Process can be completed in under an hour
Chemists have also claimed that the reaction can be completed in under an hour at temperatures as low as 40°C (104°F)—saving energy and money. Also, the resulting byproduct can be used to regenerate the most expensive ingredient in the production process.
“I always wanted to work on biodiesel,” said Kevin Lofgren, lead author and a Ph.D. student in chemistry at UC Santa Cruz. “I started exploring this new material that we made to see if it could attack the fats in oil to help catalyze biodiesel, and it all flowed from there.”