How do you make biodiesel?
How do you make biodiesel?
Generally, 20 pounds of methanol is used for every 100 pounds of biodiesel produced.
What is the chemical equation for biodiesel?
Biodiesel is a form of diesel fuel derived from plants or animals and consisting of long-chain fatty acid esters. It is typically made by chemically reacting lipids such as animal fat (tallow), soybean oil, or some other vegetable oil with an alcohol, producing a methyl, ethyl or propyl ester.
Why biodiesel is known as green fuel?
Green fuel, also known as biofuel, is a type of fuel distilled from plants and animal materials, believed by some to be more environmentally friendly than the widely-used fossil fuels that power most of the world. … A new form of fuel can literally called green, as it derives from green algae.
Why Methanol is used in biodiesel production?
In the process of making biodiesel fuel, methanol is used as a key component in a process called transesterification – to put it simply, methanol is used to convert the triglycerides in different types of oils into usable biodiesel fuel.
What is the generic structure of a soap?
A soap molecule consists of a polar ionic hydrophilic (water "loving") end, which is shown in blue in the structure above, and a non-polar hydrophobic (water "hating") end, which is the hydrocarbon chain shown in red above.
Why is potassium hydroxide used in making biodiesel?
KOH, on the other hand, being liquid does not seem to interfere with the reaction. The result is that we can process much higher titration oils with KOH than we can with NaOH. KOH is a heavier molecule than NaOH, so, we use more KOH by weight than NaOH.
Where is biodiesel produced?
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from biomass. Most U.S. biodiesel is produced from vegetable oils and animal fats. Equipment that uses distillate fuel oil can also use biodiesel. Rapeseed oil, sunflower oil, and palm oil are major feedstocks for biodiesel produced in other countries.
Why is it important to keep water out of biodiesel production?
The reactors provide intense mixing and can produce high conversion of the triglycerides to biodiesel. … It is important to keep water out of the transesterification reactor system. Water converts triglycerides to FFAs. These fatty acids will react with the alkaline catalyst and form soaps.
What are the byproducts of biodiesel?
Biodiesel production produces three major biodiesel waste products: glycerin, methanol, and (sometimes) water… and then there's that occasional failed batch as well!
Is biodiesel water soluble?
In other words, the Biodiesel methyl esters have very low solubility in water (7 ppm in San Francisco Bay seawater) compared to petroleum diesel that contains benzene, toluene, xylene and other more water-soluble, highly toxic compounds.
Is transesterification endothermic or exothermic?
Transesterification is an exothermic reaction; rise in temperature will push equilibrium into reactant side [5].
What is saponification process?
Saponification is a process by which triglycerides are reacted with sodium or potassium hydroxide (lye) to produce glycerol and a fatty acid salt called "soap." The triglycerides are most often animal fats or vegetable oils. When sodium hydroxide is used, a hard soap is produced.
What is the difference between esterification and saponification?
Saponification is the opposite process of esterification. The main difference between esterification and saponification is that esterification is the production of an ester from a carboxylic acid and an alcohol whereas saponification is the cleavage of an ester back into the carboxylic acid and alcohol.
Is biodiesel polar or nonpolar?
Biodiesel, a mixture of methyl esters of long chain fatty acids, is effectively non-polar so it will not dissolve in water, that is, it is not miscible with water.
How do you remove glycerin from biodiesel?
Traditionally, the soap and trace amounts of glycerin are removed by washing with water. This involves mixing water with the biodiesel, agitating them gently, and then allowing them to separate (Van Gerpen 2005).
Why do the biodiesel and glycerol separate into layers?
Glycerol is formed and has to be separated from the biodiesel. Both the glycerol and biodiesel need to have alcohol removed and recycled in the process. Water is added to both the biodiesel and glycerol to remove unwanted side products, particularly glycerol, that may remain in the biodiesel.
What is the purpose of transesterification?
Transesterification, also called alcoholysis, is the displacement of alcohol from an ester by another alcohol in a process similar to hydrolysis. This process has been widely used to reduce the viscosity of triglycerides. The transesterification reaction is represented by the general equation: ¢
Why is the viscosity of biodiesel lower than the viscosity of vegetable oil?
Higher temperature fluids have a lower viscosity. … ➢ Biodiesel typically has a lower viscosity than vegetable oils at lower temperatures. At higher temps, the viscosities become close. The viscosity of biodiesel in the liquid phase typically changes less than that of vegetable oil as temperature increases.
What is transesterification of biodiesel?
The transesterification of vegetable oils, animal fats or waste cooking oils is the process behind conventional biodiesel. In the transesterification process a glyceride reacts with an alcohol (typically methanol or ethanol) in the presence of a catalyst forming fatty acid alkyl esters and an alcohol.
What is a transesterification reaction?
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. In organic chemistry, transesterification is the process of exchanging the organic group R″ of an ester with the organic group R′ of an alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base catalyst.
What is transesterification give one example of it?
In a transesterification reaction an alcohol molecule and an ester molecule react in either the presence of an acid or base to form a new ester. … For example, methyl ethanoate reacts with ethanol in the presence of hydrochloric acid to form ethyl ethanoate and methanol.
What is the molar ratio of oil to biofuel for this reaction?
are a product of biodiesel being a two way reaction. In reality, it only takes 1:3 molar ratio of oil:methanol to produce biodiesel. However, if you put in 1:3 ratio you'll end up with a large amount of unreacted material so commercially you usually do 1:6 (twice as much methanol as needed).
What is the ideal oil methanol ratio in transesterification process?
Effects of molar ratios on alkali-catalyzed transesterification. For alkali-catalyzed transesterification, the optimum molar ratio of methanol to oil to produce biodiesel with more than 98w/w% yield is approximately 6:1 [10].
Are biofuels hydrophilic?
Once stored, biodiesel can absorb more humidity than petroleum diesel since fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) are hygroscopic compounds, making biodiesel much more hydrophilic than regular diesel (He et al., 2007).
Why is water a problem in transesterification?
In the production of biodiesel from either high free fatty acid (FFA) or a low FFA feedstock, water in methanol is a huge problem. When water is present, particularly at high temperatures, it can hydrolyze the triglycerides to diglycerides and form FFAs.
How many molecules of biodiesel are produced for each molecule of oil?
One molecule of oil produces 3 molecules of biodiesel.
What type of functional group is present in each biodiesel molecule?
Biodiesel is composed of mono alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from renewable lipid sources, such as vegetable oil or animal fats. Esters are organic compounds composed of an alcohol and an organic acid. Alcohols are organic compounds that contain a functional group OH (hydroxide).
How many mixed methyl esters are obtained from the transesterification of a triglyceride molecule?
During the transesterification process, the vegetable oil (triglyceride) reacts with a short chain alcohol, usually methanol (AL), wherein three methanol molecules react with one triglyceride molecule, producing three fatty acid methyl ester (ME) molecules and one glycerol (GL) molecule.