Making Biodiesel from Sunflower oil

[mgrzeg]

You could use regular diesel instead of toluene as a solvent - You would not have to distill off solvent… and also some addition of regular diesel (10-40%) is much desirable from the engine POV (pumps, injectors…)

first step - oil dehydration is also redundant - this oil is anhydrous - transparent… cacl2 or similar will definetely not make it dryer… dehydration after washing is also not necessary - prolonged, low rpm stirring with water (2hrs or so) will do the work - You will end with clear liquid which means that water content is really low… this thing can be dehydrated just by passing through column filled with relatively small portion of dry 4A molecular sieves to the second container

[GordLamb]

I think the soot is mainly from not reaching the correct stoichiometric combustion ratio. If you can atomize the biodiesel it should burn without any soot.

Great video! :)

[maerten]

Thanks- great video. I made biodiesel a year ago just to try it and I ended up with a lot of soap and biodiesel, but nothing I would risk putting in my engine.

[ommhatre]

I made bio diesel using coconut oil thinking that the shorter chain fatty acids would result in a much easier to burn fuel due to higher vapour pressure and yes it worked. It burnt very easily. I didn't use any toluene but used salt water which separated the soap quite well and the separated biodiesel was washed with water and dried using anhy. CaCl². Fun fact - the biodiesel smelled like fake pineapple scent due to esters of some fatty acids (maybe the esters of 7-8 carbon chain acids are responsible which are present in coconut oil)

[bromisovalum]

Transesterification is such a neat reaction. I've used it once to make methyl laurate from cocos fat. I used sodium metal and methanol to generate the NaOMe without the hassle of dealing with water.

[tracybowling]

If we didn't have you, I could not learn all these interesting facts. Well, I could. But you make it easy and so much fun! Great work!

[phantomzone]

You can get biodiesel by acidic path too: it involves a methyl carbanion.

[AngDavies]

Cool science, though given the location of the majority of world sunflower oil production at the moment, and alternative feedstock would probably be necessary :/

[rafaelthetall]

the sooth comes from incomplete burn, probably caused by low temperature air and because of lack of oxigen. it is 'pure carbon' that had not enough air and temperature to combine with oxigen.

you probable get less sooth if burnt in a 'storm' kerosen lamp, either hor or cold blasted, (the flat wick and pre-heatin of the air helps a lot) or an argand lamp (tubular wick)

(petroleum industry worker ;) )

[frankmercer]

Nicely done. I liked your fire tests. Very informative.

[tahallium]

I love your procedure and explanations

[andersjjensen]

Regular diesel and even high grade lamp oil burns with sooty flames too, so I think everything went according to plan.

[alexanderdickie]

Love your videos dude 👍
Did you add any to a diesel car? It's legal in some countries, including UK

[DasIllu]

When i was shopping recently i saw the a litre of sunflower oil now costs €5.
A litre of Diesel costs ~€2.
What do i need to do to make the Diesel compatible with my salad? ;-)

[McNasy]

Not sure how this video came up in my recommendation, but great video, glad I found it 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[atrumluminarium]

Can glycerol be decomposed into methanol? It would be cool to be able to feed the waste glycerol back into the reaction as methanol and it kind of seems like it's something that should be dooable, but I'm no chemist

[wombatau]

Could it be the double bonds in the linoleic acid? I don’t remember why exactly, but similar to unsaturated propylene gas burning vs propane gas.

[skeller]

This reaction can be made using ethanol instead methanol?

[bataalexander]

If you want to make mono and diglycerides, could you use glycerol instead of methanol?

[CDCI]

Wouldn't acid catalysis be preferable?
1) Conversion of FFA in the oil to the FAME (slight, likely insignificant benefit) and
2) Less likely to have soap in workup, so may avoid need for FAME solvent, so less solvent waste, no concentration needed, and smaller volume