Biodiesel Production Lab Report

Abstract Biodiesel has become attractive recently because it’s environmentally-friendly and is made from renewable resources. Renewable resources often include microorganisms, plants, and animals. Biodiesel production is expensive and this has hindered its commercialisation. Plants make vegetable oils that can be used to produce biodiesel. A vegetable oil is a tryacylglyceride and can be converted to fatty acid methyl ester via the action of NaOH in a transesterification reaction involving methanol. In this experiment this was done using sunflower oil. A 2L PET bottle was used as a bioreactor. The final biodiesel product was separated, purified using water, dried in a 50 ͦC waterbath and its volume noted. A low yield (18.4%) of biodiesel was obtained. This short communication gives suggestions on how to enhance the biodiesel yield and quality. Objective To measure volume of glycerol and biodiesel produced from 1L of vegetable oil. To describe the purity of final biodiesel product. To learn about the challenges of biodiesel

The volume of glycerol = 931mL
The density of glycerol = 1.26 g/mL
Table 1: Shows the volume of biodiesel after every wash with water.
Wash No. Water Used (mL) Biodiesel (mL)

1 933 567
2 989 511
3 1132 368

% Yield= (Actual Yield)/(Theoretical Yield)×100=(368 mL)/(2000 mL)×1000=18.4 %
An 18.4 % yield means that 368 g of biodiesel was obtained from 2000mL of vegetable oil (1838 g). m_glycerol=pV=(1.26 g/mL)(931mL)=1173g
A mass of 1173 g of glycerol was obtained from 2000mL of vegetable oil (1838 g).
Table 2: Shows the appearance of the effluent after every wash.
Wash No. Effluent Appearance

1 Thick and murky.
2 Thick and cloudy.
3 Clear, with minor impurities.

The final biodiesel product was light gold in colour.
Discussion and