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Archive for June 24th, 2009

Home Biodiesel Production Part 2

Now that weve filtered our oil were now going to make a batch of biodiesel. And we want to show you what you do. We now have filtered oil. I have oil in a 55 gallon drum and Im going to put oil into this machine. Inside this machine it has marks that tell me the different sizes and so I will transport this oil in using this big behemoth. Click it on and then we can start the flow by turning the power on. Ive already preloaded this machine full of oil but basically this suck pump would suck the oil up and put it into this machine. Once the oil is in here then were ready to get started with the batch. Remember it takes methanol and lye and we use a secret ingredient we use sulfuric acid and Ill tell you what thats for in a minute.

After weve loaded our oil into this machine its now time to load the chemicals and everything else needed to get it going. Our next is to put methanol into these quarts up here. So Im going to climb up here and what we have is; one quart for our methanol one quart for our methoxide which is going to be our combination of sodium or potassium hydroxide were going to use potassium hydroxide in this case and some methanol. I have some handy gauges on the side here that let me know when I get the amount of methanol Ive needed into the machine so Im just going to step down here for a moment put my methanol in the barrel and Im going to chug away with a pump then Ill get methanol into our machine here.

What you see now is a gauge thats coming up. Youre able to see that we can fill this full of methanol. This tank is going to be used for what we call our estarification process which is where we use sulfuric acid. Well show you that in a minute but for now its time to get the methanol into the machine.

The next step that were going to do is were going to measure out some chemicals. Its really important that you wear something to protect your face and hands because what were about to do is really nasty. Using a scale were going to way out enough catalyst to make our biodiesel with. I have tarred my scale and what that means is Ive set it to zero so I know how much Im putting in. Im going to bring this up to 1600 grams and Im going to do it again. So my goal is to put 4800 grams of catalyst into that machine. So with that were going to take it over and put it in.

The next step is to put the catalyst into the machine. This is a very careful process of making sure all the stuff in the pitcher just gets into the machine. It generates lots of dust. Its kind of gross. Its basically annoying but its a necessary evil. I have to do this a couple more times and then well be ready to start a batch.

So weve got now a certain amount of catalyst in here and were now going to introduce methanol. A chemical reaction is going to occur. Ill top that off. Its important that after youve put the catalyst in that you seal your catalyst back up. So were now going to go over and seal our catalyst before we get started on our next set.

One of the things that we do when were done with our catalyst is we seal everything so that we dont let the catalyst get moist. So Ive sealed my catalyst bucket that Ive got Ill get a towel and cover up my scale to keep it nice and dry. I put this inside here to keep it dry and I cover everything. I dont want any moisture getting on there. Our next step is to put more methanol in the machine and well get the batch started.

About the writer:  The Hypertech Diesel Programmers Quadzilla Diesel Parts are both fully compatible with biodiesel Nathan Young