Experiment 6 Biodiesel Synthesis

[_N_B_]

This experiment has a lot of holes in it that need to be patched up. You need to carefully measure 1 gram of your catalyst (and before that you need to titrate the oil to find out exactly how much catalyst you need based on its purity since far not all catalyst is 100% pure), then after you mix it with methanol (with slightly elevated temperature, not hot, or you’re going to evaporate some of the methanol) you have to slowly add it to the oil (which you can’t run at 60 degrees Celsius, or again you’re gonna evaporate some of the methanol. Warm the oil to around 50 degrees Celsius) and make sure you add all of it in, not leaving a little bit in the beaker like you lab partner did. And the biggest thing I didn’t understand was why after letting the solution sit did you tip over the container to drain off the biodiesel? That way you let some of the glycerin back into the diesel. You should’ve opened the valve in the bottom of the container and slowly drained the glycerin.

[vidhyav]

Hoel long we have to keep it for settle

[ayeshaiqbal]

How we know that the upper layer is completely convert into biodiesel.. Might be..the colour difference is due to the presence of methanol or excess methanol..