Hydrated lime identified as hot biodiesel catalyst

Biofuels Digest
Meghan Sapp
June 23, 2011

In Mexico, researchers at the Autonomous Meritorious University of Puebla have discovered that adding hydrated lime instead of calcium oxide more efficiently catalyzes the biodiesel transesterification process. After frying potatoes in soybean oil they bought at a local grocery store, they added lime from a local lime producer, then found that after two hours at reaction temperatures of around 60 °C, the process yielded conversion rates approaching 100%. They found that they could reuse the lime several times but by the fourth use yields dropped about 25%.

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