biodiesel...

[JoeBioDiesel]

It depends on how much fuel you want to make, and what procedure you want to use. Here's what I do (even though you didn't ask me... . )



1 metal 55 gallon drum with a 5500 watt hot water heater element in it

1 plastic 55 gallon reaction drum

1 hydraulic pump with a spin-on fuel filter setup from NAPA

a large stirrer made up of a furnace fan blower assembly (took the rod off the squirrel cage and installed a longer rod with a vary small fan blade at the bottom of it)

1 plasic bucket for the methoxide mixing

1 3ft stainless steel stirring rod

1 electronic scale, 500g capacity/ . 1g accuracy



for making test batches I use

2 250 ml beakers

2 150 ml flasks

2 100 ml graduated cylinders

1 1ml pipette

1 10 ml syringe, without the needle

2 petri dishes

litmus paper or pH meter

... the glassware is pretty cheap. A pH meter is nice but not necessary.



Chemicals needed:

lye in bulk (anhydrous granulated sodium hydroxide)

methanol in bulk

small container isopropyl alcohol 98%



If you want to consider washing the fuel after you're done you'll need some more large drums to do the washing.

 

[jcarey]

JoeBioDiesel, thanks. Do you have any pics of your setup?



Jim

 

[JoeBioDiesel]

Hi Jim,

Sorry, no pics. . but there's nothing to see really. It looks like two drums sitting next to each other. The only thing worthy of a picture is the stirring assembly, but there's plenty of ways to set one of those up, and mine's kinda top heavy.



Joe