Hi Filip,
You are absolutely right! I am going through the learning curve and I used 30%
ethanol to oil ratio. At the very beginning, I had tried with methanol and
base catalyst (NaOH) and I also succeeded in getting good quality biodiesel.
But, during my first review at college, my prof. said that I should try with
ethanol as methanol is carcinogenic. So, I tried ethanol with base catalyst.
Unfortunately, NaOH was not sufficiently soluble in ethanol and the process
resulted only in soap formation (the whole mass solidified). This, I tried
with different ratios of ethanol to oil and the result was the same. So, I
switched over to acid catalyst. Moreover, I was considerably encouraged by
some chemistry books which said that acid catalysts work faster than base
catalysts.
So, now, do you mean to say that whatever I suspected as biodiesel with
ethanol+acid catalyst is not biodiesel at all? Is it just a blend of ethanol
with oil? Will I get into trouble if I use it in the engine? If yes, what
sort of problems would I have to face?
How can I go about with acid-base catalysis as the base seems to be sparingly
soluble in ethanol? Kindly help me!
Kavitha.
"filip.ponsaerts" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hi Kavitha,
