Characteristics of Alcohols Used in Biodiesel Production
Alcohols that can be used in biodiesel production are those
with short chains, including methanol, ethanol, butanol, and amylic
alcohol. The most widely used alcohols are methanol (CH3OH) and
ethanol (C2H5OH) because of their low cost and properties.
Methanol is often preferred to ethanol in spite of its high
toxicity because its use in biodiesel production requires simpler
technology; excess alcohol may be recovered at a low cost and
higher reaction speeds are reached.