Nowadays, Tra catfish fat is given attention as an appropriate material for biodiesel production in Vietnam. The aim of this work is to investigate the optimal conditions of refining biodiesel and recovering glycerin by the transesterification from Tra catfish fat using KOH catalyst. As our results, the yield of transesterification was achieved to 94.17% at 50℃ for 45 min with 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat in the presence of 0.8% KOH catalyst, and wherein the biodiesel was refined by washing with distilled water at 70℃ and dried in a microwave oven. The yield of raw glycerin recoveries from the transesterification process was 78.58%. The purity of raw glycerin was 84.14% by the conditions of neutralization state with H3PO4 solution (pH = 5), 70℃, and 60 min. Activated carbon (3.0 wt.%) was used for the bleaching process at 80℃ for 20 min. The biodiesel was obtained in accordance with for ASTM D 6751 (biodiesel standard). The ash and water of raw glycerins were 7.32 and 8.01%, respectively, and implied that the raw glycerin is very promising candidate to be used as a raw material for textile and cosmetic industries.

Transesterification of fat of Tra catfish with methanol in the presence of the KOH catalyst yields fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) and glycerol (GL). The effects of the reaction temperature and reaction time on rate constants and kinetic order were investigated. Three regions were observed. In the initial stage, the immiscibility of the Tra fat and methanol limited the reaction rate, hence this region was controlled by the mass transfer. Subsequent to this region, produced FAME like a co-solvent made the reaction mixture homogeneous, therefore the conversion rate increased rapidly so it was controlled by the kinetic parameters of the reaction until the equilibrium was approached in the final slow region. A second-order kinetic mechanism was proposed involving second regions for the forward reaction. The rate determining step for the overall KOH catalyzed-methanolysis of Tra fat was the conversion of triglycerides (TG) to diglycerides (DG). This rate constant was increased from 0.003 to 0.019min-1 when the reaction temperature was increased from 35 to 60℃. Its calculated activation energy was 14.379 (kcal.mol-1).

The fat of Tra and Basa catfish (Mekong Delta, Viet Nam) was evaluated for the first time as the potential feedstock for biodiesel production, due to its abundance, availability and cheap cost. The unsaturated fatty acid contents of Tra and Basa fat were 57.97% and 64.17%, respectively. Biodiesel was prepared from Tra and Basa fat by methanolysis reaction using alkali catalysts like sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide. Effects of various process parameters on biodiesel production, such as molar ratio of methanol to fat, catalyst concentration, temperature and time were investigated. As those results, the transesterification can be performed under moderate conditions, and the biodiesel yields were shown more than 90%. KOH catalyst was the best catalyst for biodiesel production from both Basa and Tra fat. As the feedstock aspect, Basa fat was indicated more efficiency than that of Tra fat. The maximum yield could be achieved by the transesterification from Basa fat with 5:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat, 0.8% KOH catalyst, 50℃, and 50 min. For Tra fat, the optimal condition were at 6:1 molar ratio of methanol to fat, 0.8% KOH catalyst, 50℃, and 45 min. Nowadays, due to cheaper cost and abundance, Tra fat is a promised resource for cheap biodiesel production in Viet Nam.