Download Producing Biodiesel from Waste Vegetable Oil

Producing Biodiesel from
Vegetable Oil
A Lab Activity Your Students Will
Love!
All of the information for this activity
was found at:
www.biodieselcommunity.org
Developed by John Jones
Glen Rose High School
Malvern, AR
[email protected]
Heet fuel line heater is 100%
methanol.
Roebic Drain Cleaner is
100% sodium hydroxide
For lab experiments, this is all you need!
How much lye to use?
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Can either use NaOH or KOH
The base amount for NaOh is 5 g per liter
The base amount for KOH is 7 g per liter
Perform titration test – each ml of lye
solution that you add, you then add 1 g of
lye per liter. Example: If your oil titrates at
3 then you would use 8 g of NaOH (5+3)
1 liter of virgin canola oil on the left and 1 liter of
waste soy oil on the right.
On the right, 5 g of NaOH were added for the virgin oil. The waste oil titrated at 5,
so 10 g of NaOH were added. The additional NaOH Is needed to neutralize the
fatty acid in the waste oil. Both were mixed into 220 ml of methanol to form
methoxide. Methanol usage is based on 22% of oil. (some references use 20%)
The NaOh is dissolved into the methanol to form methoxide.
The methoxide is the added to the oil. It does not readily
mix together; you must shake it up so that the chemical
reaction will take place. Making biodiesel from oil is a
chemical reaction process.
After shaking vigorously for about 30 seconds the mixture
has reacted. Notice the grayish tint.
The methoxide does not readily mix with the waste oil. It
must be shook up.
Notice the change in color. The
reaction is taking place.