From: Bjorn Brandstedt (super_deuce@hotmail.com)
Date: Sat May 21 2005 - 18:01:02 PDT
To answer your questions, the oil comes from a local deli. I found out that
they pay $200/year to have the oil removed and the owner has no problem with
me collecting the approx 30 gallons a week instead. Started doing it a
couple of weeks before Aberdeen and only had enough biodiesel prepared for
the the stated proportions. The oil was filtered through a 5 micron "sock"
type filter and was used mixed with the petro diesel right in the tank.
Brought 15 gallons of the filtered cooking oil in Jerry cans and mixed 10
gallons of it with petro diesel when stopped for the night in Doswell. The
remaining 5 gallons was poured into Kenny's (Recovry4x4) fuel tank before he
left Aberdeen last Saturday. He ended up with a mix of about 20% cooking oil
to 80% diesel.
Waste cooking oil will settle out after a few days and a clear oil will end
up on top. A thicker "goo" will settle out below. So far I have only used
the clear oil (about 90% is clear).
To make biodiesel, I use the filtered, clear waste cooking oil, methanol and
sodium hydroxide (Red Devil drain cleaner).
I prepared 1 gallon at a time, so it took a while.
1) Heat 1 gallon of the oil to about 120F
2) Dissolve 4 tea spoons of lye (Red Devil) into 1,000 ml of methanol. It
takes about five minutes with constant stirring. The result is "methoxide".
3) Pour the methoxide into the oil and stir. I used a large plastic jug,
shook it up real good and poured it into a large plastic (transparent)
storage container. This particular container holds about 10 gallons and
after a day or so, the glyzerine will fall out and form a 1 inch darker
layer on the bottom.
The amber colored substance on top is the biodiesel.
It will still contain some methanol and lye and should be "washed". For this
run, I didn't wash it, but used it straight from the plastic tub without
disturbing the glyzerine layer.
The unwashed biodiesel has a pH value of about 8.0. When washed it should be
near 7.0 (neutral).
I get the methanol from a fellow who races go-carts ( I guess it's the
fuel). I pay $2.50/gallon.
A fuel de-icer with the brand name "Heet" contains almost pure methanol and
can be used, but it will get expensive.
The exiting part is that straight cooking oil can be used mixed with diesel
or kerosene as long as the weather stays warm. Perfect for Florida! No
processing except for filtering.
The restaurant buys the cooking oil in 35 lb plastic containers with
cardboard "jackets", which makes it possible to stack the jugs. I store the
waste cooking oil in these type containers since they are available at the
recycling center and also from the restaurant. When I pick up the oil, I
bring a steel trash can for the still hot oil.
Next I'll try a mix of biodiesel and cooking oil (no petro diesel).
Bjorn
>From: Gerhard Ringeltaube <gringeltaube@yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: MVlist@yahoogroups.com
>To: MVlist@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: Re: [MVlist] Aberdeen trip experiments
>Date: Sat, 21 May 2005 11:09:30 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Very interesting, Bjorn!
>What was the base oil in your biodiesel? Was it made out of the same frying
>oil that you later added pure?
>My first experiments with homemade waste oil biodiesel in my 427LDS were
>disappointing: very noticeable power loss after adding only 25%! Exhaust
>smell was similar to model airplanes burning a mixture of methanol/castor
>oil.
>I wish I knew your secret!
>
>Regards,
>Gerhard
>
>
>Bjorn Brandstedt <super_deuce@hotmail.com> wrote:
> No performance changes noted except for an exhaust that
>smelled like a fast food restaurant. Was able to keep speed over 60 for
>most
>of I-85 from South Hill to Richmond. If anything it seemed to have more
>power than ever.
>
>
>---------------------------------
>Discover Yahoo!
> Find restaurants, movies, travel & more fun for the weekend. Check it
>out!
>
>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Fri Oct 28 2005 - 22:42:54 PDT