Biodiesel Production Calculator

Institue of Environmental Sustainability

www.luc.edu/sustainability

1 Base Amounts
NaOH the base amount of catalyst needed 4.50 between 3.5 and 5.0
KOH the base amount of catalyst needed 8.50 between 8.0 and 9.0
Methanol use this much methanol for each unit of oil 20.00% between 18% and 22%

2 Pick Catalyst
Type KOH or NaOH KOH 8.50 grams per liter of oil

3 Batch Size

Observed Volume of Pre-Treated Oil (Gallons) 100.00

Temperature (C) 20.00
Actual Volume of Pre-Treated Oil 100.00

4 Titration Values
Enter the value you determined by titration 1.80

5 Reaction Chemical Purity

Enter Purity of Methanol 98.00%

Enter Purity of Catalyst 100.00%

6 Reaction Chemical Quantities

Gallons or, the equivalent in liters
METHANOL 20.41 77.25
Reaction 1 - 80% 16.33 61.80
Reaction 2 - 20% 4.08 15.45

Grams or, the equivalent in ounces

KOH 3898.96 137.63
Reaction 1 - 80% 3119.17 110.11
Reaction 2 - 20% 779.79 27.53

7 Price per Gallon / Liter (Excluding electricity, time, equipment, etc.)

Cost This Batch
Methanol price per gallon $ 4.26 $ 329.10
KOH price per pound $ 2.89 $ 24.86
Oil price per gallon $ 3.50 $ 350.00
Other notes $ - $ -
Other notes $ - $ -
Total $ 703.96

Quantity Gallons or Liters

Biodiesel Observed Amount of Biodiesel 100.00 Gallons
Temperature (C) 20.00
Actual Volume of Biodiesel Produced 100.00
your yield, as a percentage of oil used, was ... 100.00%

Cost per Gallon $ 7.04

-- or --
Cost per Liter $ 1.86