Preparation of Biodiesel Oil from Vegetable Oils Transesterification of Vegetable Oil and Methanol

A research was reported that biodiesel was manufactured by the transesterification of vegetable oils.Vegetable oils were readily transesterified batchwise with an excess of methanol at atmospheric pressure and at a temperature of approximately 45℃ in the presence of KOH as catalyst.Through orthogonal analysis of parameters in a four-factor and three-level test,the optimum conditions were obtained for the transesterification:molar ratio of methanol to oil 6∶1,usage amount of KOH 1 1% and reaction temperature 45℃.Vegetable oil led to a 98 33% conversion,and the yield of crude esters was 99 83% under these conditions.The properties of manufactured biodiesel oil had a quality specification near that of biodiesel oil from ASTM.