|
FuelisFree |
Home | Household Tips | Construction | Power Production | Contact Us |
|
Do-It-Yourself Biodiesel |
| |
 |
The process I use for making my own biodiesel is known as the Basic Method, and is recommended for those starting out.
I pick up my used vegetable oil from a fish-and-chips shop, then bring it to my biodiesel processing unit in my garage. This consists of:
- a recycled electric hot-water heater (the element preheats the veggie oil);
- two fifty-litre beer kegs obtained from the salvage yard and modified with cone bottoms and bottom valves;
- twenty feet of one-inch copper tubing;
- lots of extra valves for isolating the mixes at various stages;
- one large electric motor hooked directly to a brass impeller pump for gear driven strength and for augmenting the mix;
- and for failsafe back-up I use a 5/8ths Kango drill motor holding a modified cylinder reamer to spin the oil as well. I recommend having a few joints come apart for the odd time you make jelly!
|
| |
 |
As you can see the switch has been jammed with a zap strap.
With the noise and the heat I didn't feel like holding the spring for one hour of processing.
The drill is attached to a large metal disc that covers a triangular hole in the top of the processor tank (easier to zip cut than circles or squares).
I tap in three wooden wedges to hold it all in place while the drill is turning.
|
| |
 |
The Gilmour weed sprayer has a brass 3/8ths rod inserted through the screw top and five-minute epoxy so that a small Band-D drill can mix up my sodium methoxide safely.
You may notice that the motor joining the brass pump has a plastic safety gear that will shear off in the event something gets seriously clogged in the impellers. Also notice the plumbing union joints on either side of the pump for easy disassembly and cleaning.
|
| |
 |
Once the oil and methoxide has been mixing for one hour at 130 degrees or so it is time to turn off the Kango and plug in the brass pump so that the mixture starts to rise up the right-hand tube which is clear three-quarter-inch polyethylene.
When the first settling barrel is completely full the fluid will exit through the top of the stainless steel tank and travel through another clear tube over to the sister vessel and will almost get completely full on a ninety-litre batch. You will usually know in just a couple minutes if you did the job right, the separation of the glycerine starts pretty quick.
|
| |
 |
You need to give yourself lots of room for producing biodiesel.
Your work area must be well ventilated and have a containment wall of concrete or solid wood, so that in the worst case scenario when a plumbing fixture blows you will be confident that your boiling oil doesn't make it to your neighbour's home or the city sewers.
Keep in mind that biodiesel is completely biodegradable and is much less toxic than table salt... but most of your kind neighbours won't care about that when they are slipping and sliding in the gooey mess! Biodiesel's lubricity is much higher than its petroleum counterpart.
|
| |
 |
The clear tube you see on the left is where the settled fuel exits the tank into the sixteen-litre oil pails that I use. You want to do this no sooner than eight and no later than twenty hours so that the glycerine doesn't jam up your system.
All that's left to do now is send the glycerine to your backyard composter to be mixed with grass clippings, soil and food waste from the kitchen. The esters are washed in a tank two or three times and when they don't shake up into soap inside a coke bottle it is time to heat and settle out the remaining moisture in some forty-five-gallon barrels after heating to 130 degrees for one hour once more.
|
