Section 1 07APR22 Thursday Section 2 08APR22 Friday

12:20 - 14:00 14:20 - 16:00 14:20 - 16:00 16:20 - 18:00

ABAL, ABDULLAH TALHA AL, ÖMER FARUK ACAR, AHMET TALHA AKDOĞAN, YASİN
AKBULUT, ALEYNA ALICI, HASAN RAUF ALTUNDAĞ, FURKAN ATASOY, TANER
AKSOY, AHMET OĞUZHAN BALIBEY, MUHAMMED EREN ARSLAN, ELİF CANÖZKAN, ALPTEKİN
ALEMDAR, ÖMER LÜTFİ BEŞKARDEŞ, M. ONUR ÇEVİK, BERKE CEYLAN, TAHA
ARAT, IŞBARA YAĞIZHAN BILAL, KHALED BILAL ZAHER DEMİRKALE, ÖMER FEVZİ DELİBAŞ, UĞUR
ATA, İSMET RIZA BOZDAĞ, ASIM BERKE DİLER, ARZU DURAN, ABDÜLKERİM
DOĞAN, UMUT ÇATAKOĞLU, MELİKE EGEPEHLİVAN, AHMET GÖNEN, COŞKUN
EMEK, AHMET KAAN ÇOLAK, OĞUZ ERİŞ, FATMA İREM GÜZEL, RIDVAN
ERCİYAS, EYLÜL GÖKALP, ASIM GÜNGÖR, GÖKÇE KATIRCI, EREN KAĞAN
GÜNEL, EVREN HADHE, ANAS MAHAD DIRIYE GÜVEN, TUĞÇE MARDİNLİ, ETKA
HASHI, ABDINASIR JAMAL ISSACK, ALBANI ABDINOOR HASSAN, Y. MOHAMED NAVRUZ, M. SALİH
İĞDE, ZEYNEP KARAOSMANOĞLU, FATMANUR İLTER, U. KAMİL ENES ÖZKAN, ÖMER
MUTLU, AHMET MUHAMMAD, KARIM ULLAH KAYA, GÖKHAN SERİNGEL, M. BURAK
OSKAYBAŞ, ABDULLAH ENES ÖZDEN, ENES MOHAMED, M. SAID SOĞMAN, EMİN
ÖZDEMİR, ÖMER FATİH ÖZPOLAT, YUSUF SEFA OFLAZ, AHMET CAN TANK, MAHMUT
ÖZGÜVEN, HÜSEYİN EMRE ÖZTÜRK, SERHAT AYHAN ÖZTÜRK, ÖMER BERKAY TAŞKANAT, HÜSEYİN
ÖZTÜRK, BERNA ŞAHİN, BÜNYAMİN ÖZMEN SAATCİ, BEYZA TAŞTAN, ONURHAN
PEKACAR, OĞUZHAN ŞAHİN, MUSTAFA UTKU ÜGE, KEMAL TOPLU, NURULLAH
SEÇGÜN, AHMET SALİH ŞANLI, ENES HAYDAR ÜNALDI, SÜHEYLA ULUDAĞ, BERKAY
SİVESOĞLU, ABDURRAHMAN SEÇKİN, MELİH ÜZÜMKAYA, MUHAMMET YILDIRIM, YUSUF SAİT
TUPAL, MUSTAFA SİNCAR, ABDULSELAM YAPICI, NECMİYE NUR YILMAZ, GİRAY
UÇUCU, METE HAN TOSUN, ADEM
YAŞİN, İBRAHİM YAZICI, BEHLÜL
YILDIRIM, M. EMİN
 CHEM 101 / SPRING'22

EXPERIMENT II: PRODUCTION OF BIODIESEL

I. SAFETY PRECAUTIONS
Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and potassium hydroxide (KOH) are dangerous chemicals. Please
read the Material Safety Data Sheets before handling these hazardous chemicals. They can
severely burn your skin on contact. If you get any in your eye, it can blind you. If you get any
on your skin, the prescribed treatment is to flush with LOTS of water for up to 30 minutes.
Always wear safety goggles when using NaOH and KOH.
Methanol is highly toxic. It can easily enter the blood stream by breathing the vapors and by
absorption through the skin. Methanol may cause liver damage, swelling of the retina of the
eye, and brain damage or death in extreme cases. When making biodiesel, catalysts like
potassium or sodium hydroxide are dissolved in methanol to form methoxides. These
compounds in solution with methanol are even more toxic and corrosive.

II. INTRODUCTION
Diesel fuel is made from crude oil that is naturally occurring liquid formed by decomposition
of prehistoric plants and animals. This decomposition process requires million over years.
Crude oil transforms into the different fuels and petroleum-based products by distillation.
Chemists have created a method for producing diesel from plant matter. Various crops such
as trees, grasses or other biological materials can be turned to a diesel substitute by this
method. Commonly used feedstocks for the production of biodiesel include soybean oil,
rapeseed/canola oil, used (waste) vegetable oils, and animal fat. Warm climate tree oils such
as palm oil and jatropha are used to make biodiesel in some parts of the world.
Biodiesel is also not the same as straight vegetable oil or animal fat. A normal diesel engine
will eventually be damaged through the use of straight vegetable oil or straight animal fat
fuel. Vegetable oils or animal fats must be converted into biodiesel by reacting the oil or fat
with an alcohol in the presence of a catalyst. This process is referred to as transesterification.
One of the major advantages of using biodiesel instead of diesel is that biodiesel is
renewable energy resources unlike diesel comes from crude oil, which takes millions of
years to form. Compared with diesel, biodiesel releases less CO2 and also produce lower
sulphur emission to atmosphere when they are burnt. Biodiesel produce less toxic pollutant
to environment. Production of biodiesel can reinvigorate the economy and generate
employment opportunity for people.

III. CHEMICALS
Methanol
Methanol is the most commonly used alcohol in biodiesel production. It is the simplest
alcohol with the formula CH3OH, and is sometimes abbreviated MeOH. It is colorless and
highly volatile. It is used in the manufacture if many consumer and industrial products and as
a high-octane fuel in racing engines.

Glycerol
Glycerol, also called glycerin or glycerine, is a ubiquitous substance found in almost all
cosmetics, in many pharmaceuticals, in personal care products like shampoos, lotions, and
toothpaste, and in a lot of food items. Natural or vegetable-based glycerol has the molecular
formula C3H8O3 and forms the backbone of triglycerides (fats and oils). Glycerol is a
byproduct of biodiesel production. It is also a byproduct of the soap-making process in
which fats and oils are reacted with a strong base, forming sodium and/or potassium soaps,
and releasing the glycerol.

Fatty acids
Fatty Acids are part of triglycerides (fats and oils). In nature, they are made up of a chain
consisting of an even number of carbons atoms from 4 to 28. Chains with an uneven number
of carbons are much less common in nature. Fatty acids are either saturated or unsaturated.
Unsaturated fatty acids have double bonds between some of the carbons, whereas saturated
fatty acids have no double bonds. Unsaturated fatty acids are generally classified as
monounsaturated (they have one double bond), or polyunsaturated (they have two or more
double bonds).
Fatty acids are often identified by name as well as by numbers in parentheses. The first
number refers to the number of carbons, and the second number refers to the number of
double bonds. Oleic acid (18:1) is a good example of a monounsaturated, with 18 carbons and
one double bond. Fatty acids have a carboxyl group (COOH) at one end. It is this end that
combines with the hydroxyl group (HO-) on the glycerol molecule to form triglycerides.
Triglycerides are large and heavy molecules that are made up of three fatty acids connected to
a glycerol backbone. They are commonly referred to as fats and oils, and are among a class of
molecules called esters. Triglycerides are fatty acid esters of glycerol. The makeup of the
fatty acids will vary based on the source. Animal fats tend to be more saturated (no double
bonds) while plant oils are typically more unsaturated (having one or more double bonds).
Esters
Esters are a class of compounds derived from the reaction of an acid and an alcohol. For
example, the reaction of fatty acids and methanol produce methyl esters, or biodiesel. The
molecular formula for a methyl ester is RCO2CH3, where R represents a fatty acid.
Triglycerides are also a type of ester. In fact, the term “transesterification,” which is the
process of turning triglycerides into biodiesel, means the act of changing one type of ester
into another.

IV. PRODUCING BIODIESEL

Biodiesel is made through a transesterification reaction. Transesterification is the chemical
process of exchanging R group of an ester with the organic group of alcohol. In this
experiment biodiesel is produced from vegetable oil (triglyceride) and methanol (an alcohol)
as the reagents. Sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide can be used as a catalyst for
enhancing rate of chemical reaction.
Transesterification is a reversible reaction and will reach equilibrium as the reaction proceeds
(Figure 2). Each triglyceride contains three chains of fatty acids connected by a glycerol backbone.
To replace the glycerol from these three fatty acids, three moles of methanol are needed, each
reacting with one fatty acid. The transesterification reaction actually happens in three steps. Each is a
reversible reaction with methanol:

Since transesterification is a reversible reaction, if stoichiometric reactants are used, i.e., 3 mol of
methanol reacting with 1 mol of triglyceride, the reaction will reach equilibrium after a certain
reaction time. At that time the reaction mixture will contain esters, mono-glycerides, and
diglycerides, as well as the reactants of triglycerides and methanol. Since biodiesel producers are
interested in producing as much biodiesel as possible by converting all of the oil or fat in the system,
they generally add twice as much methanol as stoichiometrically required (i.e., 100% excess, or a
methanol to oil molar ratio of 6:1). The additional methanol drives the reaction towards the biodiesel,
resulting in a completion of triglyceride conversion to biodiesel, according to Le Chatelier's principle.

V. EXPERIMENT
a) Materials-Equipments
• Vegetable oil
• Methanol/NaOH solution
• Centrifuge tube
• Glass pipet and bulb
• Erlenmeyer flask
• Thermometer
• Magnetic stirring bar
• Hot plate
• Centrifuge instrument
b) Procedure
• Add a magnetic stirring bar to 20 mL oil in the erlenmeyer and place the erlenmeyer on a hot
plate. Adjust the stirring rate so that the solution is being well mixed without splashing.

• Heat your oil to 50 oC. To test temperature of oil, hold a thermometer in the oil but away
from the spinning stir bar. Do not stand the thermometer in the erlenmeyer because it will
break if struck by the stir bar.

• As soon as your oil reaches to 50 oC, turn off the heat, but keep the oil stirring. Slowly pour 4
mL methanol/NaOH mixture into the oil. Be sure that the mixture continues to stir
sufficiently. Record your observations.
• After 20 minutes, remove your erlenmeyer from the hot plate. Record your
observations.
• Obtain centrifuge tubes. Fill it with your biodiesel mixture. Spin them for several
minutes in the centrifuge instrument.
• After the centrifuge, you will see two seperated layers. The top layer is your biodiesel.
III. ANALYSIS
• Take an empty graduated cylinder to the electronic balance. Zero out the mass of the
graduated cylinder.
• Add 5 mL of your top layer and determine its mass.
• Take 5 mL of your original oil and determine its mass.

Determine the densities for your oil and diesel.