Tryin' to make some biodiesel.

I "think" I may have done it. :duck:
I mixed up 5 grams of lye (sodium hydroxide) with 355 millilitres of Methanol.
Then added 1.5 litres of soybean oil.
The mix is separating into 2 distinct layers. oo:

This stuff reportedly works in oil lamps too.
I have 2 identical oil lamps.
One with petroleum lamp oil and the other will (hopefully) have the finished biodiesel product with "beamshots" in the general lighting section of cpf maybe by the end of the week.

As soon as I get it to be a no brainer, I'll update THIS thread on how to make your own folks.

Wellllllll beeeeeeeeeeeeee careful with that stuff!



It's aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!!!

3rd_shift said:

I mixed up 5 grams of lye (sodium hydroxide) with 355 millilitres of Methanol.

Click to expand...

Hey congratulations!

And... be very careful with the lye and methanol!

Lye will definitely burn your skin (and eyes). You can neutralize it on your skin with vinegar (have it handy).

The methanol is easily absorbed by the skin and can cause blindness or even death. So... two chemicals that must be treated with respect! If you are going to use them, you really owe it to yourself to read up on safe handling.

BTW... after creating the biodiesel, it is very stable and safe.

You're playing with fire. :devil:

Besides being a serious poison, methanol is quite volatile. When you inhale the fumes, they are absorbed through the lungs. And it's definitely a fire hazard. I hope you are doing this outdoors.

Whether the biodiesel is suitable for kerosene lamps would depend on it's volatility, or lack thereof. "Lamp oil", and highly refined kerosene, aren't volatile. This makes them a good fuel to light up your house. I believe #2 diesel fuel (home heating oil) is volatile and will generate a lot of smoke in a kerosene lamp. I haven't tried it though.

If you end up with something similar to #1 diesel without the impurities, you may have a winner.

I saw this on one of the TV car shows. They had a factory-made setup with pumps and large tanks, plus the charts, ph test chemicals, etc.

All this time I thought you just scooped out the french fries, filtered the grease, and poured it in the car.

There was a young man explaining how to make biodiesel at a local fair a while ago. He mentioned adding water to the mix, but couldn't explain why it was done or what the effects were, or how to remove it later. Could the experts elaborate? Thx.

ya methonal it takes 5ml to make you go blind, 10ml to kill you I think. And I remeber in 7th grade we were handling this stuff like it was nothing to make something in our labs in science. I think to extract clorophyl or something. We were boiling methanol! I knew the stuff was bad and was carefull around it. But others in the class weren't. Plus we were boiling and breathing it I'm sure. Some kids caught their lab on fire when their hoses melted and the methanol hit the bunson burners!!!!

In the demonstration that I saw the process removed a dark brown, gooey material that they called glycerine. Maybe the water is removed along with this.

THis site has a photo of one of the pieces of equipment for processing biodiesel:
http://www.azurebiodiesel.com/

Ehh,,, Drat...
The lye catalyst was drano crystals and didn't do a very good job.
Looking closer at this stuff and I discovered it has other things in there other than lye as well.
I got some clear, heavy glycerin to to form at the bottom but not a lot and the rest is cloudy.

Now I'm a mad scientist. :scowl:

Red devil lye is widely, reportedly better for this. :devil:
I'll also pick up some better gloves, apron and a face shield while I'm at it.
Plus a better blender at the second hand shop nearby.

I do have a good outdoor work area to do this btw.

Stay tuned.


Edit:
It's so different when one can see the finished product.
At this time, I only have a few drops of it to show for my efforts.
Minor jeers to Drano.

this is soemthing i'd like to look into more, but would like to ask a few quick questions of someone who's been doing it...

how much does it really cost? are the $.70 cents a gallon numbers accurate?

how much time do you spend making it? xhours per week? what if you figured gallons per hour?

The cheaper numbers happen with waste fryer grease and a little more talent than with new uncooked oil.
As soon as I get my stuff together with the new oil, I'll take a shot at the much cheaper and more interesting fryer oil. :naughty:

My local Whataburger will never be the same as soon as I get good at making fuel for my F350 powerstroke out of thier used oil.

Rothrandir said:

how much does it really cost? are the $.70 cents a gallon numbers accurate?

Click to expand...

The local oil recycling club (5 guys) I've been working with calculates about 80 cents per gallon for ingredients, electricity to run the water heater, pumps, etc. They've been doing it about a year and have gotten quite good at it. Their fuel seems to compare very favorably with the manufactured biodiesel I've been buying.

If you're looking at Biodiesel, check out Home Power magazine. (www.homepower.com) I have most of the back issues in PDF form if you need any particular articles, but they have plenty of how-to's. I think their cost was $0.24-$0.30/gallon

Eheh, I'm on attempt #3 now.
It's looking better, but It's taking a while for the glycerin to separate out into the bottom.
But I now have more than I did on attempts #1 and 2.
I still think I cut it too short on the Red Devil lye though, despite the use of a new blender I got for Christmas a few years back.
Everything mixed this time like it was supposed to.

Would I mess up a new blender?
If it's in the name of science I sure would.

In a 12 inch high container, I now have a thick and dark 3/4 of an inch of glycerin and a golden, but cloudy, and very fluid layer on top.
I'll just let it set out for the rest of the week on my sunny patio to see if it settles out like it should.



My next attempt will be with a "donation" from a fast food joint that I have come to know does not overuse thier oil.
Thier food always tastes better and fresher than everyone elses.
I now just need to grab some titration equipment and a small grams measuring scale to get the right amount of lye in there next time.

Wish me luck.

As soon as I get it right, I'll post how I did it with pics.

There's a fella here in NZ, who buys all the "old" fish and fries oil from restuarants at a LOW price
He strains it till it is golden brown, and mixes it 50% with diesel.
Better economy, by at least 10 %, and everywhere he goes, everyone says, "I feel hungry, and I do not know why!"

Restaurants are required to have the stuff hauled off, they can't just dump it in the sewers. There are companies that use the oil in the manufacture of animal food. The used grease is not worth much. Depending on the market at the time a restaurant will either have to pay a little bit to have it hauled off, or they will sell it for a small amount. The important thing to them is that they have a reliable person or company to take it away regularly. (My wife's company is in this business so I get the inside information from her. I've suggested to her that they use part of the grease that they pick up to make biodiesel for their fleet of trucks, as a way to cut their costs some but she says they need all of their grease to make their product from.)

Hey if you run out of resturaunt grease, you could always bleep.:laughing:
Don't click if you like animals :sick2:

That's just f*****g yucky. :shakehead:
Can you please edit that post?

Craig, sorry. Let me know if that still isn't better, and I'll just remove the link.

Allow me - Empath

bjn70 said:

In the demonstration that I saw the process removed a dark brown, gooey material that they called glycerine....
.
..
...

Click to expand...

Eh, and if you add a nitrate group to this gooey mess.... does that equal nitroglycerine?
Essentially, I believe that TNT results when you add 3 nitrate groups to toluene rings...

But I'm no chemist....

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