TECHNOLOGY FOCUS - ORGANIC CHEMISTRY - Preferred Method: The method comprises feeding the refined vegetable oil, the alcohol, the catalyst and the aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent into a reaction vessel and mixing for a predetermined period of time under controlled shear conditions, stopping the mixing and leaving the mixture to stand for a predetermined period of time without further stirring where the mixture separates into two phases, and continuing transesterification in an upper apolar phase until 95-98% conversion is achieved. The method comprises feeding the refined vegetable oil mixed with the aliphatic solvent into a lower zone of a counter current packed column apparatus, feeding the alcohol and catalyst into higher zone(s) of the column, transesterifying the refined vegetable oil to 95-98% conversion and withdrawing converted oil product from a top zone of the column. The refined vegetable oil is obtained by thoroughly mixing unit volume of a non-refined vegetable oil with greater than or equal to 0.2 parts by volume of an aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent with a b.pt. of 40-200 degrees C with 0.07-0.2 parts by volume of aqueous glycerol comprising 5-40 vol.%, allowing the mixture to settle to form a lower polar phase and an upper apolar phase and removing the lower polar phase to leave refined vegetable oil and aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent. Water introduced during refining operations is removed by subjecting the biofuel phase to azeotropic distillation in the presence of the aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent. Preferred Component: Aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent (0.3-1, preferably 0.4-0.7 parts by volume) is used per unit volume of refined vegetable oil. Reactant alcohol (1.05-2, preferably 1.1-1.5 parts by volume) is used per unit volume of refined vegetable oil. The aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent is a substance with a b.pt. of 60-180 degrees C. The aliphatic hydrocarbon solvent is a mineral oil out of low aromatic content with a boiling range of 60-100, 100-140 or 140-180 degrees C. The 1-4C alcohol is methanol. Preferred Condition: Transesterification is performed at 60-140, preferably 95-115 degrees C under a pressure sufficient to maintain the 1-4C alcohol in the liquid state. EXAMPLE - Partially refined sunflower oil (250 g) was mixed with n-hexane (75 g) and placed in a reactor. Amberlist 15(RTM: ion-exchange resin) (2.5 g) and methanol (10 g) were added to the system. The reactor was set at 15 bar. The system was brought to 80 degrees C under continuous stirring for 30 minutes. The reactor was immediately cooled to room temperature under a stream of tap water and depressurized. The above method was repeated to obtain a sample for analysis after washing and evaporation. A reactor content was transferred to a flask. Boiling stones and methanol (with 15% potassium hydroxide) (20 g) were added to the system. The content was brought to boiling condition (at 59 degrees C) and kept under continuous stirring at this temperature for 10 minutes and then stirring was stopped and the reaction mixture was left to stand for an additional 10 minutes. Upon allowing the system to cool down to 40 degrees C, the reaction mixture was transferred into a separatory distinct phases formed. After leaving to stand still for 10 minutes, the lower phase was discarded. The upper phase was washed with 10% sulfuric acid (40 g), followed by distilled water (40 g), with separation of the water phase in between the two operations. The lower phases were discarded. The upper phase was subjected to distillation to remove the hexane solvent. There was no sign of water in the distillation apparatus. A Karl Fisher check confirmed that the distilled biodiesel contained 35 ppm water.