hi guys,
first of all i have to say my english isnt the very best, cause i am from spain.
but now my question:
i understand that the titration is important to find out how many naoh i need to neutralize the free fatty acids. but why is it important to take 5 gram of naoh for each litre oil for the reaction? naoh does work as a catalyzer and that means it does not dissipate. if i take more naoh the reaction should be faster and if i take less the reaction should be slower.
for example: i need 2 gram for a litre of oil to neutralize the ffa. and i use 5 gram as catalyzer for the reaction. so 7 in summary.
afer the reaction is completed, i should get back the 5 gram of naoh or is that wrong?
thx
kleinefee

First, I dont claim to be a chemist, this is just my understanding based on what I have read.

5 grams base amount is an excess amount of catalyst that has been determined through years of testing. The chemical reaction in transesterification produces some water which reacts with the catalyst and makes it less available as a reaction catalyst. More catalyst tends to lead towards making "glop". You can certainly conduct your own experiments of different base amount in test batches and report them.

Chris

I don't no of anyone that recovers the NaOH and uses it again. We work really hard to get rid of it and its pretty cheap.
Chris