Biodiesel Production

Conventional biodiesel production through homogeneous base catalysis using NaOH or KOH has many drawbacks, particularly consuming a large amount of water for removing residual base and ion from biodiesel product. To minimize wastewater and reduce purification steps, we are developing technology for biodiesel production through heterogeneously catalyzed transesterification of vegetable oils with small alcohols under mild conditions at 60 - 80ºC and near 1 atm. Various acidic and basic catalysts are designed and synthesized in our laboratory. The transesterification is studied both in batch and continuous reactors.