Event Organizers: Institutes
of Energy and the Environment; Biomass
Energy Center; Huck Institutes of the Life
Sciences; Materials Research Institute;
and the Penn State Industrial
Research Office
Speaker Abstract
Novel heterogeneous catalysts for the production of green biodiesel
Jack Matson
Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering
The Pennsylvania State University
Four major issues with the conventional process for converting vegetable oil to biodiesel have been solved: one, the liquid catalyst sodium hydroxide has been replaced with a solid catalyst that eliminates water and waste treatment; two, the highly toxic chemical methanol has been replaced with ethanol as a reactant; three, the reactor can handle any oily feedstock without pretreatment; and four the slow one hundred minute conventional reaction is accomplished in ten minutes.