Welcome to biofuel-uk
Promoting biofuels in the UK
When Dr Rudolph Diesel demonstrated his first oil engine (Circa 1900) it was running on peanut oil and was designed to make use of vegetable oils, modern diesel engines can also be modified to run on either new, straight vegetable oil (svo) or used, waste vegetable oil (wvo).
click for info on using vegetable oil as a fuel
Making biodiesel from vegetable oil
Biodiesel, is processed from vegetable oil, and can be made from svo or from wvo, and it can be used in any engine which uses conventional diesel without modification, and is a lot cheaper than diesel as well as better for your engine and the planet,
BUT the best news is that you can make it yourself and help break the grip of the multi-national oil companies.
However if you make more than 2500 litres per year YOU MUST pay fuel duty to Customs and Revenue Click here for more info on fuel duty or come onto one of the biofuel forums below and discuss it.
The Basic recipe
yields approx 1 litre of biodiesel
*WARNING NOTICE*
making biodiesel involves the use of some chemicals which can be dangerous or harmful, particularly methanol and sodium hydroxide, suitable precautions should be taken when handling these chemicals, making biodiesel is safe if you're careful and sensible so wear protective gloves, and eye protection and do not inhale any vapors, and keep water and fire extinguisher close to hand.
Methanol can cause blindness and death and is highly inflammable and burns with no visible flame.
Sodium hydroxide(caustic soda) can cause severe burns and death. Methanol and sodium hydroxide form sodium methoxide. These are extremely caustic and dangerous chemicals -- please treat them with respect!
Method of transesterifying vegetable oil into fatty acid methyl ester biodiesel
INGREDIENTS:
1 litre of straight vegetable oil (svo) or waste vegetable oil (wvo)
200ml methanol
5g sodium hydroxide (caustic soda)
Water
NOTE -- If using new, straight vegetable oil (svo) steps 1 and 2 below are skipped and the catalyst is set at 5g per litre
1.Waste vegetable oil feed stock is filtered to remove any food particles, dirt and contaminants.
2. A sample of the vegetable oil is tested by titration to determine how much catalyst is needed to neutralise any free fatty acids (turn them to soap) and also achieve maximum conversion of the remaining veg oil to fatty acid methyl ester biodiesel - the catalyst can be either sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide.
click here for Titration how to help
NOTE: Turmeric from the spice rack can be susbstituted for phenolphthalein in the titration, although the end colour change is to red and not pink as with phenolphthalein.
3. The catalyst is then mixed thoroughly with methanol - methanol is calculated at 20% of the total of oil to be reacted.
4. The vegetable oil is warmed to 55 deg C.
5. The alcohol/catalyst solution is warmed to 55 deg C.
6. The alcohol/catalyst solution is added to the vegetable oil and the mixture is kept at 50+ deg C and agitated for 1 hour.
7. The heat is turned off and the reacted mixture is allowed to cool and then forms into two separate layers, the lighter coloured biodiesel on the top, with a darker coloured glycerol layer underneath, it is then left overnight to allow the glycerol to settle out completely.
8. After the two layers have separated cleanly the lower glycerol layer is drained off and what you are left with is biodiesel, which you now need to wash and dry!
9. Water is added to the biodiesel and gently agitated then left to settle, this procedure 'washes' out any excess catalyst, soaps and contaminants and the water is then drained off.
10. More water is again added to the biodiesel and again gently agitated to remove any residual unwanted soaps and contaminants and left to settle and then the water is drained off, the process is repeated until the wash water is clear.
11. The 'washed' biodiesel is then 'dried' by leaving the container somewhere warm with the top open to moving air for evaporation of any excess methanol and water for a period of 24 hours or more.
12. The resulting golden coloured, biodiesel fuel has a final filtering before being decanted into containers ready for use.
NOTE on washing and drying larger batches
whilst the above methods for washing and drying give good results it is a little trickier when processing larger batches, so for washing, either bubbling air through the water and biodiesel with an aquarium air pump, the tiny bubbles burst at the top and the tiny droplets of water fall back down through the biodiesel taking with them any excess catalyst, soaps and contaminants, Another method is spraying fine water mist on top of the biodiesel which then falls down through it acheiving the same result.
For drying, the biodiesel is warmed and pumped/sprayed through the air and allowed to trickle back down the side of the tank allowing evaporation of any excess methanol and water.
See article on drying washed biodiesel
Once you have made your biodiesel, or not as the case may be, then come on to one or more of the forums below and tell us how you got on, or ask for help to find out why it didn't work!
The Collaborative biodiesel tutorial Online tutorials compiled by the global biofuel community
Yahoo Vegoil Diesel UK based Yahoo email forum for discussing Biodiesel and vegetable oil use.
Goat Industries UK vegetable oil diesel forum for discussing Biodiesel and vegetable oil use.
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/ubb.x Online forum for discussing Biodiesel and vegetable oil use.
Yahoo Biodiesel basics Yahoo email style forum for discussing Biodiesel and vegetable oil use.
Murphysmachines.com Murphy sells plans for building biodiesel processors and wvo burner plans.
More stuff as and when!
Chug