On 2/16/06, Charles List <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
YupHe's basically refluxing it, I assume, with the liebig condenser vertically attached to the reaction vessel. A closed container would do the same thing!A good use for the liebig condenser would be to reclaim the excess methanol from the glycerine, but they are usually pretty small, so would take a while.Charles ListOn 17/02/2006, at 7:27 AM, Jared (RogueOP Productions) wrote:How did you utilize the liebig condensor? Wouldnt that condense the gas given off by the reaction into a liquid? Is that the jist of it? Turning it into a less volitile liquid instead of a gas?
On 2/15/06, Duarte Nuno Januário < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:Hi all!
I've been trying (made 5 batches) to produce biodiesel in a laboratory, for educational purposes. This is what I've been doing:
- 1 liter of virgin oil from supermarket- 200 mL of methanol- 3,5 grams of sodium hydroxide- Prepared the sodium metoxide by stirring for 24 hours (magnetic stirrer) in an closed Erlenmeyer- Preheated the oil to 55ºC- Using a flask with an attached Liebig condenser (to prevent methanol vapors to escape), mixed vigorously for 1 hour maintaining agitation and constant temperature (eventually drops to 52ºC when the metoxide is added) and maybe rising to a maximum of 60ºC at some instants.I do get a clear phase separation after 24 hours, but my biodiesel isn't crystal clear.When I mix a sample of the unwashed biodiesel with water and shake it, the emulsion won't separate…. It will after some hours, but with a lot of soap formation, widespread in the container.I'm using good reactants (not p.a. but trustworthy) and anhydrous conditions.
There one thing I should say: I never got all the sodium hydroxide to completely dissolve in the methanol. No matter how long I keep stirring, it simply won't dissolve quantitatively. But I do filtrate the remains of solid hydroxide. Do you think this can be the problem? How can I solve it?
What can I be doing wrong? Why do I keep getting all this soap? Where do you think the problem might be? In a reactant? Bad quality oil? Do you think I should titrate the virgin oil?
Thank you all for your attention
Duarte Nuno
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