Researchers find new chemical process to make biodiesel production easier

In California, UC Santa Cruz reported that UC Santa Cruz chemists have discovered a new way to produce biodiesel from waste oil that both simplifies the process and requires relatively mild heat.

In their study, published on October 3 in the American Chemical Society journal Energy & Fuels, lead author Kevin Lofgren details a new way to turn used vegetable oil into biodiesel that involves sodium tetramethoxyborate.This chemical, used to make the active ingredient that reacts with oil to make biodiesel, is considered unique because it allows the biofuel to be easily separated from the byproducts of production—by simply pouring them off. 

“I always wanted to work on biodiesel,” said Lofgren, a Ph.D. student in chemistry at UC Santa Cruz. “I started exploring this new material that we made to see if it could attack the fats in oil to help catalyze biodiesel, and it all flowed from there.”

According to the researchers, the method they discovered turns about 85% of used vegetable oil into biodiesel and passes almost all industry standards for use as fuel in heavy machinery and transportation vehicles.

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