Flexistentialism Welcome Guest | Login or Register

There are ways to tell if someone is from the same area as you. I haven’t lived everywhere, but for the places I’ve lived since being able to form complete sentences and paragraphs I am quite familiar with the litmus tests.

In St. Louis, you would volunteer the name of the high school you went to, and if you don’t, they’ll ask anyway. Why? It is my understanding that it tells people a lot about your upbringing: St. Louis public schools have a LOT of problems now, and have for some years – so most people have gone to either Catholic or secular private schools in the region – sometimes single-sex, sometimes magnet schools, all of this data which generally indicates something about your history in the city.

In Colorado, people often volunteer how many years they’ve lived here, but I prefer testing the reflex reaction to the following statement to indicate if I’m talking to someone who has lived in Colorado a long time:

“We’ve gotten a lot of rain recently!”

For those who aren’t already thinking it, the correct answer for Coloradoans is, “Yeah, but we can use the moisture.” And we can. Much of Colorado is technically speaking a desert. The annual moisture here is small enough that you better xeriscape your lawn or face months of intensively watering your foreign-conditions based bluegrass lawn. Gardens need daily watering for most of the summer, and farmers depend on irrigation systems that are the basis for some pretty crazy water laws in the state. It wasn’t until this year that rainbarrels were legalized…and even then, it is for people on well systems only. According to law, the rainwater falling on your roof isn’t yours, except, in some cases, if you own your well water rights. Water rights are really intense in the West for good reason: much of the water that falls in the mountains and trickles down rivers in Colorado goes to lawns in Arizona, golf courses in Las Vegas, and water fountains in California. A lot of Coloradoans bristle when thinking about lakes in the mountains dropping levels past sustaining their native animal life so a golf course a thousand miles away can be green. This is vastly oversimplifying the situation, but I’m always interested in learning more. I grew up on an irrigation ditch system – it’s where me and my elementary friends hung out (after swimming lessons and lots of rules about the swift water in the 8 ft. deep ditch). Neighbors must work together and obey seasonal rules to keep a ditch system working, and loss of water rights is cause of many a lost friendship and intense litigation.

This is relevant to a book I’m reading right now called Mayordomo: Chronicle of an Acequia in Northern New Mexico by Stanley Crawford about an irrigation ditch system in Northern New Mexico, and it certainly reminds me of the ditch I grew up with. It’s unlikely that water rights will simplify or become better distributed anytime soon, but it’s a good reminder of what it looks like when the water is the power.

These wheeled structures are carrying 3 solar panels connected to 4 seriously sturdy batteries, an inverter, and some other stuff to create power for 40 people, nonstop, for 10 days. It could go longer, no problem, but eventually you want a shower. Bravo to Sam, Lohr, and that friendly red truck, Tuff Cherry, for making it all possible.

Last night I had dinner with “Lyle Estill”:http://www.biofuels.coop/blog/ of “Piedmont Biofuels”:http://www.biofuels.coop. He was passing through town as part of a monumental yearly family vacation, and realized he would be remiss in his duties if he didn’t scope out the St. Louis biodiesel scene while he was in town. Plus, like many of our ilk, Lyle is incapable of going more than a few days without discussing things like cents per kilowatt hour, 600kW diesel generators, and being up to one’s arms in grease. I provided what seemed to be a well appreciated opportunity to geek out about biodiesel.

We ate at the “Tap Room”:http://www.schlafly.com/brewpubs.shtml which offers some delicious beers on cask, and high quality pub-eats. I must say that portabella mushrooms and oatmeal stout are a match made in heaven.

Lyle and I discussed the state of things in St. Louis, both good and bad. St. Louis has a lot of opportunity in terms of industrial space just waiting to be utilized, but it is also a market unfamiliar with the concept of renewable energy. Hopefully that is something we can work to change.

One thing that struck me, through all of our conversation, is the differences between areas that are trying to make transitions into renewable energy, and how that shapes the organizations that form. It hit me how things in Pittsboro, NC are much different than they are in St. Louis, MO when we were getting into my ’82 Mercedes wagon. I activated the door locks, which are vacuum actuated and automatically unlock all the doors. When he got in, he said, “Wow, does this car have power locks??” The question struck me as strange, because Lyle owns an early ’80s Mercedes that is very similar to mine, and identically equipped. “Huh, I guess I’ve just never locked the doors…” he mused. Things must be very different out in rural North Carolina…

We also discussed the problem of having vast stores of raw building materials. I joked about having to bring home 55 gallon drums and scoot the couch a few feet over in order to have a place to put them, and he mentioned his “Summer Shop”, which is an expansive building stretching out into the woods that consists of huge piles of scrap metal, pipes, giant chess sets, steel drums, and apparently nearly anything else that you could imagine. If you need another 100 feet, he said, you just extend the makeshift structure farther into the woods. This is in stark contrast to St. Louis, where if you want to build anything at all, something else has to be demolished, and there is no way of hiding anything you do. In rural country you can put unsightly things off into the woods for the moment, but in the city, everything you do is open for all to see. A certain amount of ugliness is acceptable in the city, but go to far, and people will begin to notice. Here in the city, we don’t have the freedom of expansion. We are crammed into tiny basements and garages, and that restricts our choices on many levels.

We talked a lot about ‘grassroots’ biodiesel, and what it means to work on the small holistic community level. I’m beginning to think that in highly urban environments like ours, the grassroots movement is going to look very different.

Lyle is a great guy, due in part to his boundless enthusiasm and optimism about the future of biodiesel. He has taken a lot of risks in his community, and always seems to come out a little bit ahead of where he was before. There is a lot of caution in the world of biodiesel right now, and everyone seems to have a story about a coop that failed, but I’m glad there are people showing that it can be done. I had a good time eating with him, and look forward to what fruits the seeds we plant will bear.

Every year St. Louis holds a large “Earth Day celebration”:http://www.stlouisearthday.org in our enormous Forest Park. Bands perform on the outdoor stages, volunteers cheerfully operate valet bicycle parking stations, vendors sell local and organic foods, and for-profit and not-for-profit organizations from around St. Louis set up booths to inform people of the steps they are taking to improve the world we live in.

This year the main celebrations are being held on May 1st, the week after Earth Day’s official date (April 22nd). The weekend of the actual day is busy with other events around town, at places like the “Botanical Gardens”:http://www.mobot.org and the “City Museum”:http://www.citymuseum.org.

This year for the first time the St. Louis Biodiesel Club will have a booth at the festivities. We’ll be making small batches of fuel at the booth for demonstration purposes, have samples available for people to handle, answer questions about biodiesel in general, and biodiesel homebrewing. We may also get some space to bring a biodiesel car or two down, as well as a portable processor that we are building for full-size fuel making demonstrations.

The event is fun to attend, and should be even more fun to participate in. Education comes naturally to me, and I’m excited about the possibility of getting ourselves out there on a more active basis.

Last night at about 7pm I got into the Mercedes with Terri, Maud, and about 40 gallons of biodiesel. We pointed the car east and drove for about 13 hours. Why? Because of the “Grassroots Biodiesel Conference”:http://www.biofuels.coop/events/ held by “Piedmont Biofuels”:http://www.biofuels.coop and the “Central Carolina Community College”:http://www.cccc.edu.

The conference is a two day discussion about the issues affecting small scale biodiesel producers.

The drive was largely uneventful, with the only problem being a brief shot climbing the mountains in West Virginia where the temperatures dropped to 9 degrees F, which was too cold for our 85% biodiesel blend. Our filters plugged up, the fuel gelled, and we slowed to about 20MPH. However, we added a little more petroleum diesel, a little more anti-gelling additive, and when the sun came up, we sped back up, and zoomed the rest of the way in.

We are staying with the good people at Piedmont, who have been very accomodating, and have done a great job of understanding their non-corporate audience. I expect good things to come from this weekend, and will be back in town on Monday. Wish us luck!

After work today I went over to Maud’s house where a biodiesel demonstration was in progress. A few folks had come over, some old hats, and others totally new to biofuels, to see Maud’s reactor in action and talk shop.

It was interesting because everyone had their diesels pulled around back, and it looked like some sort of diesel army. There were three Mercedes 300s (even another wagon), a Volkswagen Diesel Quantum, and a VW Golf TDI. When they all started up it sounded like a truck stop. It was great.

I got a chance to compare vehicles with a few other folks and talk maintenance. We also compared the sounds of our engines (which is actually a useful diagnostic technique, since three of the engines there were physically identical to my own).

Once the batch was successfully underway we discussed ideas for improvements and Terry distributed a bit of extra fuel she had. I had helped her run a batch the other day, and we loaded 10 gallons of that batch into a drum in the back of my wagon. Upon closing the hatch I heard a terrible noise. Turns out that the drum was about 1/2″ too close to the hatch, and the window of the hatch came down right on the rim of the drum, thoroughly shattering the rear window. After some vigorous cursing and sad commiseration from the fellow diesel owners I got myself back together. The window is still intact due to the laminate, and since the front windshield was recently cracked as well, I already needed to make a comprehensive claim. Fortunately, only two weeks ago I lowered my comprehensive deductible from 500$ to 100$ for a mere 36$ per year. A worthy investment, it would seem.

Anyway, despite the annoying window breakage, I’m very pleased that I now have biodiesel to start blending into my tank. This will give me a little time to get my own reactor set up and running, and will let me legitimately put on the ‘Powered by Biodiesel’ license plate frame I got. I’m also glad that I hadn’t put my new “Powered by Biodiesel” sticker on the rear window yet, since it would have had a short little life on that particular piece of glass.

Please note: This document is in DRAFT status and is presented for your perusal. Be gentle with criticism, because, like I said, it is a DRAFT. There are no pictures at the moment because Madalene’s camera recently ‘bit the big one’. However, they are forthcoming.

—

In the home manufacture of biodiesel one is faced with a problem. That problem is variability of ingredients. Today’s oil is not the same as yesterday’s oil, which is not the same as tomorrow’s oil. Even if they come from the same place! Methanol is methanol, lye is lye, but OIL is, well, who knows what. That is why it is important to test your oil to find out its properties, so you can make the right decisions as you make it. This is the difference between “cross your fingers and hope we don’t get glop” method and actually getting good fuel consistently.

One of the most important methods of testing your oil is titration. Titration is actually a general term for the process of testing a solution by adding small quantities of a reagent until a reaction occurs to your satisfaction, and is a very common technique in Chemistry. In biodiesel, the titration we are usually talking about is an attempt to find out how many Free Fatty Acids (FFAs) are in our oil. In general, heavily used oil will contain more FFAs, and virgin oil will contain less. However, there is no way to know until you titrate!

The reason we must know how many FFAs are in our oil is that it will determine how much catalyst (NaOH or KOH, typically) we will need in our reaction. Thats right, forget all those ‘recipes’ for biodiesel. You don’t know how much to add until you titrate! Anything else is just a wacky guess. Sometimes wacky guesses work out, but usually they don’t.

This visual guide will help you with your titration. It really is easy. In fact, it will take you longer to read this guide than it will take for you to do your titrations. Once you have your little kit set up, you’ll be able to do titrations so fast it’ll make your head spin, you can even do them on the hood of your car behind the very restaurant you are collecting your waste oil from!

As you read through the guide, do not worry if you don’t understand all the theory. I don’t know much about the chemistry of baking, but I can still make a cake from scratch by following a recipe. If you don’t get the chemistry of titration, thats OK, just follow the recipe, and you’ll be fine.

Ingredients

* Isopropyl Alcohol, AKA Isoproanol, AKA Rubbing Alcohol, at least 70% concentration, OR Ethanol, 190 proof or greater (denatured is OK).
* Oil to be tested
* Your alkali compound, either NaOH (lye) or KOH (Potassium hydroxide)
* An indicator, either Phenolphthalein or Phenol Red (more discussion of this later)
* Water (distilled if you want, but tap works in a pinch)

Equipment

* A 1 liter bottle with tight fitting lid for your catalyst solution
* A small bottle with lid for holding your indicator solution
* A way to measure in a large amount of liquid in milliliters, such as a graduated cylinder or graduated measuring cup
* A few oral syringes from the drug store, or another method of measuring individual milliliters
* Eyedropper, pipet, or other way to dispense a liquid ‘drop by drop’
* A sensitive scale for weighing in grams, you don’t need to own one, just find one you can borrow or use one time
* Small glass jar with lid and labels removed (smaller is better, baby food jars would be great)
* A mixing tool, like a straw, glass rod, or the ever-popular chopstick

Procedure

This procedure is broken into three parts, the first part is your titration setup. We will prepare your titration kit so it is ready for future titrations. It will take a little longer, but you will only need to do it the first time! Future titrations will go very quickly because you took the time to do this setup correctly. The second part is a discussion of the theory behind titration, and the reason we are bothering. The third part will be the actual titration, for future testing, that will be the part you will pay attention to. At the very end is a ‘quick version’ of all this for you to keep as a reference.

Titration Setup – First Time Only

First we will make an Alkali Solution. Our Alkali Solution is a 0.1% solution of your base of choice (again, either NaOH or KOH; use the same one you will be using in your actual batches) in water. We will make one liter of this solution, and since you only use a few milliliters per titration, that liter will last you for hundreds of titrations.

Because water weighs 1 gram per milliliter, a liter will weigh 1000 grams. If we want 0.1% of this weight to be our base, then we need to add a single gram of catalyst to a liter of water. You will need a sensitive scale to weigh out the single gram of either KOH or NaOH, then simply add to a liter of pure water in a clean, well sealable bottle, and shake to dissolve. This bottle should be well sealed, and labeled, “0.1% solution of NaOH (or KOH) in water”.

Do you really need a scale to weigh this? The short answer is yes. You need a good scale to make good biodiesel. The long answer is that you can do with a pretty cheap digital kitchen scale for your big batches, but its handy to have something that can weigh with at least a half gram accuracy for test batches. For things like making this alkali solution you need even more accuracy, probably 0.1 gram accuracy. You can get this with a decent triple-beam balance or a nicer digital scale, but since you aren’t doing this sort of precision measuring very often, you can borrow the use of a very precise scale from a jeweler friend, or a buddy at a college or high school science lab.

Alternatively, you can do this little trick. Weigh out 10 grams of your alkali, and dissolve in a liter of water. Now, take 100mL of that solution (which is a 1% solution), and add 900mL of pure water to top it up to 1L of 0.1% solution. Sure you wasted 9g of catalyst, but in the big picture, that doesn’t matter, and you’ve got a fairly precise solution, without having a very precise scale.

Now that you have your Alkali Solution you need your Indicator Solution. There are two options here, pre-made solutions (easy), or making your own solution. The easiest by far is to go to your local Pool and Hot Tub supply store and buy a bottle of Phenol Red, a clear liquid used for testing your pool to make sure it won’t give all the kids chemical burns.

A more accurate (but less available) indicator is Phenolphthalein (fee-nole-thay-lean). You can buy Phenolphthalein from local chemistry supply houses and many online chemistry stores. It is not hazardous and fairly cheap, but you may have to order it. There are two ways to get it, solid, and solution. Try to buy the pre-made solution, look for 0.1% Phenolphthalein in 100% Ethanol or 50% Ethanol. Both are fairly common, and will work for our purpose, though they have a shelf life of around 1 year.

You will have solid Phenolphthalein if you are incredibly frugal, use a LOT of indicator, or just happened to run across some at a chemistry lab garage sale (like me). Solid is great because it keeps forever and is very cheap per use. However, it is a pain, because you need to repeat the process you used to make the Catalyst Solution. Simply weigh out 1 gram of the solid, mix with 500mL of Ethanol, and top up to 1L with pure water to produce a 0.1% solution in 50% Ethanol. If you have a super-precise scale, weigh out 0.1 grams of solid, mix with 50mL ethanol, and top up with 50mL of water. This means less to toss when your year of shelf-life runs out. Label your bottle well, and enjoy.

Titration – The Theory

Now that your setup is done, lets take a moment to discuss why we are bothering with this big ugly mess, and what is really happening. Then we’ll actually do it.

Your oil is not just one chemical, it is a mixture of hundreds of chemicals, all of which will affect the final product. What we are doing when we titrate is measuring the amount of one such chemical, Free Fatty Acids. These little buggers will turn into soap during your actual reaction (which is OK, if controlled), and if left unneutralized can cause washing problems, or even potential engine problems down the road. What we need to do when adding an alkali to our actual batch of fuel is to add enough alkali to serve as a catalyst in the reaction PLUS enough to neutralize the FFAs, without adding so much catalyst that soap production gets out of hand. The first part, the amount used to catalyze (complete) the reaction is fixed at about 5 grams per liter for NaOH and 7 grams per liter for KOH. There is some discussion about what those values should be, but you can be sure that they are the same for all oil. The second part we figure out by measuring the amount of FFAs in our oil by slowly adding our alkali to the oil (which is acidic, thanks to the FFAs). Since acids and bases cancel each other out, we just keep adding alkali until the acids are all used up. If we keep track of how much alkali it took to do that, we know how much to add to our actual batch.

Our Indicator Solutions are special chemicals that turn color when there are base molecules (actually OH- ions) around that aren’t hooked up to anything. When it turns color in our titration that means that our FFAs are done being neutralized, and that there are now ‘extra’ alkali molecules hanging around. In a water-based solution, this would mean a pH greater than 7. However, is titrating as simple as looking for a pH of 7? NO! A pH measurement is only meaningful in a water-based solution, which this is not. pH strips and electronic pH meters will be, at best, very difficult to properly interpret, or at worst, outright liars if used in this situation.

Our chemical indicators change color at a pH of 8.5 to 10 (though phenolphthalein changes over a tighter range, making it slightly more accurate). However, used in the oil setting, they aren’t really measuring pH, they are measuring ‘extra alkali molecules’. Since FFAs are a weak acid and our alkali compounds are strong bases, you need to have more molecules that it would seem to take to neutralize the FFAs, because not all of the FFA molecules have broken their ionic bonds (released their H+ ion) and become truly acidic. So to neutralize all of the FFA molecules, you must have a solution with ‘extra’ alkali molecules that will hang around and wait for the lazy FFA molecules to break their ionic bonds so they can be neutralized. The point at which there is enough alkali to neutralize all the FFAs (even the ‘lazy’ ones that haven’t become acids yet) is called the equilibrium point, and is a tricky point, because it will appear to be basic (in this case, a pH of about 9 in an aqueous solution). That equilibrium point happens at about the same point that phenolphthalein turns purple, and fairly close to the same point that phenol red turns red, which is why we are using them for titrating instead of regular pH strips or electronic pH meters.

Do you need to understand all that theory? NO, though it may help. The point I want to make though is that there is a chemical reason we have chosen these chemical indicators in favor of other measurement methods. There is method to our madness!

Titration – The Actual Process

To begin your titration choose a small, clean, preferably glass vessel. Baby food jars work nicely. Add to this jar 10mL of your isopropyl alcohol (rubbing alcohol) or ethanol. Use a graduated cylinder, or just suck up and dispense the appropriate amount with a clean oral syringe, remembering that 1mL = 1cc. This is a neutral carrier for our titration.

Add to this three drops of your Indicator Solution. Now you are ready to titrate! Or are you? The alcohol we are using as a carrier is supposed to be neutral, but many alcohols degrade over time producing some acidic byproducts. In order to get a truly clean slate for our titration we start with what is called a blank titration. Simply add your Alkali Solution drop by single drop to your jar while swirling or mixing. After each drop, thoroughly mix and check for color change. If it is still perfectly clear, add another drop. Do this until your solution shows any sign of color change, even after a thorough mixing. Once you see consistent color change, stop adding Alkali Solution. Now your neutral carrier really is neutral, and we are ready to titrate.

Use your oral syringe to get 1mL of your oil, and add it to your jar. If your oil is solid at room temperature, you may need to heat it slightly until it liquifies. A good technique for grabbing a single tiny milliliter with a clumsy syringe is to pull a bit of air into the syringe, then suck up more than 1mL of oil. Hold the syringe perfectly vertical and suck oil until the oil level reaches one of the graduations (it doesn’t matter which one). The air space at the top will help you see the oil level in the syringe. Then, dispense 1mL of oil into your jar by lowering the plunger until the oil level moves to the next CC graduation, meaning you’ve dispensed a single mL. Then squirt the excess oil back into the oil container.

Mix well! If your oil is very solid, or re-solidifies in the the titration jar, heat the jar for 5 to 10 seconds in the microwave. Do not allow it to boil, just warm it up to keep your oil liquified.

Once the jar’s contents have been well mixed, suck 5 to 10 CCs of Alkali Solution into a syringe (you can reuse syringes, but keep oil syringes separate from catalyst syringes). Make sure you know how much solution you have sucked up, and try to make it a whole number. Then, while mixing the titration jar, add alkali solution a drop at a time to the jar, keeping track of how many milliliters you are adding. After each addition, make sure the jar’s contents are well mixed, and check for consistent color change. If there is no change, add another drop, and check again. What you want is a consistent color change to purple or red that, even if subtle, lasts through even a vigorous mixing. This means you’ve added enough alkali!

Write down the amount of alkali solution you added; that number is your titration value.

Now, do it again. Yes, again. Because this is a sensitive process subject to lots of human error, do your titration a second and third times, starting from a clean jar each time. Do this until you get a consistent titration value each time. It may take a few shots to get a consistent reading your first time, but even many seasoned biodieselers titrate at least twice ‘just to be sure’. To paraphrase a time-honored carpenter’s saying, “Titrate twice, react once!”

Once you have a consistent value for your titration, you are done! The number you get is equal to the number of grams per liter of alkali compound you will need to add to your final batch in addition to the base quantity to catalyze the reaction. For NaOH, take your titration value + 5, and add that many grams of NaOH per liter of oil to your actual batch. For KOH, take your titration value + 7 and add that many grams of KOH per liter of oil to your batch. The beauty of this method is that once you have a titration value, you don’t need to do any other calculations, you already know how many grams per liter you need.

One exception is if you titrated with an NaOH solution and are using KOH as the catalyst in your actual reaction, or vice versa. But all is not lost, you just have to do one last calculation.

* If you titrated with NaOH and are using KOH in your actual batch, take your titration value and multiply by 1.4. Add 7 and you have the number of KOH grams per liter you will need.
* If you titrated with KOH and are using NaOH in your actual batch, take your titration value and multiply by .714. Add 5 and you have the number of NaOH grams per liter you will need.

Now that you know how many grams of catalyst you need per liter of oil, do a test batch! A one liter test batch is the only way to tell if your titration worked properly, or if there are other problems with your oil that you should troubleshoot before working with an entire batch of oil. If something isn’t right, you’d rather make 1 liter of glop than 50 gallons of glop. Don’t ask me how I know.

Titration – Quick Reference

* Add 10mL isopropyl alcohol to container
* Add 3 drops of indicator
* Mix well, and add 0.1% alkali solution drop by drop until color change is detected
* Add 1mL of your oil
* Gently heat mixture if necessary
* Add alkali solution one drop at a time, keeping track of how much you add, stop when you get a consistent color change
* The number of milliliters you added is your titration value, and is equal to the number of grams of catalyst you will need to add to your base reaction amounts (5g for NaOH and 7g for KOH) per liter of oil.

I spent the last few days at a Biodiesel workshop presented by Maria “Mark” Alovert and hosted by Maud, a local biodiesel enthusiast. Mark is traveling the country providing training and equipment help for people who are setting up their own biodiesel processors at home.

For those who haven’t heard, biodiesel is a diesel fuel that is made by chemically reacting vegetable or animal fats with an alcohol (usually methanol) and a catalyst (usually lye (sodium hydroxide) or potassium hydroxide) in the presence of heat to produce methyl-esters (the biodiesel) and glycerol (aka, glycerine). The biodiesel is washed and filtered, and put into your diesel engine. Biodiesel is a true diesel fuel, is recognized by the US government as an alternative fuel, can be made from used fats (fryer oil, for instance), and can be used in any diesel engine without modification (there are a few caveats to this for older diesel engines, but usually any modification is limited to a replacement of the fuel lines, an easy process, even for the do-it-yourselfer).

As complicated as the reaction sounds, what it really boils down to is taking oil, adding a specific quantity of methanol and lye, shaking, and allowing the glycerol to settle. There are lots of little things to pay attention to and a few details, but if you can make a souffle or bake bread from scratch, you have the directions following skills needed to make biodiesel.

The workshop took three long days, beginning with biodiesel chemistry. The chemistry is fairly simple, and Mark explained everything fantastically. As a science educator I know the challenge of explaining a complex process in a way that everyone can understand, and Mark did brilliantly. We then moved to test batches. One liter is a perfect size for test batches, and we made test batches using various techniques from fresh oil, used oil, hydrogenated oil (crisco), lard, and whatever else we could find. We used various catalysts and alcohols, and discussed the merits of each. We intentionally messed up a few batches so we could attempt to fix them chemically.

The next day we gathered the materials for manufacturing a few biodiesel processors. Small batches can be made using two liter bottles and mason jars, but anything larger needs its own reactor. It turns out that electric water heaters with their heating elements and numerous 3/4″ welded bungs make ideal small-scale processors. We gathered several, and began removing all the extra stuff hanging off them that we didn’t need, stripping it down to heating element, thermostat, tank, and insulating shell. Then we plumbed it with steel pipe, adding a large pump from Harbor Freight Tools that will allow the filling, the mixing and the emptying of the tank. Mark has a real mechanical intuition, and the design involves a lot of clever tricks and ideas to let you do a lot more than a pile of steel and a recycled water heaters has the right to do.

In the end, we learned a lot, and several of the people in town now own quality biodiesel processors. I didn’t build one of my own yet because I don’t have a good spot to put it, and I don’t own a diesel vehicle yet (though I’m tossing around the idea of an older diesel Mercedes), but I’ll be helping some of the folks in town as they begin to make batches over the coming weeks.

One thing that impressed me about the group was the wide range of people coming to the workshop. We had about 10 people in all. One was a woman who decided after the Iraq invasion that she didn’t want to use gasoline anymore. Now her equipment is almost complete, and her petroleum use will be cut considerably. Another was a younger woman and older man from “St. Louis NORML”:http://www.gstlnorml.drugpolicycentral.com/index.htm. The woman has been making biodiesel for a while now, but wanted to learn more about the process and make a newer processor. The older man is a professor at Washington University who wanted to learn more about the biodiesel process in relation to economic study. We also had a nice gentleman who owns a restraunt and was hoping to turn his used fryer oil into a fuel for his truck. He even provided much of the oil we used for the workshop! There was also a man and his older father who are farmers and plan on using biodiesel to run their tractors, 18-wheeler and home heating system. I was impressed by the wide range of people who were attracted to the idea of a recycled, domestically produced, non-petroleum fuel for their vehicles. Everyone had different motivations, but the same basic plan: reduce their impact, support their community, and save some money.

If you are interested in making biodiesel, do some reading at the major biodiesel forums, “Biodiesel NOW”:http://www.biodieselnow.com and “Biodiesel.infopop.cc”:http://biodiesel.infopop.cc. You might also visit the “National Biodiesel Board”:http://www.biodiesel.org for general information on biodiesel, and for information on where to buy commercially made biodiesel. If you are in the St. Louis area and want to know more, “contact me”:/contact.shtml and I’ll put you in touch with other locals who are currently making their own fuel.

Mark’s processor designs are in an ever-evolving state, but the most current information is located on the “Veggie Avenger Equipment Forum”:http://www.veggieavenger.com/avengerboard/viewforum.php?f=25. Mark sells a book about her process as well, and simple 8.5″ x 11″ thing that it is, it is packed with valuable information and experience. The “Journey to Forever Biofuel Archives”:http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html are rich with good information (and a little out-of-date info as well), and make an excellent introduction to the world of biodiesel and other biofuels.

I’ll add more links as I get them, and hopefully some photos of the workshop and our equipment as the various photographers email me their pictures.