My Process:
I pump 36 gallon WVO from the blue barrel on the right (WVO storage & initial strain through pantyhose) to black barrel on the left. I then plug in my 220V heater element and turn on the recirculation that pumps from the bottom to an aerator in the top. While that is heating up and circulating, I mix up 8 gallon of Methanol with 1 3/4 cups Lye and dump that into the heating WVO. Once the mixture reaches just over 125*C (as evident by the candy thermometer) i unplug the heater element and allow the circulator to continue for an hour. Once the hour has expired, I unplug the pump and shut off all of the valves-isolating the WVO/Methanol mixture to the heated barrel.
I allow this to sit for 10-12 hours and work its' magic. Once the incubation time has expired, I drain off the glycerin (byproduct) from the bottom of the barrel into a 5 gallon container. This leaves me with approximately 40 gallons of usable bio-diesel for use in my X.
I then adjust my inline-valves to remove flow from the circulator to the filters. I run the mixture through a 10 micron and 5 micron filter set into a sealed 55 gallon drum (sits on far left side). This is my usable fuel storage. Once my fuel gauge reads at 1/16th of a tank, i run a line from the garage to the truck and pump the fuel from the sealed drum - through a Goldenrod water block / 5 micron filter - to the truck.
Ready to roll at about $1.15 per gallon.
