The document summarizes the production of biodiesel from vegetable oils through transesterification. It discusses various feedstocks used, the transesterification process, and results from experiments conducted. Key points: - Soybean, sunflower, and corn oils were most suitable feedstocks, meeting standard diesel properties. Soybean yielded the highest amount of biodiesel at 96% in 9 hours. - The transesterification process involves reacting vegetable oils with methanol in the presence of a catalyst to form biodiesel and glycerin. - Results found soybean, sunflower, and corn biodiesel met most standards but others like rice bran were less suitable due to higher viscosity and lower

1. Biodiesel Production from vegetable oil through transesterification
process
By : Gautam parmar
Class- T.Y, B.Sc(Biotechnology)
College- Shri M. & N. Virani Science College, Rajkot 360005, Gujarat

2. Preface

3. INTRODUCTION
• The term biofuel is used here to mean any liquid fuel made from Plant material that can be used as a
substitute for petroleum-derived fuel.
• Rudolf Diesel firmly believed the utilization of a biomass fuel to be the real future of his engine.
• Biofuels can include relatively familiar ones, such as ethanol made from sugar cane or diesel-like fuel
made from soybean oil, to less familiar fuels such as dimethyl ether (DME) or Fischer-Tropsch liquids
(FTL) made from Lignocellulosic biomass.
• Four main production methods
– Direct use and blending
– Micro emulsions
– Thermal cracking
– Transesterification-Biodiesel was produced in the lab through the transesterification reaction, in
which vegetable oil and waste frying oil were separately reacted with methanol in the presence of an
alkali catalyst (sodium methoxide) to form methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerol.
• This process is usually carried out by heating an excess of the alcohol with vegetable oils under different
reaction conditions in the presence of an inorganic catalyst.

4. INTRODUCTION
• This process is usually carried out by heating an excess of the alcohol with vegetable oils under different
reaction conditions in the presence of an inorganic catalyst.
• The most commonly used catalysts are alkali hydroxides and alcoholates. Trans esterification is also
possible under acidic conditions, but this process requires higher reaction temperatures.
• The trans esterification process consists of four steps:
• 1) raw material pre–treatment;
• 2) ethyl ester trans esterification;
• 3) separation of the ester and glycerol phases; and
• 4) purification of the ethyl esters.
++
Methanol
Figure 2. The reaction of a Triglyceride to Biodiesel and Glycerol

5. • The first two steps of this procedure require the addition of heat to the oil and its
reacting apparatus, because the waste oil is solid at room temperature.
• Recommended reaction time varies from 1 to 30 hours, and some systems
recommend the reaction take place at room temperature.
• Excess alcohol is normally used to ensure total conversion of the fat or oil to its
esters. Care must be taken to monitor the amount of water and free fatty acids in
the incoming oil or fat.
• If the free fatty acid level or water level is too high it may cause problems with
soap formation and the separation of the glycerin by-product downstream.
• Once the reaction is complete, two major products exist: glycerin and biodiesel.
• The glycerin phase is much more dense than biodiesel phase and the two can be
gravity separated with glycerin simply drawn off the bottom of the settling vessel.
• In some cases, a centrifuge is used to separate the two materials faster.

6. Significance-Why?Significance-Why?
• To encourage more and more use of biofuel as energy source for sustainable development.
• To practice biodiesel production on lab scale for research purpose.
• To understand the chemistry and composition of feedstock materials used the process.
• To Minimize Storage Issues with Stability and Transportation issues with high cost of
delivered fuel compared to fossil fuels.
• To learn about the challenges associated with biodiesel production.
• To minimize ecological problems such as global warming, greenhouse effect, pollution.
• To boost up a global debate on energy conservation and bringing up new ideas to produce
biofuels.
• Develop design specifications and build a prototype system.
• Encourage Government to Establish regulatory mandates for biofuels use to help launch
biofuel industries & consider direct grants for research, development and demonstration.

7. Properties studied
• Density(g/cm³)-Is the weight per unit volume. Oils that are denser contain more energy.(0.87-0.89)
• Viscosity(mm/³s)-Viscosity refers to the thickness of the oil. Viscosity affects injector lubrication.
• Cloud point-The temperature at which the biodiesel first turns cloudy is the cloud point. This test is
important for winter fuel. (3-15 C°)
• Temperature- It is the optimum temperature at which conversion of fatty acid into biodiesel takes
place.(35-40 C°)
• Sulphur content- The percentage by weight, of sulfur in the fuel Sulfur content is
• limited by law to very small percentages for diesel fuel used
• Flash point-The flash point temperature of a fuel is the minimum temperature at which the fuel will
ignite. (110-130 C°)
• PH- Normal PH of petro diesel should be between 6-7.
• Water content-it is the amount of water present in petro diesel.It should be minimum between
(0.02-0.05).
• Colour- This is a visual inspection of the finished biodiesel. Water free biodiesel will be clear and
will be of golden yellow colour
• Pour point- Melt or pour point refers to the temperature at which the oil in solid form starts to melt
or pour.(-3to -8)

8. CURRENT STATUS & FUTURE POTENTIAL
• It is a cleaner burning replacement fuel made from renewable sources like new and used
vegetable oils and animal fats.
• It would Encourage Government to Establish regulatory mandates for biofuels use to help
launch biofuel industries & consider direct grants for research, development and
demonstration
• A target of 20% blending of biofuels has been proposed both for biodiesel and bioethanol by
2017.
• A Minimum Support Price (MSP) to be announced for farmers producing nonedible oilseeds
used to produce biodiesel.
• More R & D should be promoted in Research Centers and Universities for evolving better and
efficient biofuel technologies.
• Registration fees and road tax exemptions for vehicles running on biofuels should be done.
• Subsidies in the initial years should be given to promote alternative feedstocks which can
supplement ethanol production for blending requirements.
• One of the Industry named khodiyar briquetteing machines produces biodiesel from
agricultural waste in rajkot.

9. Materials and method
• Biodiesel feedstock include vegetable oils and waste frying oils, which contain triglycerides that are
needed to make biodiesel.
• The use of this raw material can give a solution from an environmental and economic point of view.
• Mainly waste vegetable oil is used for this purpose because it contains high amount of free fatty acids, can
be easily obtained from nearby restaurants, coffee cafe etc at cheaper rate.
• Soybean , castor, sunflower, groundnut, rice bran, cotton oil are the vegetable oil either used or unused
one can be employed to obtain biodiesel.

10. Materials & Method

11. Purification of biodiesel produced

12. Results
OIL AMOUNT OF
OIL
(ml)
SOLVENT AMOUNT OF
SOLVENT
(ml)
CATALYST AMOUNT OF
CATALYST
(gm)
REACTION
TIME
TEMPERATUR
E
CONVERSION
% (BIODIESEL)
CONVERSION
%
(GLYCERINE)
Soy bean 500 Methanol 100 ml NaOH 3.5 g 9 hrs 50 C 96 % 4 %
Corn 500 Methanol 90 ml NaOH 3 g 12 hrs 45 C 83% 17 %
Sunflower 500 Methanol 80 ml NaOH 2.5 g 14 hrs 37 C 92 % 8 %
Castor 500 Methanol 70 ml NaOH 2 g 11 hrs 25 C 80 % 20 %
Groundnu
t
500 Methanol 60 ml KOH 1.5 g 12 hrs 22 C 65 % 30 %
Cotton 500 Methanol 50 ml KOH 1 g 24 hrs 20 C 50 % 50 %
Rice bran 500 Methanol 40 ml KOH 0.5 g 30 hrs 10 C 40-35 % 60-65 %

13. PARAMETERS STANDARD
DIESEL
CORN SUNFLOWER GROUNDNUT SOYBEAN RICE BRAN CASTOR COTTON
FLASH POINT
(C°)
110-130 114 117 78 120 63 106 70
POUR POINT
(Cº)
-3 to -8 -5 -6 -7 -4 -9 -2 -3
CLOUD POINT
(C°)
3-15 4 7 5 6 3 9 2
VISCOSITY
mm²/s
3.5-5.0 6.0 5.3 3.0 5.7 2.8 3.2 3.6
TEMPERATUR
E (C°)
35°-40° 33 35 27 38 32 34 29
pH 6.8-7.0 6.8 6.7 5.8 7.0 4.0 6.3 5.7
COLOUR Golden
yellow
Golden
yellow
Light golden creamish
yellow
Dark golden Light yellow golden Creamish
brown
DENSITY
g/cm³
0.87-0.89 0.84 0.85 0.73 0.88 0.78 0.80 0.75
SULPHUR
CONTENT %
0.3–0.5 0.005 0.006 0.009 0.003 0.00 0.007 0.002
WATER
CONTENT %
0.02-0.05 0.03 0.05 0.06 0.03 0.07 0.04 0.08

14. x
Y
Y axis- Pour point °C
X axis- biodiesel ml

15. 0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Kinetic Viscosity mm²/s
X
y
Y- viscosity
X-ml of biodiesel

16. Flash point °C
diesel 50 130
corn 50 114
sunflower 50 106
castor 50 70
cotton 50 120
groundnut 117
soybean 50 63
rice bran 50 78

23. Results
• Soybean , sunflower, corn are one the most suitable vegetable oil to be used for the biodiesel
production because its stands with the standard values of petro diesel.
• Maximum yield temperature was at -40 C in soybean
• Low sulphur content was found- cotton
• Optimum pH for process was – 6.8
• Low Water content was found in- corn, soybean, sunflower.
• High viscosity was found in- corn and sunflower.
• Highest cloud point was found in- corn , soybean, castor
• Highest flash point was found in- soybean, sunflower
• Golden yellow colour similar to petro diesel was found in –corn, soybean.
• NaOH as catalyst decreased the reaction hours and it was faster separation as compared to
KOH.
• Longest reaction time was 30hrs in rice bran oil and was lowest & fast in soybean 9hrs.
• Maximum amount of yield of biodiesel was in- soybean 90%
• Maximum amount of glycerin was in – rice bran 60 %.
• Better separation was obtianed through centrifugation as compared to water washing

24. Conclusion
• Environmental Advantages of Bio-Diesel-
* No aromatics, Renewable energy.
• The engine emissions are sulphur free and the other exhaust components.
• Presence of oxygen in the molecular composition
• Higher viscosity leads to higher calorific value and biodiesel made from vegetable oils are biodegradable
as compared to petro diesel.
• Better cloud and flash point temperatures are observed in biodiesel made from vegetable oils & enhance
engine performance.
• Density of biodiesel made from Vegetable oils is higher than or eqaul to that of petro diesel and has more
energy therefore can replace the Fossil petro fuels
• Has no harmful emissions.
• Used vegetable oil collected from shops selling fritters can be used to produce biodiesel as it is not a food
• source and is mostly thrown away.
• The cost of production of biodiesel is higher than that of conventional fossil fuel. This is due to the fact
that biodiesel is generally produced from refined vegetable oil. The cost of production can be reduced if
low cost feedstock is used such as used cooking oil collected from shops and food industries
• Lower value products are converted into high value products.
• Glycerine produced can further be purified and can be used in cosmetic, preservant chemical industries.
• .

25. References
• 1. Santana A. et al, (2012), Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction of algal lipids for the biodiesel production, 20th
International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering CHISA 2012 25 – 29 August 2012, Prague, Czech
Republic,1755 – 1761.
• 2. Hindryawati N. et al, (2014), Transesterification of used cooking oil over alkali metal (Li, Na, K) supported rice husk silica
as potential solid base catalyst, Engineering Science and Technology, an International Journal, 95-103.
• 3. Ferreira et al, (2008), Biodiesel production from vegetable frying oil & ethanol using enzymatic catalysis, Bioenergy:
Challenges and Opportunities, 1-6.
• 4. Kawentar W. A et al, (2013), Synthesis of biodiesel from second-used cooking oil, International Conference on Sustainable
Energy Engineering and Application, 190 – 199.
• 5. Sherbiny E. S.A. et al, (2010) Production of biodiesel using the microwave technique, Journal of Advanced Research, 309–
314.
• 6. Sani W. et al, (2013), Multi stage Transesterifications of High FFA Feedstock towards a High Conversion of Biodiesel in A
Batch Mode Production Plant, International Journal of Mining, Metallurgy & Mechanical Engineering (IJMMME) Volume 1,
Issue 5, 2320-4052.
• 7. Bhardawaj A. et al, (2013), A Review of Biofuel Policy in India: Current Status and Future Perspectives, International
Journal of Applied Engineering Research. ISSN 0973-4562, Volume 8, Number 16, 1907-1912.
• 8. Peterson C. L. et al, (2002), Continous flow biodiesel production, American Society of Agricultural Engineers, Vol. 18(1),
5–11.
• 9. Elsolh N.E.M. et al, (2011), The Manufacture of Biodiesel from the used vegetable oil, Faculty of Engineering at Kassel
and Cairo University.
• 10. Dermibas A. et al, (2005), Biodiesel production from vegetable oil by super critical methanol method, Journal of scientific
and industrial research, volume 64, 858-865.
• 11. Banerjee N. al, (2014), Biodiesel production from used vegetable oil collected from shops selling fritters in Kolkata, 4th
International Conference on Advances in Energy Research 2013, ICAER, 161 – 165.

26. Acknowledgement
There are many people who have helped us directly or indirectly in the successful completion of
our project. We would like to take this opportunity to thank one and all.
First of all I would like to express my deep sense of gratitude towards DBT ( Department of
biotechnology ).
•I am also grateful to the Mrs. Shivani Patel(H.O.D) B.T department. Shri M. & N. Science
College for allowing us to do the project on this immense emerging field of science.
•Thanks to Mrs. Shweta Bhatt mam for their support and encouragement throughout the year.
•Thanks to classmats for helping in the times of need.
•Moreover we would like to thank our beloved parents for their support and belief in me.

27. THANX A LOT