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Biodiesel - How to make diesel fuel from used cooking oil

Biodiesel is a fuel that can be used directly in any diesel engine generally without modification. It’s viscosity is twice that of regular diesel fuel which means it is better at lubricating your diesel engine than regular diesel. And… emissions are cut dramatically vs using standard diesel fuel. You can buy Biodiesel already made Or you can make it yourself using your own homemade equipment. One other option is to burn straight vegetable oil in your diesel engine. To do this, you must do three things: 1) You must pre-heat your vegetable oil including the storage tank and all feed lines, 2) You must start your engine using regular diesel or biodiesel, and 3) You must clean your system by burning only regular diesel or biodiesel before shutting the engine off. Here are the instructions on making your own biodiesel…

WARNING!!!!

Methanol is flammable and toxic. Do not let it touch your skin or get in your eyes. Wear proper protective gloves, clothing, and eyewear at all times. Same thing with ethanol. Lye is also very caustic - do not allow it to touch your skin or clothing. When you mix the lye with the alcohol, it creates an even more toxic substance and toxic fumes which you should be very careful with - do not come into contact with it in any way. Always be in a well ventilated area. Also… you are 100% responsible for your own safety. The author is not responsible in any way whatsoever for personal injury or damage to your engine.

Let’s get started…

Here is a general description of how to make your own biodiesel fuel using methanol, lye, and used cooking oil. This process is called transesterification You can buy methanol from your local racetrack or chemical supply store. You can buy granulated Red Devil lye (sodium hydroxide) from your local grocery store or hardware store. Make sure you filter the used cooking oil before using. Fry oil filters can be purchased in any good restaurant supply store. The oil also must be warmed up so it is not solid or lumpy or thick. You can use the sun to heat the oil or some kind of water heating element or a electric or gas burner of some sort. The ideal temperature is 120

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Biodiesel is a clean burning substitute for petroleum based diesel fuel. Biodiesel is made of vegetable oil. Most modern diesel burning engines can use Biodiesel with few or no modifications. Biodiesel is making inroads at the gas pump too where it can be found more and more as an option when it’s time to fill up the tank. But, how is Biodiesel made?

To make, or manufacture, Biodiesel you must first start with raw materials. The raw materials needed in the production of Biodiesel are a small amount of Methanol and a ready supply of vegetable product. One of the most common vegetables used in the production of Biodiesel is corn, although depending on the geographic location of the manufacturing facility many other plants are used as well (rapeseed, soybeans, flaxseed, etc.). The first step is to use the raw vegetable product to make vegetable oil. Vegetable oil by itself will not be what you need to power a car, from here it has to be processed into Biodiesel.

The process for converting vegetable oil into Biodiesel is sometimes called ester interchange. To complete this process the vegetable oil has to be combined with a smaller amount of Methanol and then put in the presence of a small quantity of an alkaline catalyst (for example, .5% to 1% sodium hydroxide). Vegetable oil is made up of so-called triglycerides, which is a compound of the trivalent alcohol glycerin with three fatty acids. The goal of ester interchange is to separate, or detach the glycerin molecule from the three fatty acids and replace it with three methanol molecules. This process then yields roughly 90% Biodiesel and 10% of a glycerin byproduct. The glycerin byproduct can be used in a number of other chemical processes for different industries. There are also studies being done to see if the glycerin byproduct, since it is vegetable based, can be used as feed for animals. This makes the production of Biodiesel produce virtually no waste products at all.

The production of Biodiesel is done in a large manufacturing facility like those being built around the world to take advantage of this relatively new fuel source. These facilities are built much like their oil refinery cousins with the intent of putting out hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of gallons of fuel. Unlike the manufacturing process of standard mineral based fuel, Biodiesel can also be manufactured in smaller home or farm units, or kits. The process remains the same but on a much smaller scale. There is also the option of making Biodiesel at home from used vegetable oil gathered from restaurants and delis. To achieve this the oil first has to go through another process to clean it of any impurities.

One of the main benefits of Biodiesel is that it burns cleaner than standard mineral based fuel. An additional benefit is that it also pollutes less during the process of making Biodiesel than it does during the manufacture of standard mineral based fuel like diesel and gasoline. Cleaner to burn and cleaner to make, Biodiesel is truly a viable alternative energy source.

Mark Allen is a strong supporter of the search for a viable alternative fuel for motorists. For more information click on http://biodieselplans.info

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In a word: not much - at least not for what you get. Whether you buy it or make it yourself, the benefits of biodiesel far outweigh the biodiesel cost in so many ways. This article, examines the actual financial biodiesel cost - both biodiesel prices for those who choose to buy theirs from biodiesel production companies and for making biodiesel oneself.

How do biodiesel prices compare with other fuel costs, mile for mile?

B100 or 100% biodiesel cost an average of 8.2 cents per mile, and gets:o 37 miles per gallon in the city; o 45 miles per gallon on the highway;

Unleaded gasoline cost an average of 6.9 cents per mile, and gets: o 25 miles per gallon in the city; o 31 miles per gallon on the highway;

B20 or a mixture of 80% petroleum-based diesel and 20% biodiesel cost 6.0 cents per mile, and gets: o 37 miles per gallon in the city; o 45 miles per gallon on the highway;

Conventional, petroleum-based diesel cost an average of 5.2 cents per mile, and gets: o 38 miles per gallon in the city; o 46 miles per gallon on the highway.

The mileage one gets from using biodiesel as compared with regular, unleaded gasoline more than makes up for the slightly higher biodiesel cost, especially when you consider that biodiesel prices should only go down over time, whereas the cost of crude oil, and therefore the price of gas at the pump, is only expected to rise or, at best, settle off somewhere around current prices.

By the same token, the fact that conventional diesel fuel is the cheapest of all of them and gets the best mileage in no way discounts the cost-effectiveness of using biodiesel. Again, while gas and diesel prices are rising, biodiesel cost is expected to soften. A gallon of biodiesel cost $5 just 5 years ago. At the time of this writing biodiesel cost $3.30-$3.50 and is getting lower all the time. (You can find out the currently biodiesel cost as well as the prices for all fuels both alternative and conventional, in a regular newsletter published on the following U.S. DOE web page maintained by the Clean Cities Alternative: www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/resources/pricereport/price_report.html)

Not only that, but biodiesel also runs cleaner than its contemporaries, and cleans and lubricates engines. All of these factors contribute to prolonging engine life and reducing vehicle maintenance costs.

Biodiesel is also good for the U.S. economy. A surge in biodiesel demand, like the one we’re currently experiencing and which is only expected to continue to swell, is expected within the next 10 years to create up to 50,000 new jobs for Americans.

Over the next 5 years, U.S. farmers could see their bottom line increase by as much as $1 billion thanks to biodiesel. How, you ask? In at least two ways. First, if biodiesel takes off (so to speak), feedstock prices for vegetable oils will steadily increase. The price of a bushel of soybeans, for one, is projected to rise by $0.10 per year if biodiesel overtook diesel and gasoline as our fuel of choice. Secondly, the government is currently (and for a limited time only) offering incentives in the form of tax credits on the cost of biodiesel production (see our companion piece, “Government Incentives and Tax Credits for Biodiesel Production & Sale”). All this makes one thing abundantly clear - as biodiesel becomes more widely used, it will only become more and more profitable, while at the same time leading to a welcome decline in biodiesel prices as well as the biodiesel cost of production.

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