Standard biodiesel from soybean oil by a single chemical reaction

Laboratory methods are described for producing standard biodiesel from low-acid-number vegetable oils in single-step reactions without distillation of the products. Either sodium hydroxide or methoxide is used as the catalyst. Biodiesel fuel is currently made from vegetable oils using basic catalysts. With this methodology, the oils must be reacted two or three times with methanol, in the presence of sodium methoxide, to make a product that meets the standard for the total chemically bound and unbound glycerol content. Previously it was thought that sodium hydroxide could never be used as the catalyst because it forms soap with the ester, which lowers the yield and makes product isolation difficult. Two of the described methods use sodium hydroxide as the catalyst and the other uses sodium methoxide. These methods rely on the use of oxolane as co-solvent to manipulate phase behavior during the reaction. Reactant molar ratios and base concentrations are also optimized to drive the reactions to the necessary degree of completion.