Converting Chicken Fat and Tall Oil into Biodiesel?

Chemical engineering researchers at the University of Arkansas have investigated supercritical methanol as a method of converting chicken fat into biodiesel fuel. The new study also successfully converted tall oil fatty acid, a major by-product of the wood-pulping process, into biodiesel at a yield of greater than 90%, significantly advancing efforts to develop commercially viable fuel out of plentiful, accessible and low-cost feedstocks and other agricultural by-products.

Supercritical methanol treatment dissolves and causes a reaction between components of a product—in this case, chicken fat and tall oil—by subjecting the product to high temperature and pressure. The simple, one-step process does not require a catalyst.
Substances become supercritical when they are heated and pressurized to a critical point, the highest temperature and pressure at which the substance can exist in equilibrium as a vapor and liquid.

Chicken fat and tall oil treated with supercritical methanol produced biodiesel yields in excess of 89% and 94%, respectively. With chicken fat, maximum yield was reached at 325