Make Biodiesel!

Instructable #2 in my series on biodiesel.

This is my tutorial for using my appleseed processor to make biodiesel. This tutorial will get you through the process of making biodiesel, but not the necessary washing process. I will do my next instructable on dry-washing biodiesel.

Biodiesel is a great way to go green, and cut your carbon footprint quite substantially, not to mention it's cheaper than diesel. Biodiesel will run in a diesel engine, I don't recommend trying it in a gas engine.
The process for making biodiesel uses an oil, a catalyst, and an alcohol. In this case: Waste vegi oil (WVO), NaOH (lye), and methanol.

Please read up on this before you start, and please understand the chemical dangers involved in this process.

Step 1 Safety

First off, some disclaimers and safety info.

NaOH (or KOH, depending on your catalyst of choice) is extremely caustic and will cause extreme irritation if it comes into contact with your skin, eyes, or any other part of you. Methanol is a harmful alcohol. It will cause blindness or death if ingested; one way it's absorbed into your body is through your skin, so simply handling the stuff with bare hand is bad for you. Lastly, Methoxide, the substance produced when you mix your catalyst with the methanol, is an extremely toxic nerve agent. It can do some serious bodily damage.

BE CAREFUL

I use a chemical resistant p100 respirator when I do this process, as well as eye protection. I use some heavy-duty chemical-proof gloves from Northern Tool. Long sleeves are recommended.

Comments

[stib]

If you're making biofuel from waste products good on you, but if you think that biofuel is the 'green' solution to everyones transport needs I have to rain on the parade a bit. Biofuel sounds like a good idea until you start thinking about the consequences of it a little.

Like the way it's pushing up the price of foodaround the world, and the fact that producing food crops uses about 2.3 times more fossil fuelenergy to grow than the energy they provide.

Looks like I can swap destroying the climate with my car for causing global famine with my car. Makes you wonder what would it take to get people to ride bikes instead.

[nicoroc]

dident you read the comment above? bio fuel is being grown with alge that feeds on sewage waste and has 50% its weight in useable oil, that dose nothing to food prices and it cleans waste water naturaly, oh and after they extract the oil from the alge the left over "green powder" is considered a "super food" that is sold in health food stores so its making food also.

[drinkmorecoffee]

Fascinating. What are your sources for that?

[nicoroc]

theres tons of info on bio alge, just ask google, lol, out here in california they're doing some tests out in desert areas and i think austrailia too

[drinkmorecoffee]

There sure is a lot of info out there. But you should still provide sources when making claims like that.

[doomsdayltd]

as far as fuels go, people need to reinvent the automobile. most people, say new fuels (most are bogus) but we all need to turn to something simple and completely eco-friendly. A great tech piece would actually be a tesla turbine to power vehicles, their powerful, energy efficient, structurally superb, and with todays metallurgy they have slim chances to fail.

[zogworth]

You're thinking too small. Its society that needs to change not the car. Energy should be distributed locally rather than through a national grid system. Cities should be high density with district heating and cooling. With integrated public transport cars wouldn't be needed other than for recreation.

[doomsdayltd]

look in the world for civilizations to grow they need some form of an economic platform, most turned to a form of capitalism (since theoretically it works). Now not just with capitalism, any form of economic growth system needs an infinite plan of resources and time. Why this has to do with fuel sources like gasoline, the modern civilizations have been accelerated by the growth of a commodity. If you look at the word commodity, it implies the function of running out. Onto what i was wanting to really say, the problem with a national grid and a local grid is you are still using a polluting resource that is the problem. Also Without an national grid, there is no form of transportation between city's. Now with a local grid, these would be so hectic to run, most areas don't have fuel sources, there would be little to no imports and exports, areas that were once inhabited could not (nevada) due to resources, and if you had a large central city where people of the surrounding area lived there this city would be so large to not even travel without some form of a motor vehicle.

[bingo1912]

Yup, what he said,,,,,

[servant74]

yep, but riding bikes on a 50 mile one way commute in Houston TX or LA kind of sucks. ... such is life for those outside the sweet spot areas where walking, bicycling, or even train commuting is an option.

[Pkranger88]

So you've made complaint. What's your solution, all wise and knowing?

[drinkmorecoffee]

One word: Algae. Biofuels from food crops- bad idea, biofuels from non-food sources- the way of the future.

[stib]

Well, biofuels from non food crops sounds good, until farmers who were growing food crops realise there's more money in growing fuel crops and give up growing food. It's not rocket surgery, it's market economics 101. If everyone switches to biofuels we can kiss the last of the world's rainforests goodbye. Biofuels from algae does sound promising, but then there will be impacts on marine environments. It just takes a lot of area to power the private car fleet with plant based sources. But you know I use biofuel for most of my transport needs: I eat food and ride a bike.

[drinkmorecoffee]

Yes, but algae can be grown in the middle of nowhere. The fact that soil conditions matter a lot less with algae means it doesn't have to take up food crop land, or rainforest areas. There's still plenty of ground to cover, but algae is very promising.

[smithy813]

actually, soil conditions don't matter at all to algae, because it grows in the WATER, thats right, not the middle of nowhere, the middle of the OCEAN, its actually a promising idea, I've heard of it before. About the farmers switching to it, most like there land, not the ocean, I'm sure that a new job niche will only do good things for the economy (now, I've tried to make this neutral enough so that I don't spark a huge debate, but, in advance, sorry if i offend anyone)

[bingo1912]

OI VEY! soylyent green!

[drinkmorecoffee]

Well, the most promising way to grow it right now is in tanks, above ground. No harvesting required. This could be done in the middle of nowhere, somewhere where the soil is no good for growing food-crops.

[servant74]

I like the one where they use overgrown plastic baggies hung row after row, with the algae solution pumped into the top and it slowly winds its way to the bottom. Still has big tanks to drain it into, but it does allow for circulation and central harvesting / maintenance / feeding. Some bloke in El Paso TX seems to have come up with it, but they are still working on which is the most profitable strain of algae for them. personally I have seen plenty of swimming pools and ponds that could use to have some cleaning done ... at least there the algae could be used rather than just thrown / flushed away if algae harvesting was easy to do.

[T2Pogi]

There are many sources of veggie oil and tapping into these sources will no greatly impact the food situation. There is jatropa seeds, coconut oil (many countries in asia have a surplus capacity of this oil due to the scare re "unhealthy" oils), and of course, there is the waste oil for small consumers like us. now if you are talking about ethanol from corn, you may be right. that route is apparently not the way to go.

[hossweightlifter]

Does biodiesel run as good as regular diesel or is there any noticeable differences like gas mileage, the way your engine sounds, your exhaust smell......?

[ZackBlack]

It runs better than regular fuel IMO.

Bio diesel acts as a lubricant as well as a fuel for your engine. Depending where you get your waste oil from is what it will smell like for example if the majority of your oil stars out as cooking oil ( like from chip trucks) then your exhaust will smell like french fries. :P

[jmiranda2]

Two new technologies make ultra-pure biodiesel (that does not gel at 45F) from farm and municipal waste treatment plant effluent possible to make for $2/gal. production cost. Technology #1 Hydroponic algae farming - see http://www.algepower.com/ and http://www.necn.com/Boston/Business/2009/07/15/Algae-may-play-key-role-on/1247700676.html. This is a patented process. An adjunct technology from an Israeli firm, Patz (see patzag.org) sold under the name Patz-OZy, provides both the front-end treatment of the effluent (eliminating the need for a biodigester) and also the back-end separation of the cellulosic material from the runny liquid effluent. Technology #2 is patented, took 18 yrs. to develop/patent and is still in a professor's lab at Syracuse University. The method is called "supercritical transesterfication". Some benefits of this technology: minutes instead of hours, 96% efficient conversion, virtually all unwanted glycol byproducts eliminated. scalable (allows on-site processing) at 1/2 the price. Google Dr. Lawrence Tavlarides / Dr. George Anitescu (George has since moved on to NIST in Colorado.)

[How To Guy]

How is biodiesel worse for the environment? Diesel is a fossil fuel. Biodiesel isn't. Besides, I wish all exhaust smelled like greasy french fries.

[bingo1912]

The main reason they are saying that bio diesel is bad for the environment is not true. what is bad is raising crops and using the oil for fuel instead of human consumption. When this happens the price if food goes up and less land is used for the production of food.. As our population grows so does the amount of land we use to live on, decreasing the amount of farmland. Couple that with the fact that more and more small farmers are leaving the farms.
Hug a farmer. they are a dying breed

[mr.space]

the fact that its a fossil fuel doesn't make it worse for the environment, only certain fossil fuels are worse for the environment, the good thing about biodiesel is that it can be made out of waste products and wont run out...like fossil fuels

[psi3000]

WARNING!!! You imply that your p100 respirator will protect from Methoxide, when in fact IT WILL NOT!! NO RESPIRATOR WILL. Only fresh air supply will. Just a heads up. The best thing to do is mix the Methoxide and make the bio diesel outside with the wind blowing in the right direction. I wish there was a respirator that could help as this is the only thing holding me up from making my own bio diesel. I have everything to my my processor even and I stopped when I found this out.

[phucall-fitz]

hi tufrat look on the journey to forever web site it gives covertion tables for both koh and naoh.Its agood site for allthings earh friendly. regards

[dsandds2003]

is the Methanol the same as they use for the E-85 cars?What is kinda ironic is when they were first building tractors they came with a 3-way valve. These old tractors used gasoline,kerosene and diesel. Now we use entirely different engines. As a matter of fact before gasoline was popular most engines ran on moonshine....Think about it????

[drinkmorecoffee]

E-85 is Ethanol. Different stuff. .... And do not, whatever you do, buy an E-85 vehicle. Any car with a gas engine can run E-85. Car manufacturers slap an E-85 sticker on a car and charge a butt-load of money for it.

[bmk789]

 Not completely true.  While about any gasoline engine CAN run on E85, not all will do it correctly.  For example, I've run my 93 Dodge Shadow 3L on E85 for a few months, until I noticed a white coating on my spark plugs when I pulled them out.  The ECU doesn't know to add additional fuel, and the engine runs lean, all the time.  This burns the pistons/spark plugs/cylinders and can eventually damage your engine.  If you're not sure your vehicle can account for ethanol, I suggest running about 60% gasoline 40% E85.  This won't run lean enough to do damage and will usually result in more power and fuel economy than straight gasoline or straight E85.

[TufRat]

 What is the method if you are using KOH instead of NaOH, particularly the mass/ volume KOH used instead of NaOH?

[dpacjones]

If you heat the oil first, 180F is ideal, minimum 140F, and a maximum of 210F, you can evaporate alot of the water and the oil filters alot better. Keep the lid off, and wrap the barrel with insulation to help keep it warm and speed up the process. Also if you do have water in the oil you can heat it, let it settle overnight in a barrel/ bucket with a drain on the bottom, then in the morning the water should be seperated on the bottom of the barrel, open the bottom valve and drain off the water and other particles that have gathered on the bottom. the longer you let it settled the better. good luck!

[Derin]

I read in the paper that fast food places use Magnesol to re-use burnt oil.It fixes the color,fixes the smell but does not remove the carcinogenic stuff.

[Skor459]

Step 1) Piss in jar Step 2) Put in car Step 3) ??? Step 4) Profit

[pickford78]

lol. the fuel gnomes tell you that one?

[Skor459]

They tell me to burn things.

[Matt D655]

excuse me, why put a jar of pee in your gastank?

[Skor459]

If it looks like biodiesel, it must be biodiesel.

[pickford78]

Bio Diesel is worse for the environment. don't use it!

[drinkmorecoffee]

Do explain, please.