The Daily Bulletin Archive

Please join the Chemistry and Physics departments for the seminar "GC-MS Analysis of Synthesized Biodiesel, presented by Courtney Whetstine, M.S. Forensic Science candidate, on Thursday, October 31, from 12:15 to 1:30 p.m. in Science and Mathematics Complex 176.

Biodiesel (BD) is an alternative energy resource that can replenish depleting natural petroleum storage. Synthesis of biodiesel is cost efficient, as it can be chemically converted from renewable wastes, such as vegetable oil or animal fat. These fuels are also biodegradable; the exhaust emissions from BD are nontoxic and are environment friendly. Biodiesel is a stable fuel, that performs reliably in all diesel engines. BD is easy to synthesize and safe to handle, and it works with diesel fuel storage and pumping systems. 

The United States has an abundance of vegetable oils that have not been wisely used to our advantage. Additionally, fast food restaurants across the United States produce over 3 billion gallons of used cooking oil yearly. Though some of them may be used in pet food, makeup, and livestock feed, restaurants pay cash to dispose of cooked-oil wastes into sewers and landfills. In this project, we collected cooked oil from three local restaurants and chemically converted it into biodiesel through transesterification. Furthermore, we successfully developed a GC-MS method that can identify the chemical composition of the BD as well as quantify the esters of fatty acids that are present. Based on the GC pattern, we successfully confirmed the origin of two samples as soybean and sunflower oils. Interestingly, we found both BD contain same four FAMES but in different concentrations. To validate our scientific results, we synthesized BD from uncooked oil and confirmed our results without any ambiguity. Finally, we studied the physical properties of our BD and compared that with the pure natural diesel as well as BD-diesel mixture.