the kettle. 1000 g of agarwood powder is
put in the kettle. Turn on the heater until it reaches
100
o
C. After the distillation time is complete, the
process is stopped. Water and essential oils from
separate funnels. After the water and oil are separated
1 hour apart, the essential oil is taken above the
separating funnel. Extraction is done in triplicate and
the average oil is calculated. The oil is then stored in
a closed container under the coolant before being
analysed by chromatography.
2.3 Photovoltaic Methods
Solar panels used for distillation of essential oils are
1000 WP (peak watts) in this case 6 panels are
needed. The battery capacity is 15 Volt 200 Ah, the
number of batteries used for this essential oil
distillation process is 11 batteries. A 2,000-watt
power heater is used as a heater to agarwood oil
distillation. Then an inverter (AC-DC current
converter) is needed with a capacity greater than 2125
watts [13].
ICOCSTI 2019 - International Conference on Chemical Science and Technology Innovation
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Figure 1: Photovoltaic design.
PV designs is arranged in series and is not connected
to the grid. This system is installed on the rooftop of
the house, PV takes energy from the sun and the
inverter converts it into electrical energy. The energy
is used to run equipment or charge the battery. When
solar panels do not produce energy, then the battery
can be used.
Grid-connected PV is a smart grid system, which
includes PE, such as a DC / DC converter that can
guarantee maximum solar energy harvested through
maximum power point tracking control (MPPT), and
converters used to connect PV to the network [14].
Figure 2: PE through grid-connected PV system.
Figure 1 illustrates the PE that commonly used for the
grid-connected PV system. The inverter extracts as
much DC voltage as possible from the PV array and
converts it into clean mains AC voltage at the right
frequency for feeding into the grid or for supplying
domestic loads at the customer sides[15].
2.4 Chemical Analysis
Chemical constituents of agarwood oil were obtained
by two GC-FID chromatographic techniques (Agilent
7890A) and GC-MS (Agilent 7890A). GC-MS was
attached to a mass spectrometer (Agilent 5975C)
using a DB-1MS capillary column (30 x 0.25 mm ID
film thickness of 0.25μm). Both chromatographic
techniques are the same in operating conditions. The
temperature of the injector and detector was
determined at 250°C. The temperature of the oven
was programmed at 60°C for 3 minutes, increasing at
3°C / minute to 240°C and then increasing for 10
minutes. Helium as a gas carrier is determined at a
flow rate of 1.2 mL / minute. The sample volume
injected was 1.0μL. Components are supported by
retention indices and mass spectra with disputed data
[16] and are in accordance with the library of the
National Standard Technology Institute (NIST). The
GC-FID instrument is equipped with a flame
ionization detector (FID) and detector in full scanning
mode under ionization of electron concentration (EI,
70eV) used in GC-MS [17].
3 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Pre-treatment process in extracting essential oil is an
important step. Previous studies showed several
methods for pre-treatment of plant samples before
extraction such as immersion in water, chemical
treatments, sonication, and microwave treatments [9].
This research continues the previous research that has
been done. In this study, the immersion process of
agarwood powder was carried out with time
variations of 14,16,18,20 and 22 days and distillation
times of 8, 9 and 10 hours respectively, so that the
water obtained can be seen in table 1.
Table 1: Water content value of soaking agarwood oil.
Distilation
time (hours)
Water content analysis (%)
Soaking time (days)
14
16
18
20
22
8
0.54
0.61
0.68
0.77
1.03
9
0.59
0.74
0.85
0.9
1.11
10
0.44
0.57
0.73
0.84
1.21
Distillation of Agarwood Oil (Aquillaria sp) using Photovoltaic Methods
59

Figure 3: Graph Water Content Analysis.
From the analysis of water content shown in table
1, the highest water content was obtained at 10 hours
of soaking time with 22 days which was 1.21% which
identified the produced agarwood oil to be of Poor
quality, while the lowest water content in distillation
was 10 hours with 14 days immersion which is
0.44%. The following are the results of the graph plot
of the data of agarwood immersion water content
values.
During the immersion process, the cells have
expanded and eventually ruptured, releasing the
agarwood content into the soaking water[18]. Water
enters the cell wall through diffusion and increases
turgor pressure. Soaking water becomes more acidic
over time and damages the cell wall. This causes a
process of increasing cell wall damage. However, a
longer immersion time causes more oil content to be
wasted into soaking water[19].
Table 2: Chemical Components Abundances (%) From GC-MS Analysis.
No
Chemical Compounds
Abundances (%)
S14
S16
S18
S20
S22
1
α- Guaiene
5.8
9.79
3.49
4.41
2.8
2
β- Selinene
4.9
16.9
9.06
4.72
13.6
3
α-Muurolene
3.3
3.98
6.09
9.11
0.9
4
γ- Gurjunene
1.09
1.45
2.30
7.43
3.30
5
Guaiol
4.10
5.32
3.98
2.01
2.11
The table above is a tabulation of chemical
composition analysed using GC-MS tools in
agarwood oil samples using the photovoltaic method
with immersion times of 14,16,18,20 and 22 days,
respectively. Based on the results of analysis using
GC-MS it was found that there were 5 compounds
namely α- Guaiane, β-Selinene, α-Muurolene, γ-
Gurjunene and Guaiol as a significant chemical
composition for agarwood oil and could be used as
compound markers in classifying agarwood oil [18].
Based on the table, it can be seen that oil samples with
immersion times 14 days are more effective in
producing better oil quality.
Indicators that can be assessed from GC-MS
analysis can be seen in a line pattern that shows the
intensity of detected component compounds.
Table 3: Chemical Components From GC-MS Analysis.
No
Compound
S14
S16
S18
S20
S22
Identification
1
β- maaliene
0.4
9.21
1.28
1.02
0.7
GC,FID
2
α- Guaiene
5.8
2.79
3.49
4.41
2.8
GC,FID
3
Aromsdendrene
-
3.90
2.11
3.56
0.9
GC,FID
4
Panasinsen
0.7
0.26
2.61
2.93
-
GC,FID
5
β- Selinene
4.9
6.9
9.06
4.72
13.6
GC,FID
6
α- Muurolene
3.3
2.98
6.09
9.11
0.9
GC,FID
7
γ- Guaiene
-
-
5.00
5.09
1.74
GC,FID
8
γ-Eudasmol
-
1.08
0.97
9.54
2.6
GC,FID
9
γ- Gurjunene
1.09
0.45
2.30
7.43
3.30
GC,FID
10
Guaiol
1.95
1.06
1.92
2.01
2.11
GC,FID
ICOCSTI 2019 - International Conference on Chemical Science and Technology Innovation
60

There are several compounds obtained through
GC-FID testing namely β-maaliene, α-Guaiane,
Aromadendrene, Panasinen, β-Selinene, α-
Muurolene, Gu-Guaiane, γ-Eudasmol, γ-Gurjunene
and Guaiol using GC-FID detectors. This fact shows
that the ionization detector contains more chemical
components than other methods. Soaking time in 14
days is more effective in producing better oil quality
than others. All the processes carried out,
photovoltaic technology was successfully carried out
on refining essential oils, one of which was agarwood
oil. Where data acquisition proved significant.
4 CONCLUSIONS
This study is can be concluded as follow, the best oil
is obtained from the results of immersion at 14 days,
which is 0.44% of the water content. Then through
the results of analysis using GC-MS and GC-FID
obtained 5 compounds namely α-Guaiane, β-
Selinene, α-Muurolene, γ-Gurjunene and Guaiol,
respectively, as a significant chemical composition
for agarwood oil and can be used as a marker of
compounds in classifying agarwood oil, whereas 14
days are more effective in producing better oil quality
than others. All the processes carried out, throughout
the photovoltaic technology was successfully carried
out on refining essential oils, one of which was
agarwood oil. Where data acquisition proved
significant.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author would like to thank the Directorate of
Student Affairs and Education for Research and
Higher Education Technology in Indonesia and the
research and community center of Politeknik Negeri
Lhokseumawe.
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