Chemistry Project 2009
ECoS Faculty: Bratoljub H. Milosavljevic
ECoS Undergraduate Mentor: Jamie Golden
The Production and Characterization of Biodiesel
The focus of this project is on making and characterization of
biodiesel synthesized from vegetable oil. Students will use corn oil to
carry out a saponification reaction. Prior to this reaction, students
will titrate the oil to determine the correct amount of base for the
conversion to biodiesel; too much base will result in the formation of
soap. Students will characterize the biodiesel by IR and gas
chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Students will also use bomb
calorimetry to determine the heat of combustion of the biodiesel
produced. The goals of this project are: (1) to understand the
composition of vegetable oils; (2) to understand how biodiesel is
produced; (3) to learn how to saponify an oil; (4) to learn how to do
an acid/base titration; (5) to understand thermochemistry in order to
carry out a bomb calorimetry experiment (6) evaluate the quality of
biodiesel by comparing to commercial diesel products (7) to understand
IR and how GC/MS can be used to characterize a reaction mixture.