Biodiesel production, characterization, and performance: A hands-on project for first-year students

• First-year students explore engineering aspects of biodiesel production and use.
• Sustainability, environmental and safety issues are introduced.
• Students’ knowledge improved areas related to ABET outcomes A, B, C and E.

Biodiesel fuel production and use has been used as the focal point of a semester-long, project-based introductory engineering course at Rowan University. Students worked in teams to conduct a series of laboratory investigations through which they explored the engineering aspects of biodiesel production and purification, properties characterization, quality control and performance testing. The experiments were designed to be cost–effective and transferrable.The laboratory experiments were conducted within the How People Learn framework. An assessment instrument was used as a pre- and post-evaluation method to assess learning outcomes. Students’ gained significantly in learning outcomes areas related to the application of mathematics, science and engineering principles; designing and conducting experiments; analyzing and interpreting experimental data, and solving engineering problems.