Biodiesel in 6 Easy Steps
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
Some friends of ours have taken a interest in making biodiesel. They were initially turned off to the idea of making their own fuel thinking that they needed a elaborate setup. This is hardly the case. I make 2.5 gallons at a time and it only takes a few minutes to mix the ingredients.
1. weigh out 70g of lye (NaOH) - (do not let this contact you)
2. measure out 1/2 gallon of methanol (do not breath fumes)
3. mix methanol and lye to make sodium hydroxide (do not breath fumes)
4. mix sodium hydroxide with 2.5 gallons of warm waste vegetable oil (warm = 90F - 130F)
5. shake well ... wait one day for glycerin to settle
6. pour off top
I should point out that measuring pH and doing titration testing is normally recommended, but I have not been doing either. Methanol can be obtained from car racing stores and lye from any hardware store.
Denim or paper filters can be used to further clean particulates from the fuel before using in your diesel vehicle.
2 comments:
Where do you get the methanol?
Car racing shop in Las Cruces, NM. Any big city should sell methanol through racing shops for roughly $4 gallon. 1 gallon of methanol produces 5 gallons of biodiesel.
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