Many studies of alkali-catalyzed transesterification on the laboratory scale have been carried out. A reaction
temperature near the boiling point of the alcohol (e.g., 60 C for methanol) and a 6:1 molar ratio of alcohol
to soybean oil were recommended (Freedman et al., 1984; Noureddini and Zhu, 1997). The kinetics of
the alkali-catalyzed system were also studied by Freedman et al. (1986), Noureddini and Zhu (1997) and
Darnoko and Cheryan