ABSTRACT:
Biodiesel, as a good renewable substitute for fossil diesel has initiated much research on its production. Estimation of alkyl fatty estersis the ideal method of choice for the optimization and standardization of the biodiesel conversion process from vegetable oils. But equipment’s like GC, HPLC etc used for the quantitative estimation of the esters are not available in all laboratories conducting biodiesel research. Many reports on biodiesel hence can be observed to be using other physical parameters rather than the compositional analysis to prove their suitability of the converted oil as biodiesel. As the reactants and the products are stoichiometrically related, quantitative estimation of glycerol, a bi-product of vegetable oil conversion, should also be sufficient enough to follow the reaction progression and calculating other constituent’s concentrations or percentage conversion, though indirectly. A modified, titrimetric method involving the oxidation of glycerol with periodic acid was found to be good enough for accurate determination of glycerol, in the 10% (m/m) concentration region usually present in the biodiesel production. This is a simple method and can be most useful for those doing biodiesel conversion studies to find the extent of conversion in the absence of sophisticated instruments