New Bio-Diesel System

[bbressler]

Bears, where are you from?

I found lye at a car wash distributor, it's sodium hydroxide, or caustic soda. I bought a 40 pound bag for about $40.00, and it's lasted me two summers and still have most of it left.

You can also find Roebic at Lowes, and Red Devil Lye is available in some smaller hardware stores. Just make sure you get 100% pure lye, some of the drain cleaners at Lowes & such have aluminum or other junk in it that will hinder your process. Getting these smaller quantities can get expensive.

 

[bears4x4]

im in cypess tx 290/ fry more or less

 

[bbressler]

You might try:


Us Petro Chemical Indust
www.uspetrochemical.com
5075 Westheimer Rd # 675, Houston
(713) 871-8838

 

[wealthy_stone]

Welcome to the wonderful world of home brew fatty acid methyl esters (FAME, commonly called bio-diesel). Please consider a few words from someone who has been making it for quite some time - many, many batches. It sounds like you have a good start - but I hope you will consider adding some steps to your process.

The temperature you reference I think should be 125F. At 125C, the methanol will boil off as quick as you put it in. 125-135F is the right range.

The lye (base) you use is probably NaOH although many prefer to use KOH. For those who want to assure a good reaction, it is best to perform a titration. WVO has varying amounts of FFA's (free fatty acids) which nuetralize the base added. It is better to weigh the amount to use. For KOH, the base amount is typically about 7.5 g/l of oil. The titration results determine the amount added to the base amount.

It may not be necessary to do the titration, but please wash your reacted FAME. There are a variety of chemicals and materials in your unwashed FAME that eventually will cause great harm to your engine. There are several different methods to wash but the most common are mist, bubble, or settle - and usually a combination of 2 or more are used. I will not get into details here as there are many great forums that go for pages and pages on these wash methods.

Washing will remove remaining glycerine - sorry, after only 12 hours there is still quite a bit of glycerine in the FAME. It will also remove methanol, soap, NaOH and any other water soluable materials in the FAME. As a simple test to see how much bad stuff is still in your unwashed FAME, please put a pint or so into a glass jar, add about the same amount of water, put on a lid, give it a few shakes, and let the water settle out. If the water is not clear, the FAME is not clean.

There are a variety of tests that can be done by the home-brewer and again, there are many forums out there that detail 27/3, pHlip, soap...... I think the best is also the simplest: put your FAME into a clear 1 quart jar, hold a newspaper on the other side of the jar, if you can read the print you probably have clean FAME. If you cannot, there is water, glycerine, soap and/or other contaminants in the FAME. Clean FAME is incredibly clear. Another easy test is the water test I referenced above - just shake a jar with some FAME and water and see if the water is clear. Clean FAME produces crystal clear water.

I look forward to future posts on your successful production.

 

[Vinni]

At this time, I am NOT washing the final product due to having such a clean WVO to start with. This is due to the places I get my WVO from - Mexican (80%) and Chinese (20%) joints. I have very little trash and fats in my WVO to start with.

once I have completed my process, I take a cup of the bio into a Tupperware container and set it on a shelf for a few days to see if any further glycerin falls out of it - to date I have NOT had any fallout.

Additionally, to describe my product - it has the color of beer (golden yellow) and is crystal clear. By no means have I or do I plan to claim that I have the perfect system (I do not believe there is for home use); however, I am taking every step to ensure I cause as least damage to my vehicle by saving money and making my own fuel. mainly, I guess I am doing this to take up some of my spare time and just to have fun beating the oil companies that are attempting to sell us a by-product at a seriously inflated price point.

 

[Ford Nut]

THAT LYE AND METHANOL NEEDS TO BE WASHED OUT ,PUMPS AND INJECTORS ARE PRICEY.

 

[rickh]

I can not see the pics as I am not registered at myspace.
I will say by the description you give you are just scratching the surface.
I can assure you the glue you may have used on PVC will not last. Steel pipe is the most reliable Stainless is better but cost prohibitive. Copper wont work either, turns your fuel green and galvinized will have the zinc etch by biodiesel and get into your fuel.
First I would like to say (remember I can not see your pictures) you must have a sealed reactor system to avoid methanol fumes and the assosiated health concerns. Second, not sure how you are heating your WVO but if using direct heat or any type of open flame, turn the heat OFF before introducing methanol/lye mix.
As for your formula, how do you arrive and the amount of methanol and lye to use?
I am dead against using unwahsed biodiesel filtered or not. Take a sample of you fuel that you place in storage, put it in a small pop bottle and add some water, mix lightly and see what seperates out. You do not want soap/glyercol/methanol going through your fuel system.
There is a qaulity test you can try as well. Take 27 ml of methanol and add 3 ml of your finished fule to it and observe. Did it stay clear, did any droplets fall out.
I am 100% behind you just want to make sure you have all the [proper, time proven] information to make spec, qaulity Biodesel and do it safetly.
I would recommend to anyone wanting to get into homemade Biodesel to visit Biodieselnow.com and Biodieselinfopop, both sites have very experienced commercial and home producers on it and offer many good tips and troubleshooting.
I would also invite you to stop by OmahaBiodesel.net.
Ben, it is possible to achive greater than 100% yeild, very rare and very hard to do. I suspect what is happening is as you mentioned, left over methanol, soap and glcerol, all bad for a fuel system and injectors. mid 90% yeild after going through was and drying is more common.
While 1.15 per gallon is a darn sight better than current pump prices, if you shop hard enough and use free wvo, I suspect you could get down to .70-.75.
Rick H...
Omaha Biodiesel LLC

 

[wealthy_stone]

Unfortunately starting with clean VO does not make clean FAME. It is simply not possible to make clean bio-diesel without performing some type of wash after the reaction. There are many options including mist, bubble, heating, settling.... or some combination of these. It is critical that the contaminants be removed and there are many great resources that detail these various methods.

 

[Vinni]

Can you point me to a location were i can learn more about the "Washing" process? I do want to explore the process because i do not want to do harm to my truck; however, myself and 3 others have been doing the same process in slight variances and none of us have had any problems int he past year and half.

My cooking process is done by a 220V heating element mounted in my 55gal metal "cooking barrel."

 

[bbressler]

Here's a good site:

Biodiesel & SVO Forums - Powered by eve community

There sure is a lot of stuff to wade through there, so I'll tell you how I do mine.

First, I fit a 3/4 water faucet into the 3/4 bung on the drum. Then, I setup the barrel to have a "coned" bottom to it. There are many ways to do this, but what I did was to mix up some concrete and pour it in. I had the edge of the barrel closest to the 3/4 bung held up on a 4x4 post (so the whole barrel is leaning. Then, smooth out the concrete so that it transitions to the hole.

I did it without this for about a year, but it wasn't quite so easy. Also, one of those plastic cone-bottom tanks works excellent for this process (I just don't have the cash to do it that way).

Now, after you have let your glycerin settle and you have drained that off, you can add your unwashed biodiesel to this new wash tank.

Next, I add water, using a very fine mist, to the barrel. The best thing I've used to do this was the FOGG-IT nozzles. Click Here. I use the 1/4 GPM, but I feel like the 1/2 would be just fine.

I add about 4 inches of water to the barrel, I think it comes out to about 10 - 12 gallons. My batches are 40 gallons.

Then, I turn on an aquarium bubble (see same link above, the wooden bubblers lower on the page). You can't use the bubblers you find at walmart, they will dissolve rapidly. I turn the bubbler on so that it is just barely bubbling. The first wash, you don't want much agitation...further wash cycles you can bump it up.

Let that run for at least 5-6 hours (I like to start this when I get home from work, and go till 8 AM. After turning off the bubbler, you'll need to let it set so that the water can seperate. I let this set until I get back home from work.

Drain the water off of the bottom. As you get to the biodiesel, the water will be a milky white. Keep going until you have a color that is more yellow -- it will still be milky.

Repeat the process until the water that comes out is clear (you can also check the PH to make sure it isn't changing.) Bump up the bubble agitation each time.

My biodiesel usually takes 2 washes to get clean.

After it's clean, you need to dry it to get rid of the water. In my area, it's hot and dry all the time, so I just drain the last wash water, then stick my bubble back in on high. Let this go until you can see the bottom of the barrel clearly. sometimes it takes mine just 1 day, sometimes it can take 4. You can speed this up by heating and re-circulating with a pump..but I haven't done so yet.

Filter & serve!

Sorry for the long post....