Biodiesel For Beginners
Below are the basics you need to know to produce your own Biodiesel for the fraction of the cost you are currently paying at the pump.
'I would like to introduce you to a company who taught me everything I know, went out of their way to introduce me to the correct ways to produce high quality BioDiesel saving me time and money on the way.'
Lincs Bio Fuels Ltd - Their website takes you straight their EBay page where you can buy everything to produce high quality BioDiesel at home. If you purchase from them let either Andy or Chris know you found them through www.homebrewpower.co.uk
This example is for a 100 Litre batch of Biodiesel.
Chemicals & Equipment Required For Biodiesel Production
- Complete Titration Kit
- Large Clean Processor (Oil Drum or Plastic HDPE Drum)
- Circulating Pump With Metal Impeller (Central Heating)
- Dry Wash Tower & Biopure filtering media
- (NaOH) Sodium Hydroxide Pellets (To Form The Lye)
- Methanol (20% -25% Of Total Used Oil Per Batch)
Titration is necessary. It means taking a sample and measuring the acidity of the oil. Without it you will make a lot of soft soap or spoilt oil.
Complete Titration Kit Includes The Following
2 x 50ml Bomex glass jars
2 x 30ml Jars with lids
3 x 30ml Sample bottles, one with colour solution
7 x Syringes
5 x Pipettes
500ml
Isopropanol Alcohol (Bottle A)
500ml Tester Solution (Bottle B)
A pair of disposable gloves
Follow the procedure below to perform the Titration test on your
oil
STEP 1 Add 10ML
Isopropanol Alcohol (Bottle A)
STEP 2 Add 1-2 Drops colour reactor to attain
colour as diagram
STEP 3 Add drops of the tester reagent (Bottle B)
until the colour is Pinkish / Red
STEP 4 Add 1ML of oil to be reacted and swirl at a
minimum of 20c
STEP 5 The colour should now be Yellow again – With
a marked syringe add drops of tester (B) reagent until once again
you get a Pinkish / Red colour that remains unchanged. Count the
amount used in ML out of the syringe and add this to the base amount
of catalyst being used.
IF USING CAUSTIC (SODIUM
HYDROXIDE) = 5g + Titration Amount Example: If your
titration is 2.5 (5g + 2.5g = 7.5g per litre of oil to be processed)
IF USING (POTASSIUM
HYDROXIDE) YOUR BASE FIGURE IS 7g Example: (7g + 2.5g =
9.5g per litre of oil to be processed)
After your reaction, a simple test to determine the conversion of
all fats is what is called the 27/3 test. Take one of the 30ml
screwcap bottles supplied and put in 27ml of methanol, next with a
syringe put in 3ml of your bio-diesel, shake and your bio-diesel
should dissolve and disappear and the methanol should remain clear..
If you have any amount of oil settle on the bottom of the bottle,
this may indicate an incomplete reaction and it may need further
reaction with a little more chemical and methanol to push it to 100%
conversion.
BioDiesel Washing - Wash With Water or Dry Wash with
BioPure?
The final stage of BioDiesel production is to clean the residual soap out of the product. When the Lye reacts with the waste oil the waste product is gylcerin (Liquid Soap!) after processing and draining off the waste Glycerin some will remain suspended in the BioDiesel.
There are two ways to remove this unwanted soap, washing with water or dry washing. I would recommend 100% not to bother with water washing. It is way too easy to end up with a batch of 100 Litres of emulsified biodiesel (Commonly known as Chicken Soup!)
The way I make clean, high quality BioDiesel is to dry wash with BioPure. I filter in one pass (Single Stage Filtration) and the end product is good to go straight into your diesel tank!
BioDiesel Processor
BioPure Filter Tower
Polished BioDiesel Fresh From The BioPure Dry Wash Tower
40ML Biodiesel Sample
Finished BioDiesel Ready For Use (25L)