Abstract- Biodiesel production from soybean oil can play an
important role as an alternative source of energy for automobile
applications. In this paper an attempt has been made to generate
biodiesel from soybean oil using transesterification and three step
method. The kinetics of transesterification reaction heterogeneously
catalyzed by calcium oxide was studied in order to
understand the reaction mechanism of the system. The three step
method comprises with saponification of oil, acidification of the
soap and finally esterification of free fatty acid (FFA). Both the
techniques go through a number of parameters like reaction
conditions, catalyst selection, reaction time, temperature and
molar ratio of oil to intermediate products and additives required
to be optimized. The results showed that transesterification
reaction obeyed pseudo first-order kinetics with a reaction rate
constant k=0.023 min.-1 for 5 wt. % CaO and yield obtained