Proceedings of the International Conference on Mechanical Engineering and Renewable Energy 2017 (ICMERE2017) 18 – 20 December, 2017, Chittagong, Bangladesh ICMERE2017-PI-375 SYNTHESIS OF BIODIESEL FROM VEGETABLE OIL Md. Moinuddin Quader 1 , Md. Saiful Islam Rony 1 and M. M. Rahman 2* 1 Graduate, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CUET-4349, Bangladesh 2 Assoc. Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, CUET-4349, Bangladesh moinuddinquader@gmail.com, ronyme12cuet@gmail.com, mmrahman.cuet@gmail.com* Abstract-Vegetable oils and animal fats can be transesterified to biodiesel for the use as an alternative diesel fuel. Biodiesel production is a very modern and technological area for researchers nowadays because the price of petroleum is increasing day by day and it has much environmental advantages. The increasing awareness of the depletion of fossil fuel resources and the environmental benefits of biodiesel fuel has made it more attractive in recent times. I select this it as my undergraduate research topic because it is economical, renewable, non-toxic, and biodegradable; it reduces dependency on Crude Oil and supports the farmers for growing vegetables which we used as our raw material. Different studies have been carried out using different oils as raw material and different alcohols as well as different catalysts. In my work I select soybean oils as raw material and three different types of catalysts such as a combination of sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide as double base catalyst; sodium hydroxide as single base catalyst and sulfuric acid as acid catalyst. The ratio of alcohol to oil is the most important parameter in the production of biodiesel. An excess of alcohol is required to drive the reaction to the right. In the experiments I select the ratio of alcohol to oil is 5:1 in case of alkali-transesterification and 30:1 in case of acid- transesterification. The effects of the reaction time, rate of mixing and the reaction temperature during the experiments were studied properly. The properties of the produced biodiesel are almost near to the ASTM standard. Key words: Biodiesel, Trans-esterified, Vegetable oil, Biodegradable, Soybean oil, Catalysts, Reaction time. 1. INTRODUCTION The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) defines biodiesel fuel as mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from a renewable lipid feedstock, such as vegetable oil or animal fat. Biodiesel fuel consists of the simple alkyl esters of fatty acids, is presently making the transition from a research topic and demonstration fuel to a marketed commodity. Annual US production in 2001 has been estimated at 57–76 million liters [1] , with European production more than 10 times that size [2] . It is predicted that, in the US alone, production will reach 1.3 billion liters annually by 2011 [2] .Countries can use their own natural resources for the production of biodiesel. Biodiesel can use the existing distribution infrastructure of the fossil diesel. An alcoholic of vegetable oils is an important reaction to produce fatty acid alkyl esters which are excellent substitutes for diesel fuel and valuable intermediates in oleo- chemistry [3][4] . Biodiesel is obtained from both vegetable oils such as sunflower oil, canola oil, soybean oil, palm oil, rapeseed oil, peanut oil, cotton seed oil and animal fats such as beef tallow, and lard. Biodiesel can be obtained also from other sources such as waste cooking oil, algae, and greases [5] . Biodiesel can be produced by several methods such as direct use or blending, micro-emulsion, thermal cracking (pyrolysis) and trans-esterification. Among them trans-esterification is the most common method for producing biodiesel which includes acid- catalyzed processes, base catalyzed processes, lipase-catalyzed processes, non-ionic base- catalyzed processes, and heterogeneously catalyzed processes [6][7] . Biodiesel causes less damage to the environment than fossil diesel and is an alternative fuel in order to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It is derived from a renewable, domestic resource, thereby relieving reliance on petroleum fuel imports. It is biodegradable and non-toxic. Compared to petroleum-based diesel, biodiesel has a more favorable combustion emission profile, such as low