How to Produce Biodiesel

The general problem on natural energy source in the world have been thought by many scientist and technologist to create new energy synthetic to modified other energy that come from plant can be used also as energy in industry and in our home, because the plant energy source can be renewed, while energy from mineral can’t be renewed. Many scientist have try to produce biodiesel from many source but just few of their experiment can be applied into the real production.

Biodiesel Separation

Several oil plant can be proceed into fuel oil through several process stage. Most of the animal fats, vegetables and oils contain glycerin and are thus called triglycerides can be proceed to make biofuels, all the fats and oils are turned into esters, then separating the glycerin. At the end of the process, all the glycerin sinks down at the bottom and all the biodiesel rests at the top. The process through which the glycerin is separated from the biodiesel is known as transesterification. This process also uses lye (NaOH low concentration) as a catalyst in the whole process. Some of the chemicals which are used in the manufacturing of biodiesel are ethanol or methanol which brings into use methyl esters. Methanol is derived from fossil fuels while ethanol is derived from plants. One of the advantages of using ethanol is that they can be distilled even at the home without any problem.

The most oil source use to make biodiesel is plant oil waste, because if we make from new plant oil is too expensive, and almost impossible to make biodiesel from vegetable oil.

The step on how to process waste vegetable oil into biodiesel as follows:

• Filtering: In this process, vegetable oil is separate from food particle that still available in the oil. To make easier to filter vegetable oil we can warm up the oil before filter.
• Removing of water: All the water contained in the residual gangue has to be removed which will make the reaction faster. The water can be easily removed by making the liquid boil at 100 degree C for sometime.
• Titration: This process is carried out to determine the amount of lye that would be required. This process is the most crucial and the most important stage of biofuel manufacturing.
• Preparation of sodium methoxide: In this process, methanol is mixed with sodium hydroxide to produce sodium methoxide. In most of the cases, the quantity of methanol used is generally 20 percent of waste vegetable oil.
• Heating and mixing: The residue is heated in between 49 – 54 oC after which it is mixed well. It should be remembered that process should be done carefully avoiding splashing of the liquid.
• Settling and separation: After mixing the liquid, it has to be allowed to cool down. After the cooling process, the biodiesel will be found floating at the top while the heavier glycerin would be found at the bottom. The glycerin can be easily separated by allowing it to drain out from the bottom. The person is left over with pure biodiesel which can be used for various purposes.