Making Biodiesel at Home

By: Joseph Then
Submitted: 2007-01-17 16:26:36
Print this article | Tell a friend | For publisher | Social Bookmarking
Rating:
 

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.

Learn how to make Biodiesel fuel at home and learn more about Biodiesel fuel. Make Biodiesel at home

Article source: Expert Articles

Most Recent Articles in Science category

  • Integrating Your 4 Freedoms - Ultimate Reality: Consciousness - By: Al Link
    If the difference between particles and waves is so slippery, and if time and space are so easily transcended, what is the fundamental nature of reality? What is real? One answer is consciousness. Consciousness is original and fundamental, everything considered to be "reality" comes out of that consciousness.
  • Integrating Your 4 Freedoms (Part 1 of 9) - Quantum Reality - By: Al Link
    The Western world loves to compartmentalize, creating boxes of separation so that the complexities of life are easier to comprehend and simpler to cope with. We separate work from family life, spiritual practice from sexuality, social policy from corporate profit, and art from infrastructure. We manifest these divisions not only in society at large but also within ourselves, separating our minds from our hearts and our bodies from our souls.
  • Source of Cosmic Rays Hold Down - By: Analyn Sarte
    A new study shows that a supernovae will serve as gigantic particle accelerators - ranging up to almost the speed of light. This new discovery helps explain where the extremely energetic cosmic rays we find near earth come from.
  • Selective Catalytic Reduction How NOx Reduction Make the World Go Green - By: Ant Onaf
    Selective catalytic reduction systems have leveled the playing for life and NOx to coexist in the same environment. The toxic fumes of NOx are very damaging to the world as we know it. With the aid of selective catalytic reduction technology the levels of nitrogen oxide emissions can be controlled and managed. This article takes you through the process.
  • The Maya Decline - By: Y. avicenna
    The causes of the decline of Maya classic civilization is remain a mystery. Various theories about the Maya decline have been suggested. Epidemic diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria are probably post-Colombian imports to America. There is also no convincing evidence that the decline of Maya civilization was caused by natural disaster such as earthquakes or devastating droughts.
  • Aztec and the City of Tenochtitlan - A Brief History - By: Y. avicenna
    With the Aztecs, archaeology merges fully with history. The picture and rebus writing of the Aztec manuscripts and the accounts of Bernal Diaz del Castillo and Bernardino Sahagun are sources as important as the monuments of Tenochtitlan which lie beneath the streets of modern Mexico City.
  • Origin of the 11D World Membrane as a Pascal Conic Section of Six Strings in a 5D Projective Space - By: Sean Sheeter
    History of Hilbert's faux pas trying to make Pappus theorem into an axiom and similar issues stemming from the Godel theorem. We go on to discuss the generalization of Pappus in the Pascal theorem and its central importance to the projective axioms of incidence: further demonstrating the significance of its 6-element conic as a dual 11D sectioning of six string-like lines in a 5D projective space. Which then shows the origin for the 11D Membrane integrating the five 10D superstring theories.
  • Hydrogen As a Fuel Source - By: Levi Quinn
    From water to air, there are a number of ways to energize your car. Alternatives to petroleum are a hot topic today. The growing concern for the environment is steadily increasing. It's an important issue that many people want to feel personally connected to. Hydrogen as a fuel source is not an entirely new idea. But science is taking a closer look at the impact that using hydrogen could have on both the environment and the economy. The best solutions are the ones that have more benefits than drawbacks.
  • MRI and Ultrasound: Two Vital Branches of Radiology - By: R Govindan
    Radiology was initially the branch of medical imaging that made use of x-rays on large flat sheets of photographic films for diagnosis. Modern day radiology is no longer confined to the practice of x-rays and now encompasses other methods of diagnostic imaging such as Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Ultrasound.
  • Processes Involved In Blavatsky's Writings and its effects - By: Edi Bilimoria
    Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (HPB) demonstrated the Siddhis (psychic-spiritual faculties) of clairvoyance, clairaudience, and the powers of projection, precipitation and being en rapport. These were all used in her writings on Occult science and Meta Physics which may be categorized into seven kinds of processes. We outline them below but it is emphasized that none of the above processes are miracles or supernatural