What is it Biodiesel? Where is it from? How do you use it?

·         The main purpose of biodiesel is to be used and placed inside engines. Biodiesel is an alternative fuel. Vegetable oil and animal fats are a form of Biodiesel as well.  Another way that Biodiesel can be formed is through lipids that chemically react with one another.

 

Found in:

1. Germany: uses rapeseed oil to produce biodiesel (produces more than 50% of the worlds biodiesel today)

2. United States: uses soybean oil to produce biodiesel

3. Malaysia: uses palm oil to produce biodiesel

4. Indonesia: uses palm oil to produce biodiesel

 

Why is biodiesel a better choice?

Virgin soybeans oil. “ yielding 3.2 units of fuel energy for every 1 unit of fossil fuel energy used to produce it, while reducing lifecycle CO2 emissions by 78%. Soybeans, which grow well in the United States, produce about 50 gallons of oil per acre, while palm trees, with the most productive oil seed in the world, yield about 650 gallons per acre.” It is also effective to get it through algae because it doesn’t cost a lot of money to take care of and it is reusable. Another perk about algae is that it doesn’t consume a lot of land so you can grow other things near it while getting what you want out of it, which is biodiesel fuel

 

 

 

Cons:

Pros:

 

Transesterification Reaction

Triglycerides= vegetable oil

Methanol= we used ethanol instead

NaOH= catalyst

Fatty acid methyl esters= biodiesel

Glycerol= byproduct

·         We mixed the oil with ethanol and a catalyst and produced biodiesel   

·         During our experiment we watched away the glycerol and the remaining ethanol and any remaining catalyst to create pure biodiesel

 

 

 

 

How do you make Biodiesel

 

You can create biodiesel if you have the right equipment.  The biggest step in creating biodiesel is making sure that when placing the mixture inside the centrifuge that the biodiesel is on the top of the test-tube and the glycerol and KOH are at the bottom.  There should be a visible change in colors between the two.  After all of the biodiesel is sucked  out of the tube you need to make sure to continuously repeat the procedure to make sure that you have created pure biodiesel.

 

   Steps:

 

How do I know I’ve created biodiesel?

It’s easy! You light it in fire and if it burns then you’ve made it and if it doesn’t you haven’t.

 

What is it used for?

 

 

 

Great Websites:

http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/ID/ID-337.pdf

                                                                                                                                  

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html