ABSTRACT
Numerous methods have been developed to assess the degree of conversion of vegetable oil and methanol to biodiesel. Perhaps the most common way to analyze biodiesel is by gas chromatography using the American Society for Testing
and Materials (ASTM) test method. For qualitative analysis, thin-layer chromatography can be used. Vegetable oil and biodiesel have signi™cantly different Rf values. The relative size of the spots from starting oil and biodiesel product offers an approximation as to the success of the transesteri™cation reaction.
