Making Biodiesel with Vegetable Oil

        Today in class we were going to start making the biodiesel out of 1 liter of vegetable oil (the one we filtered), 250 milliliters of methanol, and 12 grams of sodium hydroxide. We were to wear a long sleeves shirt, close toed shoes, and long pants or jeans because we were using dangerous chemicals and we would not want to get it on our skin. First we put 250 milliliters of methanol into a glass jar and closed them very tightly. Next some students in our class measured 1 liter of vegetable oil into all of our 2 liter soda bottles. Then some other students measured 12 grams of sodium hydroxide and put them into petri dishes. After measuring everything, everyone got a jar of methanol and a petri dish with sodium hydroxide. We opened the jars and poured the sodium hydroxide inside the jar. We had to shake the jar vigorously for about 5 to 6 minutes. The sodium hydroxide increased the temperature of the methanol causing the jar to be hot. After the sodium hydroxide dissolved, we got our bottles filled with vegetable oil, combined the oil and methanol, and shook it back and forth 6 times. Finally we got small beakers and placed the bottles upside down inside the beakers. I learned that the more sodium hydroxide that dissolves into methanol, causes the methanol to increase in temperature. I thought that this was a fun and neat experiment and I also think making our own biodiesel is helping us plan for the future.