5/5/2011 Biodiesel Titrations

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CENTER The Science Company sells chemicals used in tests commonly performed in producing biodiesel
fuel from new or used cooking oils.

To produce biodiesel requires an alkaline catalyst, lye (sodium hydroxide or potassium

hydroxide) to enable the reaction of methanol (methyl alcohol) and vegetable oil. Virgin oil of
any type requires an amount of lye equal to about 1.0% by weight of the vegetable oil. This
amounts to 3.5 grams of lye per liter of vegetable oil.

In w aste oil, free fatty acids (FFA) are typically present that w ill interfere with the biodiesel
reaction by “using up” some of the lye before all of the vegetable oil can react to form biodiesel.
To determine how much additional lye is required, a titration is needed to be performed. This will
determine how much FFA is present and how much extra lye is required to drive the biodiesel
reaction to completion. This titration utilizes a 0.1% sodium hydroxide water solution.

The titration is performed by dripping the sodium hydroxide solution into a mixture of isopropyl
alcohol and w aste vegetable oil. This is typically 1 milliliter of vegetable oil into 10 milliliters of
isopropyl alcohol). The reaction is complete w hen all the FFA have been neutralized.

Phenolphthalein pH indicator will show a color change w hen the end point is reached. Other
methods of pH determination employ pH paper (not as accurate as phenolphthalein) or a pH
meter (more accurate than phenolphthalein). The amount of sodium hydroxide solution (in
milliliters) used in the titration represents the amount of extra lye (in grams of lye per liter of
vegetable oil) to be added in the biodiesel reaction in addition to the 3.5 grams per liter
required for the reaction of virgin oil. For example, if it takes 3 milliliters of 0.1% lye solution to
complete the oil / isopropyl alcohol solution titration, you w ill need to add 3 grams of sodium
hydroxide to the 3.5 grams for new oil, or 6.5 grams total per liter of waste oil.

After a quantity of biodiesel fuel is produced it will require washing or some other treatment to
remove soap contamination. It can be tested for soap content by performing the Soap Test
Titration. This test can help predict how a given batch of biodiesel w ill wash. It is also employed
by those w ho use magnasol or synthetic magnesium silicate instead of w ater w ashing to
determine how much magnasol to add.

The soap test titration uses hydrochloric acid, 0.01N solution, as a reagent, bromphenol blue,
0.4% aqueous, as a pH indicator, and acetone or isopropyl alcohol as a solvent. Bromphenol
blue turns yellow at about 4.5. The yellow end point is the point at w hich all the soap in a test
sample has been neutralized by the hydrochloric acid titrant. By know ing the volume of .01N HCl
used in the soap test titration, it is possible to calculate the amount of soap in the biodiesel test
sample.

Use the follow ing formula:

Soap content (in ppm) = (ml of .01N HCL solution) / weight of sample x 30.44

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