Biodiesel Activities:

Eric Knispel, a teacher at John Burroughs High School in St. Louis, MO has put together a fantastic set of exercises on the chemistry of biodiesel. The students make biodiesel from vegetable oil and then do a test for sulfur emissions to see how the biodiesel they prepared compares to other fuels such as petro-diesel.

Download the biodiesel production and testing lab

Click here to download .pdf file

Click here to download word file

Pictures of the biodiesel process can be found here.

Model Boats Powered with Biodiesel

A common complaint of many students when they make biofuels in the classroom is, "well, what next?" Eric has answered this question in a really creative way by having the students make miniature steam boats and then fueling the boats with the biodiesel they made.

Pictures of the boat construction and racing can be found here. Movies of the boats in action can be found here.

For More Information:

Please contact Eric Knispel for more information (eknispel@jburroughs.org)

Other published activities on making biodiesel in the classroom:

1. Stout, Roland. "Biodiesel from used oil" Journal of Chemical Education. (2007) 84:1765