Biodiesel Set Up
Complete Biodiesel System Setup
This is the whole biodiesel system set up. You will see my friend Bruce and our other buddy’s daughter Karisa. The Blue barrel that Bruce is leaning on is the heating barrel. The WVO goes in here to be heated. It is then pumped into the blue or black barrel off to the left of the picture once the temperature reaches about 130 degrees.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Waste Vegetable Oil
This is WVO that we picked up at a restaurant. We try and put it in a sealable barrel for the ride home (very messy process).
Heating the WVO
This is the WVO while it is being heated. We heat the WVO in this steel drum using a oil burner from a furnace.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Transferring heated WVO to reactor
Here is Bruce putting the pump line into the heated WVO that is going to be transferred to the reactor.
Pumping WVO to reactor
Here is a picture of me on the other end of the line pumping into the reactor.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Heating system
This picture shows you the heating system. The steel barrel sits on cement slabs. The oil burner fires under the barrel using a 50/50 blend of biodiesel and dino diesel.
Pumps and plumbing
This is a picture of our pumps and plumbing. Depending on how the shut offs are set up will determine where the oil is moved.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Drum of Methanol
This is a 55 gallon drum of methanol that we are pumping out to make meth-oxide with.
Meth-oxide tank
The 5 gallon tank sits upon our reactor. It contains meth-oxide. We mix methanol and potassium hydroxide and than pump it into the reactor.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Draining glycerin
The tube is draining glycerin from the reactor after it is mixed for an hour and sits over night. About 20% of the Mix becomes glycerin.
Glycerin byproduct
This is a barrel with glycerin byproduct. This is what is left after you make your oil. If you look closely you can see a separation of glycerin at the bottom and biodiesel at the top (about 8 inches). Currently we do not have much use for the glycerin. We have been working on a burner that will use the glycerin as fuel.
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Biodiesel final product
This is the final biodiesel product. Bio diesel is pumped from our washer into our hold barrel then into our cars.
What you do not see is our washer. After we separate out the bio diesel we put it in another barrel and mist water through it for about 2 hours. This cleans out the impurities. The water is drained out the bottom and discarded. We are still working on perfecting the process. We have converted about 1500 Gallons of WVO into fuel. There are several other options that we could use for cleaning and drying the biodiesel fuel that we will be using in the future.
For more info, visit easygreen’s website
Start Making your own Biodiesel and Get off the Grid!
Technorati Tags: biodiesel, get off the grid, gasoline alternative, green, environment
on July 26th, 2007 at 3:23 am
Ted,
What happens inside the reactor?
on July 26th, 2007 at 3:36 am
Also what do you use for methanol and sodium hydroxide?
on August 9th, 2007 at 11:48 am
You should try using a water heater for your reactor. Self-heating and totally sealed. I have used it for several years.