Making Biodiesel at Home

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Making Biodiesel at Home - By: Joseph Then, Posted on: 2007-05-21

It is easy to make your own fuel at home. You need a few simple supplies, all of which are readily available at your hardware stores. Gather up 1 liter of vegetable oil, antifreeze, and lye. The equipment you need to make this clean burning fuel is a blender, scales, a few plastic containers, funnels, and empty water bottles, duct tape, and a thermometer.
Make sure that all of the equipment you plan to use if cleaned and thoroughly dried.

All equipment should be clean and dry and you should make sure that you are careful as you handle the ingredients. Start by measuring out 200 ml of antifreeze and placing it in a half liter plastic container through a funnel. Quickly mix in the lye. Lye absorbs water rapidly, so when you mix it with the antifreeze, work fast. If you work too slowly, it will absorb water from the air and that can interfere with the biodiesel reaction. You can mix the two ingredients by covering the container and shaking the contents rapidly until it starts to react by getting warm. The lye will rapidly dissolve into the antifreeze, foaming up as sodium methoxide. As soon as the sodium methoxide is clear with no particles floating in it, it is ready for the next step.

Using a blender, (one you don't plan to use for food preparation) mix the vegetable oil that has been heated to 130 degrees Fahrenheit with the sodium methoxide. Make sure that the cover is on tightly and blend the mixture on a low speed for twenty minutes.

As soon as you are done processing the mixture, remove it from the blender. Using a funnel, pour it into an empty, 2 liter water or soda bottle and cap tightly. Allow the contents to settle for at least 8 hours.

As the product settles, a dark colored layer will form at the bottom of the bottle with a distinct line of separation from the pale liquid at the top of the bottle. The dark layer is glycerin, and the top layer is biodiesel. Carefully remove the biodiesel to a glass jar or clean water bottle.

Prepare two wash bottles by piercing a small hole in the corner of two cleaned water bottles and covering the holes with duct tape. Pour the biodiesel into one of the wash bottles and add a half liter of fresh water. Screw the cap on tightly. Turn the bottle on its side and roll it about with your hands until oil and water are well mixed and homogenous. Drain the water from the biodiesel by removing the duct tape and letting it drain out. Make sure that when the water has drained out, you block the hole so that the biodiesel remains.

Once the biodiesel is clear, the process is complete and it is ready to use. It can take up tot a week for the biodiesel to clear and ready to use.

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