INFORM April 2026

16 INFORM APRIL 2026 , VOL. 37, NO. 4

BIODIESEL PRODUCTION Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from lipids such as vegetable oils, waste cooking oils, and animal fats, offering a lower carbon footprint than petroleum diesel. However, its production depends on complex variables—feedstock composition, catalyst performance, and reaction conditions—that affect yield, quality, and cost. As the industry pushes toward higher efficiency, greater sustainability, and the use of waste feedstocks, AI has become an essential tool. Biodiesel is produced by reacting triglycerides with an alcohol (usually methanol

AI‑enabled detection. In one study, researchers combined multitask deep learning (MTDL) with Raman spectroscopy to qualitatively and quantitatively assess blends of extra virgin olive oil with soybean, peanut, sunflower, corn, and palm oils with 99.3 percent accuracy. Geographic authentication is another active area of research. The European Union’s Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) certification recognizes olive oils whose characteristics arise from unique local cultivars, environments, and practices. Because these differences stem from minor chemical components, researchers are pairing advanced chemometrics with AI models to classify oils by origin. A recent study integrating ion mobility mass spectrometry with a Random Forest ML model achieved 100 percent accuracy in distinguishing oils from four PDO regions (Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Italy), compared with 68 percent accuracy for a tasting panel. Given the high value of extra virgin olive oil, the industry has pioneered many AI frameworks that are now being extended to other premium oils, such as avocado, argan, and walnut, as well as to large-scale seed oil refining. In the palm oil industry, ML applications include yield prediction, disease detection, price forecasting, and sustainability improvement.

or ethanol) and a catalyst (typically sodium or potassium hydroxide) to form fatty acid methyl esters (biodiesel) and glycerol, a process known as transesterification. Refined vegetable oils such as palm, soybean, and canola can be directly transesterified, but crude or waste oils with more than 2.5 percent free fatty acids require pretreatment to avoid saponification. This pretreatment, commonly with sulfuric acid and methanol, converts free fatty acids to methyl esters before transesterification. Because biodiesel has been criticized for relying on food-grade feedstocks like soybeans and corn, the industry has increasingly turned to waste oils, such as used cooking oil, animal fats,

Biodiesel production from waste vegetable oils involves two chemical reactions: esterification of free fatty acids with sulfuric acid and methanol, followed by transesterification of triglycerides with methanol and a catalyst, usually NaOH or KOH. Source: Popescu, F., and Ionel, I., Alternative Fuel , 2010

Waste vegetable oil >2.5% FFA

Esterification

Sulfuric acid + Methanol

Methanol + NaOH

Transesterification

Crude Biodiesel

Glycerol

Washing

Methanol Recovery

Finished Biodiesel