Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My project is about using invasive species to make biodiesel to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. I've made biodiesel out of regular canola oil and out of carp fish oil. I have two questions. 1. What is a good way to test the different types if I don't have a diesel engine? 2. I made the biodiesel a the same way, but with a few extra steps for fish oil. Would my variable just be the type of oil used?
Thanks

Hi CharlieCarp,

I’m not very familiar with making and testing biodiesel fuels. But after a bit of online searching I found a lot of information about biodiesel quality tests. For example, a couple of quality tests are described at the following link.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_v ... ml#washtst

Quality tests like the “wash test” and the “methanol test” seem to address how well the process for making the biodiesel worked. You might apply either or both of these tests to the fuels you made from different types of oil to find out how well your processes worked.

There are other tests (or standards) that address biodiesel performance as a fuels. One of these is the “cetane number” which indicates ease of ignition of the fuel. Information about this test and some other fuel standards is available at the following link.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_y ... tml#cetane

Most of the performance standards tests require chemistry lab facilities and expertise. But you may be able to find a university or commercial lab that can help you with this if you want to pursue any of these tests.

If your experiment is aimed at comparing the quality of fuels produced from fish oil and vegetable oils then I think the type of oil is your independent variable.

I hope this helps. Please post again if you have more questions.

A. Norman