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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 of Piedmont Biofuels. 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 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 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 and the City Museum.

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 held by Piedmont Biofuels and the Central Carolina Community College.

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.

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. 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 and Biodiesel.infopop.cc. You might also visit the National Biodiesel Board 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 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. 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 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.