Methanol: A Simple Chemical Process Analysis

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An attractive alternative to petroleum diesel, biodiesel is made by transesterification, the transformation of one form of ester into another, of an oil or a fat with an alcohol and the esterification of Free Fatty Acids (FFA) with methanol (Alenezi 2012). Biodiesel is technically a fatty acid alkyl ester and can be made easily through a simple chemical process from virtually any vegetable oil and chemicals, such as lye, and alcohol, such as ethanol or methanol (Pahl 2005). Methanol is the cheaper and preferred alcohol to use, but it dissolve rubber and must be handled with extreme caution. Ethanol is a more expensive option, is less toxic and is made from a renewable resource, the difference is that methanol tends to produce a more consistent, predictable, and stable reaction …show more content…
Manufacturing biodiesel relies on reducing the mass transfer between the oil and the alcohol in order to maximize the rate of transesterification (Alenezi 2012). Vegetable oil is normally composed of three fatty-acid molecules that are linked to a glycerol molecule (referred to as a triglyceride)(Pahl 2005). During transeterification, the chemical process that mixes the vegetable oil, an alcohol, and a catalyst resulting in the removal of glycerin from the vegetable oil, the oil becomes thinner and the products of the reaction are alkyl esters (biodiesels) and glycerin (Pahl 2005). The method involves breaking every oil molecule into three fatty acid chains and a separate glycerin molecule, when the alcohol is added to the process each of the fatty acid chains attach to the alcohol molecule to crate three mono-alkyl esters, which makes the esters thinner and more suitable for use as diesel fuel (Pahl 2005). Lastly, a catalyst is necessary to initiate the reaction between the oil and the alcohol and does so by "cracking" the triglycerides and releasing the alkyl esters (Pahl

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