In a world where environmental awareness is becoming increasingly important for individuals, businesses, and mankind as a whole, it's always important to be looking for ways to re-use waste and cut carbon emissions. Biodiesel is a great way to do this. You're reusing waste oil and reducing your impact on the environment.
This Instructable will take you step-by-step through the process of making a BioDiesel processor. This type of Processor is called an appleseed processor. It uses an old (or new if you feel like dropping the money) water heater. The amount of fuel you can make will depend on the size tank you use. My first prototype uses a 10 gallon tank. Not too efficient if you plan on making large quantities, but great for figuring things out.
Before you do this project you should research the process and dangers involved in producing biodiesel at home.
Before you run out and buy $100+ worth of plumbing materials, I should say this: As biodiesel becomes more and more popular the resources available become more and more scarce, and people are starting to charge for things that used to be free, specifically Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). I would suggest securing a source for WVO before you embark on this project.
There are many unspoken rules about gathering WVO from businesses, and I can talk about those in another instructable. For now just know that you CANNOT just take oil, for this you can get arrested and tried. You also need to be consistent (If you say you'll be there every Tuesday to pick up someone's oil and you show up on Wednesday half the time people will often give your oil to other people).
My instructable on how to use this processor can be found here.
This Instructable will take you step-by-step through the process of making a BioDiesel processor. This type of Processor is called an appleseed processor. It uses an old (or new if you feel like dropping the money) water heater. The amount of fuel you can make will depend on the size tank you use. My first prototype uses a 10 gallon tank. Not too efficient if you plan on making large quantities, but great for figuring things out.
Before you do this project you should research the process and dangers involved in producing biodiesel at home.
Before you run out and buy $100+ worth of plumbing materials, I should say this: As biodiesel becomes more and more popular the resources available become more and more scarce, and people are starting to charge for things that used to be free, specifically Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). I would suggest securing a source for WVO before you embark on this project.
There are many unspoken rules about gathering WVO from businesses, and I can talk about those in another instructable. For now just know that you CANNOT just take oil, for this you can get arrested and tried. You also need to be consistent (If you say you'll be there every Tuesday to pick up someone's oil and you show up on Wednesday half the time people will often give your oil to other people).
My instructable on how to use this processor can be found here.
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Signing UpStep 1: Do some research
Do some research. You can't read too much about biodiesel. I spent about a year researching before I built this and started making fuel.
A book that is a must read is Biodiesel Basics and Beyond: A Comprehensive Guide to Production and Use for the Home and Farm Much of the information you find on the internet (including this instructable, no doubt) is incomplete information. This book will give you the ins and outs of every step you need to take.
Be familiar with how the process works before you build a processor. If you understand how it's supposed to operate when it's finished, you will make fewer mistakes when you're building it.
A book that is a must read is Biodiesel Basics and Beyond: A Comprehensive Guide to Production and Use for the Home and Farm Much of the information you find on the internet (including this instructable, no doubt) is incomplete information. This book will give you the ins and outs of every step you need to take.
Be familiar with how the process works before you build a processor. If you understand how it's supposed to operate when it's finished, you will make fewer mistakes when you're building it.
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Do not try running any Diesel on a gas engine.
*BUT* they are way too hot for this application it will boil and brun the oil. You will need to step down the voltage to reduce the output. A 2KW kettle element @220V can be stepped down with a 110V transformer to 1KW.
I used a submersible thermostat on mine set to 60C about 2/3 of the way up the tank and a good flow around the element from the pump to prevent any overheating.
And of course, a very well ventilated area to work in.
www.johnsartsandcrafts.com visit or send for more info.
As far as the WVO vs biodiesel argument goes, this too needs a thorough examination and understanding of the factors involved. Most importantly what kind of vehicle are you going to use it in as fuel. Where you live in relationship to weather and temperature is a factor. If you have a relatively new diesel vehicle you can pretty much forget about WVO unless you exert great effort in making sure you are doing it correctly, new diesel fuel systems are not at all tolerant and are hugely expensive to repair. But if you have an older diesel you are in a much better position to try WVO.
Biodiesel will be ok in newer vehicles again the fuel systems are expensive and can be cranky so unless you are confident your biodiesel meets fuel standards you risk disaster.
I have 20+ years experience with alternative fuels, live totally off the grid, run vehicles on both biodiesel and WVO, heat my shop and make hot water with waste motor oil and heat my house with wood and also use PV and solar for heating.
kudos to the posting.
Do not let me rain on your parade though. I'm certain that at one point or another I will become brave enough to move from SVO to BioD.
Thanks again
Problem is it is only rated for room temperature fluids.
I prefer a Taco or Grundfuss pump that is designed for hydronic heating systems. They cost about twice as much (~$80 vs ~$40), but they are designed for circulating hot liquids.
An added advantage is that these pumps are "flange mount," which means it is very simple to change them out -- although they don't ever need it! In contrast, the "theaded in" Harbor Freight pump causes you to disassemble almost everything to swap it out -- which was twice, in my case.
In the winter, I purposely leave the methanol in the biodiesel and don't wash it. This allows me to run B100 down to about -7C, whereas commercial biodiesel is a solid brick at that temperature. You generally cannot use commercial biodiesel below about 3-5 degrees C, but just a bit of residual methanol lowers the cloud point significantly.
That said, in the summer, I do recover methanol. The beauty of an Appleseed design is that it can be pressurized with a vacuum pump. I then use an aluminum radiator with a fan for a heat exchanger to distill the methanol out.
But consider also the energy cost and time of doing this. I recover about 2 litres of methanol from a 120 litre batch. So that's a savings of $8 or so for hours of extra work.
Thinks can get out of hand VERY QUICKLY! I strongly suggest avoiding the combination of plastic tanks and electric heating elements. You can use a poly tank processor ONLY if you use hydronic heating that well NEVER get hot enough to melt the tank!