1. The Effect of Feedstocks on Biodiesel Cloud Point Walter Sobba Mr. Spangler Whitefish High School Adv. Chemistry

2. Background Biodiesel is a fuel derived from various plant sources. Some of these are corn, canola, soy, and used vegetable oils. Biodiesel is renewable and much cleaner than petro- diesel. Advantages include reduced CO2 and CO emissions. Some of its disadvantages include higher cloud points which limit its use to higher temperature climates. Also, current costs of production are too high for it to be a feasible alternative.

3. Background Cont. Biodiesel can be used in many industrial vehicles and also in conventional diesel. This is achieved by blending it with petroleum based diesel. Doing this combats the cloud point problem while decreasing emissions. As the search for alternative energy continues, biodiesel will remain as a strong contender.

4. Research Purpose This research project was designed to determine which biodiesel feedstock produces the biodiesel with the lowest cloud point.

5. Procedure Overview ●Make four batches of biodiesel each from a different feedstock ●Use the freezer to test the cloud point of each fuel ●Compare cloud points to one another Variables Independent: Feedstock from which fuel was made (Corn, soybean, canola, used vegetable oils) Dependent: Temperature at which biodiesel clouds Controlled Variables: Production and testing method

6. Procedure: Feedstocks All feedstocks for biodiesel are oils. These contain high energy needed in fuel. This project used corn, canola, soybean, and used kitchen oil.

7. Procedure: Biodiesel ●Biodiesel production ○ Heat 500 mL of feedstock oil to 40 degrees C ○ Mix 2.0 g NaOH with 120 mL of methanol ○ Dissolve NaOH in methanol ○ Blend oil and NaOh+methanol ○ Allow biodiesel to separate from newly formed glycerol ○ Wash biodiesel in water to remove impurities ○ Test for quality ○ Biodiesel successfully made

8. Testing Procedure ●Put 150 mL of biodiesel into a beaker ●Place beaker in freezer and freeze ●Measure temperature at which biodiesel clears (cloud point) ●Repeat with 25 mL test tube ●Run each test 3 times for each feedstock ●Take the mean temperature at which biodiesel clouds ●Record and analyze results

9. Procedure: Biodiesel This is biodiesel after it is blended with methyloxide but before it is decanted to separate the mixture. On top is the biodiesel and below it lies the glycerol.

10. Procedure: Testing ●Titration Testing ○ Calculates amount of NaOH needed ○ Dilute oil in water and add NaOH until a pH of 8 is reached

11. Procedure: Testing ●Quality testing ○ Methanol test ○ Mix 27 mL of methanol with 3 mL of biodiesel ○ Tests for unconverted oil

12. Data Kitchen OilSoybean OilCorn Oil Beaker 11.03.50.6 Beaker 22.04.9-0.4 Beaker 3-1.23.63.0 Test Tube 12.10.9 Test Tube 2-2.83.10.6 Test Tube 30.23.32.0 Mean Temp-0.33.41.1

13. Conclusion ●Different feedstocks had different cloud points ●Soy based biodiesel had the highest mean cloud point ●Used kitchen oil had the lowest cloud point. ●There were significant differences in cloud points

14. Conclusion The majority of my time spent in this research was dedicated to figuring out the process to make the biofuel. Along the way I broke some blenders and learned more about the correct ratios of chemicals to use. In my testing I found that there were significant differences in the cloud points of three different biofuels. This is important in Montana because we experience cold weather that would render some biofuels useless. The used kitchen oil would, based on my results, be the best winter biofuel.

15. Improvements Throughout the experiment some problems have been encountered with the production of the biodiesel. The amounts of NaOH along with the blending procedure are still not perfectly calibrated. Also some batches have failed to fully convert all of the feedstock oil and were, for this reason, not used in testing. Due to time constraints only one batch of each biodiesel will be able to be tested. Ideally two or three different samples from each feedstock would be tested.

16. Improvements cont. In addition to the time constraint, we lacked professional equipment to test the biofuel. The cloud point tests performed gathered qualitative data that was more susceptible to human error than other tests.

17. References Addison, Keith. "Make Your Own Biodiesel." : Journey to Forever. Journey to Forever, n.d. Web. 13 Jan. 2015. "Biodiesel." Biodiesel. Department of Energy, 1 Oct. 2014. Web. 11 Jan. 2015. Canakci, M., and H. Sanli. "Biodiesel Production from Various Feedstocks and Their Effects on the Fuel Properties." Journal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology May 2008: 431-41. Ebsco. Web. 19 Nov. 2014.

18. Acknowledgements I would like to thank Mr. Dan Green for his help in my research of biofuels. I would also like to thank Ms. Sullivan for allowing me to use her blender that I broke in order to make my biofuel. Thanks to the school kitchen for donating kitchen oil to my project. Thank you to my mom who helped and supported me along the way and also bought me oil. Thank you to the school who bought me a blender (that I also broke). Finally thank you Mr. Spangler for guiding me on this challenging journey and helping me reach my goal.