1st Big batch!

Today I made a batch in the processor !

I moved 96 litres of Waste oil into the processor, heated to 55C and added the 21.5 litres of Methanol and NaOH. It then circulated for 2 hours and then settled for another hour. I then drained off from the bottom of the tank about 18 litres of dark red liquid (glycerin) until the liquid became a golden yellow/wheat colour.

Here's a sample:

It looks pretty cloudy as there's still a few impurities in there. These will drop out (and be filtered out) once the left over methanol is removed. This is done through evaporation (from heating or naturally to the surrounding air). I heated this sample on the hob and took it to about 70c (around 160F) for 5 mins. Once it had cooled a little I decanted it (there was a distinct puddle of dark "stuff" (liquid and a few lumps) in the bottom) and filtered it through a coffee filter (Google suggests a coffee filter is around 20 microns).

In this shot, you can see the line of the darker liquid and the line at the edge of the bio.

The resulting liquid is much clearer!

I also did a quick test known as the 3 in 27 or 3/27 test. You take 27ml of methanol and add 3ml of the biodiesel (ie the sample). once added, you shake/mix for 5 seconds and then look to see if there is any separation. If the process is incomplete, there will be a "bubble" (a bit like in a spirit level) under the methanol. if there is no bubble, it means the reaction is at or around 96% complete (which is good!). This batch had NO bubble!

Nearly there

I have had a few weeks off in August for holidays etc so progress should have been rather slow. Fortunately, the kids also took a week out to visit their Grandmother.... So progress has sped up!

The two tanks are now connected and the filters are in place too (with their own pump).

The main tank has its heating element fitted just above the start of the cone. Its a simple immersion heater with built in thermostat. The two tanks both have a site tube running down th eside to see how full they are. The same hose type is also used to link the tanks to allow them to breath. Lastly, the breather pipe vents to the outside to prevent fumes building up inside the building.

The second tank is for settling the processed mixture. The mixture of Bio and Glycerin and left over Methoxide will be pumped over and left to settle. Once the glycerin has been drained off, the remaining Bio (with some leftover Glycerin and reactants) is then pumped through the filters. They filter at 20, 10 and 5 microns. The last filter is a 1 Micron absolute filter.

In the foreground yo can see the input filter (Blue and white). This is where the first pump sucks in raw oil. If the oil has been used, it will need filtering, hence the 250 micron filter.

I've mounted the controls for the pumps and heater in this panel here: there's one switch each for the two pumps and the heater. The display on the right is a PID. It monitors a temperature and can turn another device on or off depending on the temperature I set.

Link - The Sun, New York - BioDiesel for removal trucks

A large removals firm in New York city is due to pilot BioDiesel on 10% of their trucks (around 50 vehicles). The equivalent saving on CO2 emissions of 45 vehicles per year!

If you want to buy BioDiesel in the UK, check out this map to find your local source.

A "Where can I fill up?" site

If you Google "where can I buy bioDiesel" in the there are very few actual list of retailers/resellers. There are even fewer UK based ones! The one that keeps coming up from a variety of links is http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/alloutlets.htm but its not (in my opinion) the easiest to use. Thus I have knocked up the following: http://www.thebiodieselcook.co.uk/, based on Google maps UK map, the site shows graphically where the listed sites are. Most people know where they live/work are about to travel too so they can zoom in and click on info about the local supplier. There's also a link to add new supplier details too! Now to make it look a bit more pretty and then publicise it.

http://www.biodieselfillingstations.co.uk/alloutlets.htm

http://www.thebiodieselcook.co.uk/

Condenser assembley.

The next phase of the condenser is to make the water jacket.

This afternoon I went to three different DIY shops (Hardware stores for the US readers) looking for 3 inch plastic pipe and end caps. The pipe was easy, its used for drain pipe on guttering. The end caps were impossible; who would want to seal a drain pipe!?!


So the solution I have come up with is to use slightly narrower pipe (I have had to tighten the coil I made yesterday) and use part of a sink "U" bend plastic molding for caps.




I have drilled and fitted brass connectors in one end cap (this will be the bottom end where the cold water feeds in and the liquid Methanol drains out of the coil) and one fitting in the other (top) for the water to exit again. Near the top of the pipe I have drilled a hole for the top of the coil to exit and attached a fitting there to connect to the processor.


The caps are jointed to the pipe body with "no more nails" adhesive. If that fails I have some "plumber's mate" that sets on contact with water....

Diesel Vs. Hybrid...

When a dirty Diesel is better for the environment than an Eco friendly hybrid.

I stumbled onto the following page in my travels. Part way down the page is a table comparing the CO2 emissions of a VW Jetta and a Toyota Prius. The Jetta's CO2 pound/mile is significantly lower when run on either B80 or B100 (B80=80% BioDiesel, 20% petroDiesel, B100 = 100% BioDiesel). In fact B100 returns CO2 emissions that are over 50% LOWER than the Prius.