Study on preparation of biodiesel with peanut oil by transesterification

The preparation of biodiesel by transesterification of peanut oil with KOH catalyst was discussed, and the operational parameters such as molar ratio of methanol to oil, catalyst amount, reaction temperature and reaction time on transesterification reaction were investigated. The results showed that the optimal parameters were that molar ratio of methanol to oil was 6:1, the amount of KOH was 1 wt.%, reaction temperature was 60°C and reaction time was 20 min. At the same time, biodiesel was analyzed by GC-MS, it was found that biodiesel was mainly consisted of palmitic acid methyl esters, stearic acid methyl esters, oleic acid methyl esters and linoleic acid methyl esters, among which relative contents of linoleic acid methyl esters, 51.485 wt.%, was the highest.