Once separate the glycerin from biodiesel, it is carried out the washing on the funnels. Separate the glycerin, the biodiesel must be washed because that may contain residues of catalyst, methanol, soaps and glycerides without reacting. Two types of washings are established according to the experimental design.
In one of the washing, water at 40 °C is used for three washes. Other tests of washing have been conducted with acetic acid 10% wt, where is used the same amount of used cooking oil; two washes are carried out with acid solution and the third is done with deionized
water.
The distillation is carried out at 40 °C, temperature which is below the boiling point of methanol. The vacuum pump is used in order to minimize the time of distillation and vacuum trap is used to prevent waste of alcohol and water to the pump.