Renewable energy is becoming one of the fastest growing areas of research, the most promising being hydrogen fuel cells, methanol, and biodiesel. Given the abundance of waste sources available, biodiesel products seem a feasible solution to the problems of using nonrenewable fossil fuels. Biodiesel is a renewable fuel created by the transterification of fatty acids generated from plant oils that closely mimic the attributes of normal diesel fuel. The objective of this study was to determine if two simple methods of synthesis and refinement would yield a biodiesel product pure enough to power newer diesel engines.

Four esterifications were carried out using waste oil with methyl and ethyl alcohols, two via a direct titration and two using excess base. The resulting methyl and ethyl esters were analyzed for purity with GC-MS and IR spectroscopy and compared to ASTM (American Society for Testing Materials) D6751 biodiesel standards. Then the physical properties of the biodiesel were tested, including viscosity and calorimetry, which were compared to normal petrol diesel.