I am planning to construct a miniplant but I cannot find a full factory process of an existing large scale biodiesel plant.

I'm finding it difficult to make a business model out of this given that the raw material is used cooking oil.

Hey guys, I've been interested in making my own Biodiesel to either run completely off of it or maybe run it B20. The main caveat I find is that most resources out there rely on running it on very old cars. What would one need to check for if you wanted to use biodiesel on a modern diesel. Something like a BMW X5 2.5 diesel or a Nissan engine.

Also, how does one get started? I can easily get huge amounts of waste vegetable oil from restaurants or from what I use at home. I get the basic gist of it. Filter the waste oil, mix it with methanol and sodium hydroxide, remove the resulting glicerin and you're good to go?

I'm planning on buying a Pick-up Truck with a chinese diesel engine ( 1.9 L D20TCIE ) and I'd like to be able to use it either full biodiesel or B20.

What are you people doing with your waste glycerin, wash water and unprocessed waste from your biodiesel production runs?

Doing a bit of research on what it could be used for or reworked into. Don’t really want to be putting it through the landfill or anything like that.

Hi, i am getting into the rabbit hole of biodiesel and i'm seeing a couple different methods.

My plan is to make my own biodiesel, probably with used vegetable oil from restaurants. And using it in a 2000 mitsubishi montero.

My country has quite high temperatures, maybe that is important context.

Which would be the best method for me with these things in mind? should i use KOH or NaOH?

Any sources that you recommend? books, YouTube videos, etc.

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated

Hello!

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I have a minor problem to trouble shoot, sorry if this is the wrong forum for it.

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I had some well filtered waste veg oil I'd left it at the back of the barn for a while and not used it. Late spring came round so I threw about 120l into the 23 second heating oil tank for the boiler (pressure jet) and Rayburn (vaporising pot burner). The resulting blend was probably about 90% 23 second, and 10% waste veg oil.

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As this paper suggests ( I wish I read it beforehand) it would run alright for a day or two before gumming up. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0360544209004472

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The boiler never seemed to notice the change, but the vaporising pot burner wouldn't run on the mix. No problem I thought, it was late spring and about time to turn the Rayburn off so I thought I'd use enough oil up by Autumn that at the next tank fill I would be back to more or less pure 23 second oil.

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Unfortunately I'm now getting close to the time of year I'd like to light the Rayburn but I still have perhaps 1000-1200 litres of the troublesome mix left. Though it seems like an easy question I have failed to find any chart to work out how much petrol or similar would I need to add to the tank to get a mix that would work for the vaporising pot burner without upsetting the pressure jet burner?

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Could anyone point me in the right direction for resources that might answer the question? Would adding enough petrol to thin it out be enough or are the polymerisation issues the problem and either I need to dump the contents of the tank or crank the heating up for a month or two?

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Many thanks

If I don't have distillation equipment at this time, can I store the glycerin methanol byproduct for later distillation?

I know most people use water heaters, but I figure if I wrap it with insulation, slap a temp controlled heater in it and toss a concrete mixer thing (the two handled paddle mixer, not the rotating drum kind) on top would there be any problems with that? Would the chemicals be too harsh? Has someone done this before? Any insight is appreciated!

I read a paper from a university in Ethiopia about using Calcium Oxide nanoparticles and Methanol (instead of NaOH/KOH and Methanol) to make biodiesel from Waste Cooking Oil. Anyone tried this? The paper talked about making the CaO from scratch but maybe it can be sourced from Chem Supply house?

Hey all, I’m looking for someone to help source and install a veggie oil tank and conversion kit for a diesel pusher RV. Doesn’t matter where in the US willing to drive.

Years ago there used to be a handful of pumps around the Philly metro area, but 1 by 1 they've all disappeared. Self Heating in Horsham was the last holdout, but they were acquired and their fueling business scuttled. Is there anything I'm missing? Anybody know of a retail location selling any mix or Biodiesel? I would even debate getting an above ground oil tank to buy it in bulk and just refuel at home...

For the record, I stupidly did not titrate before reaction, so I don't know how bad the oil was, but it came from a known good supplier that recycles at consistent intervals. I used the same Methoxide values i did last year for their oil and I have had to re-react it twice now as it does not pass the 27/3 test (27mL Methanol to 3mL biodiesel at 70F, watching for fallout). Is it possible that FFAs are still present and are not reacting to the Methoxide making a case for the use of Sulfric acid, or should I just keep pounding it with Methoxide and heat? Or am I past the point of no return and should use this for starting fires in my fire pit?

I am designing a plant which will adjust the rpm of the stirrer so that it keeps reaction rate at fastest and stop when reaction is complete. Raw materials are used filtered oil, KOH and methanol

The heating element will need to heat up to 110C and then cool down to 60C and maintain at that temperature. Instead of direct plug in to the domestic power supply, is there some way I can make this process optimized or draw power from an alternative source? The project is to develop a 50L biodiesel processing plant. My country is facing diesel shortages and limited power supply but with an abundance of waste oil. My objective to make fuel but using less fuel, this way it is more sustainable production.

I've heard mixed reviews, but mostly good stuff from those who tried it. Most said to also put in ~5% acetone or other thinning agent with a 15% RUG 80% WVO mix. Just wondering if anyone's tried this or something similar.

6.0 Powerstroke application. Not my first rodeo.

Study here

I got the idea by watching this PBS story. Could be a nice industry for Caribbean nations like Haiti.

I found them years ago. They are based in the Pacific Northwest from what I remember. They were doing biodiesel conversions on VW Passat wagons and really doing a full teardown restoration of the vehicles while they were at it. Claimed to get 900 to 1,000 miles on one tank. Does this sound familiar to anyone? If so, would you please link me to their website or other contact info? Thank you!

I have an opportunity to source large quantities of WVO for free to anyone that's within a reasonable proximity to me. Will detail specs if I get any bites.

I was messing around with some expired oil at home. I have never produced BD at scale but I have made some before. I used some coconut oil that smelled clean and titrated to 0.5 KOH and I was trying out the 80/20 method described here
http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/blog/the-8020-biodiesel-production-method/

On the first addition everything proceeded as normal. As the reaction was reaching the end, I decided to squirt in some of the isopropyl/turmeric indicator I made up before, as per here
https://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/biodieseltutorial/turmeric/

Literally just for the fun of it, to see it change to the red color. I only put in a few drops, i would estimate maybe 100-500 microliters based on the titrations I was doing. And now my beaker smells like.. Idk.. fruit loops? Its a powerful smell, it almost knocks you over (but maybe thats also residual methanol). I cant stop trying to take a big whiff of this smell. Its such a fun smell. I want to drink this beaker, no joke. Its like a tropical fruit I never had before.

I thought this was very remarkable. I tried to formulate a theory of what is happening but maybe someone here could chime in what they think. My theory is that the isopropyl alcohol reacted with the triglycerides to form a powerful isopropyl ester smell compound, and I have a candidate or three:

http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1045561.html
Described as "fruity sweet winey" at 40ppm

http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1450111.html
green vegetable woody oily fruity

http://www.thegoodscentscompany.com/data/rw1040271.html
oily winey fruity floral
Wait - that last one comes from methanol! So is it just a whole lot of that? I cant find any references that say coconut BD smells like fruit, you'd think that would be common knowledge? Now I have to do separate smell experiments I guess.

all comments welcome

I went to the movie theater.

My family has some farm land and as rent we take a third of the crop grown which is usually corn. My question is, does it make more sense to sell the corn and just buy gas, or does DIY biodiesel make any sense.

Hello everyone. I find myself going down the rabbit hole and am trying to rid myself of consuming diesel because living In the Dominican Republic I find that the Diesel here is very “Dirty”. If anyone can help me with building a reactor I would gladly appreciate it.