Submitted by James Purser on Sat, 13/06/2009 - 03:15
Okay, as a mental exercise (really because I can't afford to build the thing right now) I have been designing a prototype of the Clean Energy Bio-Fuels plant I mentioned earlier.
To make things simpler I've broken down the design into the component parts:
- Bio-gas Plant
- Bio-Diesel Plant
Now as you may remember, the idea is to create a plant that is as energy self-sufficient as possible while reducing the impact on the environment to the bare minimum, while producing quality fuels, and as I've discovered other products.
Submitted by James Purser on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 22:58
Okay, first up some disclaimers. I am not an engineer. The closest I've come to fuel manufacturing is the internet and a softdrink bottle full of potentially successful bio-diesel. Also the following has not been costed in any way, so may end up being about as viable as cold fusion and as expensive as the QE2.
Now that that's out of the way, let's get into the shiny part.
Submitted by James Purser on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 07:21
With thanks to Tilly for this recipe
Okay, I'm going to be putting together this post as I go through the process.
Ingredients:
1 Litre WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil - filtered through coffee filters)
250Ml Methanol
6gm Caustic Soda (this may vary depending on what the titration shows)
Tools:
Rubber Gloves
1 Glass
Submitted by James Purser on Sat, 09/05/2009 - 00:44
I've put it off for long enough, so today I'm going to actually make Bio-Diesel. I'll be using this recipe and once the process is finished I'll be putting up a post with pictures.
Hell I might even video it.
Submitted by James Purser on Wed, 25/03/2009 - 23:31
Okay, now that I have roughly three litres of filtered waste vegie oil I need to be able to turn it into bio-diesel. In order to do that I'm going to need the following:
- Methonal (99%+ purity)
- Sodium Hydroxide (caustic soda)
- Isopropyl Alcohol
- Distilled Water
- An Acid/Base checking mechanism
- Vineger
- Normal Tap Water
Needless to say I'm also going to need a well ventilated area and preferably rubber gloves and goggles as some of the chemicals mentioned above are incredibly dangerous.
Submitted by James Purser on Sun, 22/03/2009 - 07:53
Just a random thought.
Around the country there are coops for everything. From market gardens, to insurance, banking and more. However, there doesn't seem to be too many energy co-ops.
I wonder what it would take to set one up. I'm thinking it would take the following form (warning this is coming off the top of my head, and hence is most likely to be wrong).
Submitted by James Purser on Sun, 22/03/2009 - 06:19
Well the first round of filtering has occured, and below is the result:
As you can see, there was a hell of a lot of crud in the unfiltered oil and to be honest if I'd stuck with the paper towel I was initially using, most of it would still be in the oil. However Karin found a set of coffee filters and four filters later, the result is only a smattering of crumbs in the bottom of the bottle which I'm planning on washing out once the actual processing has occured.
Submitted by James Purser on Sat, 21/03/2009 - 09:07
That's right, I support filtering, of old vegetable oil.
I'm running this as a bit of an experiment at the moment. I have a bottle full of waste vegie oil (complete with BCB's) and I'm planning on turning it into some sort of bio-diesel. We'll see what happens.
