Biofuel

[Taem]

BACKGROUND:

Alright, as many of you may or may not know, I work as a Regional Manager for a popular restaurant chain. In our stores, we pay a third party to have our used oil from the deep fryers taken away. I should mention that as part of my job, I get a gas card (unlimited credit card for Shell) to fill my tank up with, however I still have to pay for the car maintenance. Recently I've been thinking about how I could save our company some money, and myself a few bucks. You see, about a year ago, I traded in my (fully-paid) Toyota Echo 2002 for a Ford Mustang GT 2005; everything in the GT is more expensive, from air filters $20 more than other cars, to car washes with leather seat treatment, to only being able to take in premium gasoline. I fear if prices continue to rise for gasoline, my boss may ask me to pay a share of cost since I have a "sports car", but I really would like to save the car money also. So I checked on craigslist here in Santa Barbara and have found plenty of working Diesel cars for under 2k. So now I have the drive and the means, but not a clue how to do it.

HERE AND NOW:

So here I am thinking about biofuel, and after doing about 4-hours of research on the net last night, I think I'm almost to the point of understanding how it works, but there is still quite a bit I don't quite get. For instance, most diesel cars cannot run on straight vegetable oil until it has been through a process called transesterification which, from what I gather, is what happens when you use the oil in a deep fryer, however I should note that you can get a special part for your car which will preheat the vegetable oil to a certain temperature before it goes into the car so it won't break your fuel injectors. The oil from a deep fryer is called waste vegetable oil (WVO); straight vegetable oil is (SVO). There are other acronyms, but none pertinent to what I'm attempting to do. Now if you take WVO and put it in a holding container for 1-2 weeks, all the crap you don't want in your engine settles to the bottom (I still plan on filtering it directly out of the fryer with a metal strainer and filters). Now, if I'm correct, you just have to get a pump and siphon this settled WVO directly into your used diesel Mercedes Benz tank, discarding the waste at the bottom and your good to go without a secondary heating mechanism. If I'm incorrect, then I could be wasting a lot of money and causing extensive damage to my car. I've done a little bit of research on the type of oil we use at my work and, while not the top of the line biofuel, it is compatible with diesel cars without any adverse side effects (some types of fuel, while still vegetable oil, will cause extensive harm to the innards of your car). Other that the obvious (wiki), this is the website I got most of my information from, however again, I am still left with MANY questions, like does the WVO require additional filtering? Does the diesel car still need an additional heating mechanism even if using WVO. Is the method I've learned the best one (i.e. letting your WVO settle for 1-2 weeks before use).

If any of you lurkers has done this before, I'd really appreciate some pointers to get me started, and if you happen to know the answers to my questions, all the better. Thanks for any replies ahead of time.

[kandrathe]

First, not to dissuade you, I think the idea is an admirable attempt at doing something positive. I fear that the quantity and therefore price of WVO will eventually price it comparably to traditional Diesel with the added fun of having to make it. It is a natural function of supply and demand on a market, and especially in your region of the country where there are many "green" minded people, and vast supplies of petroleum and refineries. SVO would be worse, and also suffer from the "burning our food" problem that drives up the costs of food. But, who knows? You might get a few years of using a limited amount of WVO to reduce costs.

Another approach would be to line up as many WVO sources as you can, and convert it ALL to bio-diesel and sell the excess to other "green" minded individuals. If you do want to enter the wide world of commerce, you might consider eventually setting up a LLP (Limited Liability Partnership) to be the liability, asset, and profit holder. Any tax or legal consequences would fall on the LLP, and not necessarily on you personally. This may provide an additional source of income to compensate you for your time spent in the chemistry lab making fuel. There is a legal fee for setting up an LLP, and you need to file quarterly estimated tax forms if you are making any money. I have an LLP, with a savings/checking account for any personal endeavors I engage in.

I haven't actually made BD yet, but I've also researched it extensively. So I'll share what I understand and let others correct me where I'm wrong.

I am still left with MANY questions, like does the WVO require additional filtering?

I would set up (15-20 gal) tank sized barrel as your settling barrel, then when ready to convert to diesel I would use a hand power oil pump through a filtration system (oil filter) to remove as much of the (carbon, etc.) particles as possible. Here is a possible set up for a WVO pump.

Does the diesel car still need an additional heating mechanism even if using WVO. Is the method I've learned the best one (i.e. letting your WVO settle for 1-2 weeks before use).

From what I've seen and read, you don't need to heat bio-diesel before using it. Check out The Dr. Pepper technique This technique uses NaOH (Sodium Hydroxide), but if you are using KOH (Potassium Hydroxide) you need to multiply your amounts by 1.4 to get the proper amount. Typically you should start with 4.9(5) grams of KOH as a base plus titration but you can increase this to 7 grams as it seems to improve the conversion. But start with a base of 3.5 NaOH or 5 KOH plus titration and then experiment once you get things right. Go ahead and try it with a 1 liter volume to get familiar with the technique, and then scale it up to satisfy your needs.

So as I see it, A) WVO settles in 20 gal tank for awhile to allow particles to settle, B) filter and pump oil into the conversion container (small enough for you to be able to shake vigorously) and your flavor of Hydroxide is added, and then C) allow time for the diesel to separate from the Glycerin, siphon off the diesel into your car, or holding tank.

[TheDragoon]

For instance, most diesel cars cannot run on straight vegetable oil until it has been through a process called transesterification which, from what I gather, is what happens when you use the oil in a deep fryer,

I did a little biodiesel research while at the UW and I don't think the second part of this sentence is necessarily correct. Maybe I don't know enough about deep fryers, but I don't think that the oil, itself, goes through a chemical reaction while frying. All of the literature I have read indicates that the only real difference between virgin oils and used frying oil is the muck and other nastiness associated with the waste food products that end up in the frying oil and that the frying oil usually has a higher water content and potentially more free fatty acids. Thus, if you want to make biodiesel you have to run the oil through a reactor which can catalyze the transesterification.

Due to the higher water and free fatty acid content in used frying oil, most literature that I came across suggests that you use the slower (but not a big deal for batch processes run at home) acid catalyzed process rather than the faster (but less flexible since it doesn't like water) base catalyzed process if you are using used frying oils. Thus, the normal process is to take your used cooking oil, strain it, let the junk in it settle out and then put it into your reactor along with methanol (the other reagent in transesterification) and acid (the catalyst). Then you heat the vessel for a while (overnight or maybe a couple days) and strain off the appropriate layer which gives you the useable biodiesel.

Obviously this is kind of a general overview off the top of my head so you would want to get more details before going further, but I figured I'd put in my quick 2 cents. :)

EDIT: Also, I know a group at the UW actually was taking used frying oil from the restaurants near the university and doing this acid-catalyzed process to make fuel for their cars in a garage, so I know that if it worked for them, it can probably work for you, too.

[kandrathe]

Due to the higher water and free fatty acid content in used frying oil, most literature that I came across suggests that you use the slower (but not a big deal for batch processes run at home) acid catalyzed process rather than the faster (but less flexible since it doesn't like water) base catalyzed process if you are using used frying oils.

It seems the water removal is a step in heating the oil to 120C for 10 minutes. If I were going to do this, first I would check out sources of Sulfuric Acid, NAOH, and KOH to determine which chemical was cheapest and most readily accessible. Then, try the acid technique in a small one liter batch, and the alkali technique in a one liter batch to compare processing difficulties. Based on the effort involved and the materials costs then determine if you want to do it, and then if you do, which technique would work best for you. Also, I would be concerned about regulated vapor emissions at the county and state level. There may be a permit process to have a bio-diesel production facility, and depending on the scale of your operation they might require emissions monitoring. At least if the authorities know about you, they won't suspect you of manufacturing Triacetone Triperoxide.

Googling around I found;
Cole-Parmer - 98% Sulferic Acid 2.5l for $70.80
Organic Creations - Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) 5 Pounds for $26.25
SpecialClay -- Sodium Hydroxide - Lye - Caustic Soda - 15 lbs for $70

Then, MEAT can calculate the cost of the materials for the volume produced. If using the acid technique you would need a catalyst chamber that will withstand both the acid and heat.

Here is a link to a bio-diesel project done for a course in Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering. Although some of the language is obviously wrong, like "Water should be sprinkled gently on top of the water; the water droplets will collect at the bottom of the tank for removal." It is probably supposed to read "sprinkled on top of the mixture". It does give some analysis of costs;



If you assume as I have that your WVO is free, and you won't bill yourself for labor then your price per gallon will be determined primarily from the cost of the methanol you use in transesterification. So, also as the demand for energy (incl. bio-diesel, natural gas, etc) increases, so will the price of methanol. It is already up substantially from one year ago, so you might see methanol up near the $2.00 to $3.00 per gallon mark. "However, the spot-market slide could be temporary as market analysts still project a third quarter spot-price average of delivered product at $1.97/gallon—as compared with $1.89 in the second quarter. A key issue is the inflation attacking raw materials and energy, especially natural gas, used to produce methanol." -- Purchasing.com I can see based on the cost that it may be worthwhile to reclaim the unreacted methanol once you've mastered the production process.

Edit: Also, found Global Outlook on Methanol and Derivatives 2000-2012. It looks bleak for the US.

[Tris]

Where's our resident chemist when we need her?

Pretty sure there is some oxidation of the oil.

[eppie]

Where's our resident chemist when we need her?

Pretty sure there is some oxidation of the oil.

Her? Damn, I was just going to apply for the position. My problem is that I know very little of fuel and car engines.
I remember I read something about some guys converting their diesel engine slightly so that they could put in frying oil directly (with filtering I guess). I didn't find the links yet but if I will I will post them.
Further, as a chemist, I just want to say, Meat don't do this. Don't go fiddling around with gallons of methanol and other combustibles and concentrated acids or bases. Accidents can happen quickly and with 10s of liters (could we officially make the LL an metric system using website) of fuel you can get a nice fire or explosion. I will therefor not help you with any chemistry.

[kandrathe]

I remember I read something about some guys converting their diesel engine slightly so that they could put in frying oil directly (with filtering I guess). I didn't find the links yet but if I will I will post them.

I saw that on a Science channel show too. I remember the MPG was not that different from diesel anyway, although there was a definite odor of french fries.

Further, as a chemist, I just want to say, Meat don't do this. Don't go fiddling around with gallons of methanol and other combustibles and concentrated acids or bases. Accidents can happen quickly and with 10s of liters of fuel you can get a nice fire or explosion. I will therefor not help you with any chemistry.

Oh,gads! Where is your sense of adventure? Don't we go messing around with gasoline constantly? In my life I've been a rodeo cowboy, horse trainer, a taxidermist, a pyrotechnician, giant slalom racer, wake board and water skier, stock car racer, scuba dived with sharks of many species, camped for 3 weeks in sub zero (F) weather, hunted moose in grizzly country, cave spelunking, canoed class 5 rapids and tons and tons of other dangerous and fun things. The only high risk thing I've refused to do so far is sky dive for pleasure. My way of thinking is that if you must jump out of a perfectly good plane, it should be for a damn good reason. And, BTW, the only thing that has ever put me in the hospital so far is my horse (3 times). Now that I have two little mouths to feed that depend on me, I've become more risk averse. But, if you are young, and not a parent I'd say that people should be willing to risk a little and live life to its fullest.

That said, :) you are of course bound by profession to do as you are doing. To do anything else would violate your professional integrity, and if anything ever did go wrong you, as a professional, would be somewhat liable. I come by my interest in the field naturally, as my dads brother was a chemist, and my older sister is a chemist working for Dow. But, I'd say good luck to anyone trying to find an 'eppie' from the Netherlands who is a chemist and works somewhere in Europe. So, yes, MEAT better know what he is getting into before he starts melting his skin away or blinding himself with bases or acids. He needs to figure out how to dispose of the waste glycerin/lye/soap residue and the filtered fryer waste. He will probably be best off to do something else like sell the gas guzzling GT and get a Honda Civic hybrid. Frankly though, the idea of being bound to my chemistry lab to produce 20 gallons (20 US gallons = 75.7082357 liters) of bio-diesel a week does not appeal to me in the least. Sure, it would be cool the first 10 times I did it, but after that it would be a real drag.

(could we officially make the LL an metric system using website)

No. I spent most of my undergrad years having to convert back and forth between meters per second and feet per second. It's only fair that you Metric folks suffer with the antiquated leagues, rods, stones and fathoms of our twisted schizophrenic heritage. :) Besides, now you can just Google "55 gallons in liters" and it tells you "55 US gallons = 208.197648 liters" or "32 feet per second in meters per second" and it tells you "32 (feet per second) = 9.7536 meters per second". Now, as an exercise you can try "45 stone in kilograms".

[eppie]

But, I'd say good luck to anyone trying to find an 'eppie' from the Netherlands who is a chemist and works somewhere in Europe.

Well we don't do any oaths when we graduate or get a PhD so technically I will be fine. But I believe meat is a parent so an extra reason t be careful.
If continuing he might want to look up something on safety regarding his compounds, and think likes explosion limits of solvents. There are just many little things you don't think about when you don't have experience handling chemicals. Such as static discharge from your body on a cold winters day, explosion limits, flash points, things to never mix, heat generation during reactions or when dissolving compounds, what containers store solvents or strong acids and bases.
In many countries (in europe at least) it is very hard to buy chemicals. Of course gasoline is also highly flamable, and some acids and bases can be bought in your supermarket, but in general you can only purchase this stuff if you are registerd as a company that works in the (some kind of) business and that has a good reason for it. And i general in many companies chemical safety precautions are much more strict than what you would be able to do as a consumer.

All in all I think the costs of getting a safe reaction vessel etc. and the risk make it better not to try something like this. And no I am not some boring old person that is whining about everything....... I did a jump out of an airplane once.:)

[kandrathe]

I did a jump out of an airplane once.:)

As long as the plane was a burning fireball, I would understand. :)

[Taem]

I remember I read something about some guys converting their diesel engine slightly so that they could put in frying oil directly (with filtering I guess). I didn't find the links yet but if I will I will post them.

I saw that on a Science channel show too. I remember the MPG was not that different from diesel anyway, although there was a definite odor of french fries.

Well this is actually what I saw on the news anyways, and the thing that got my tinkering side curious. As for mixing chemicals and what not, if I "knew" what I was doing ahead of time, and had a safe place to do it, I might try it someday, however I was hoping to save myself any expense for this endeavor and it seems these chemicals, based on that original chart you posted katndrathe, would be about $1.57 per gallon, or $35.00 for a 55-gallon drum; while much better than the $4.75 I pay here for premium, it's still not exactly what I thought it would be.

[kandrathe]

Well this is actually what I saw on the news anyways, and the thing that got my tinkering side curious. As for mixing chemicals and what not, if I "knew" what I was doing ahead of time, and had a safe place to do it, I might try it someday, however I was hoping to save myself any expense for this endeavor and it seems these chemicals, based on that original chart you posted katndrathe, would be about $1.57 per gallon, or $35.00 for a 55-gallon drum; while much better than the $4.75 I pay here for premium, it's still not exactly what I thought it would be.

It looks like water is the problem. Check out this report. I would think a combination of a straight SVO conversion kit, and spending the time to heat the WVO to 160c for 10 min, and filtering it before use might resolve the problems that the Toyota Landcruiser suffered. I'm reading more in this forum now.

[Concillian]

One facet that I've heard (well, read on the internet) horror stories of is the potential for tax evasion legal issues.

By making your own fuel, you are essentially avoiding state and federal fuel taxes. So you are wise to not advertise your fuel choice no matter how "cool" it might be to show people your chemistry lab.

[kandrathe]

One facet that I've heard (well, read on the internet) horror stories of is the potential for tax evasion legal issues.

By making your own fuel, you are essentially avoiding state and federal fuel taxes. So you are wise to not advertise your fuel choice no matter how "cool" it might be to show people your chemistry lab.

Yeah, I would guess it's akin to producing your own ethanol, although in that case you have the "jack booted thugs" of the BATF to avoid. Here is a link to some stories of these criminal ecologists who are not paying the government's excessive fuel tax. Here is a link to the Southern California Biofuel User Group, which may be useful for local difficulties or local resources and at least compatriots in arms when the revolution comes.

Some interesting things I found on that site for you MEAT;

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

• McCormix Corporation - 22 Cesar Chavez Blvd. Santa Barbara; 805 963-9366; Provides retail pump and bulk fuel sales of B99.9. <>
  
• McCormix Corporation - 55 Depot Rd. Goleta, 805 963-9366; Card Lock Facility, CFN and major CC reader, B20 at the pump. 24 hr access.<>
  
• USA Gasoline - 636 W. Carillo St. Santa Barbara, 93101. B5 at the pump, made from soy and 95% petroleum. Open 24/7<>
  [st]

[Taem]

Some interesting things I found on that site for you MEAT;

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY

• McCormix Corporation - 22 Cesar Chavez Blvd. Santa Barbara; 805 963-9366; Provides retail pump and bulk fuel sales of B99.9. <>
  
• McCormix Corporation - 55 Depot Rd. Goleta, 805 963-9366; Card Lock Facility, CFN and major CC reader, B20 at the pump. 24 hr access.<>
  
• USA Gasoline - 636 W. Carillo St. Santa Barbara, 93101. B5 at the pump, made from soy and 95% petroleum. Open 24/7<>
  [st]

I'm in my way to town today and I know exactly where these places are. I'll report back on the price of biofuel they are charging. It seems USA Gasoline sells at the pump? Should be interesting to check out.

[librarian]

Heiho,

depending on manufacturer a Diesel engine may work with vegetable oil without any hassels. Since MB was mentioned I'm pretty sure it did no harm to my elderly one (has run about 330,000km with still its first engine, about 80,000 of them with rapeseed oil), neither did it to a MB Trac. I'm speaking about vegetable oil you may buy while doing your grocery list, preferrably rapeseed oil. I've also seen a report of someone using used frying oil as gasoline in TV some time ago. This ofc needs filtering to get rid of the crunchy bits, and depending on the frying oil it'll maybe need preheating.
There is 'Bio Diesel' gasoline around, and for usage of that the engine needs some refinements (again depending on manufacturer), since the difference of Bio Diesel to vegetable oil is mainly an enhancement which prevents the oil from going stale/rancid. Unfortunately the necessary additives/chemical process will lead to stress for the motor's valves during the burning process and eventually destroy them without aforesaid refinements.

Your car will smell like an exploded fast food place for sure.

[kandrathe]

I'm in my way to town today and I know exactly where these places are. I'll report back on the price of biofuel they are charging. It seems USA Gasoline sells at the pump? Should be interesting to check out.

Right, but they are still arguing with the State of California on a petro-diesel to bio-diesel ratio. So, for now USA is still 95% petro-diesel.

[Bevock]

I have seen two things on TV about bio-fuel. Both were starting with waiste oil from the deep friers used in resturants.

On the first one I saw on Spike TV's trucks they put the used oil through multiple steps in what looked to me like some kind of white plastic cement mixer. It went through a few differents steps including I believe methanol added to it. I think they made about 20 gallons and has a quart of two of waiste product at the end that you had to dispose of. This bio-fuel could go right in your tank with no worries or conversions and it ran cleaner than the normal diesel fuel. There was some company selling the equipment and all the chemical to do it yourself in your garage.

The second show had a conversion they ran that let you switch between the diesel and the bio-fuel. You have to run the diesel long enough to heat up the second tank of waiste oil hot enough to be able to run in their engine. This reminded me of the very low grade oil they run big commerical ships on. It is like sludge but had to be heated up before it can be sprayed into the engines. This conversion was between two and three thousand dollars.

[kandrathe]

On the first one I saw on Spike TV's trucks they put the used oil through multiple steps in what looked to me like some kind of white plastic cement mixer. It went through a few differents steps including I believe methanol added to it. I think they made about 20 gallons and has a quart of two of waiste product at the end that you had to dispose of. This bio-fuel could go right in your tank with no worries or conversions and it ran cleaner than the normal diesel fuel. There was some company selling the equipment and all the chemical to do it yourself in your garage.

This sounds like the process to make true bio-diesel. The only tricky part is titration of the WVO to determine the level of FFA (free fatty acids) which determines the amount of NOAH to add to convert the FFA's into soap. Methanol seems to be 1 part per 8 parts oil (about 12.5%).

Here is a kit company

The second show had a conversion they ran that let you switch between the diesel and the bio-fuel. You have to run the diesel long enough to heat up the second tank of waiste oil hot enough to be able to run in their engine. This reminded me of the very low grade oil they run big commerical ships on. It is like sludge but had to be heated up before it can be sprayed into the engines. This conversion was between two and three thousand dollars.

The use of duel tanks is because the WVO is hard to start an engine with, so once the engine is hot enough the WVO will burn like petro-diesel. But WVO can also have a high water content, and the result is a heavily damaged and corroded engine. At the very least, I would recommend filtering and heating the WVO to remove the water. There are some engine modifications needed to burn SVO or WVO directly.

Three German companies who make the conversion kit are;

• Elsbett Technologie<>
  
• Vereinigte Werkstätten für Pflanzenöltechnologie<>
  
• WOLF Pflanzenöltechnik<>
  [st]
  SVO (soy,rapeseed. or other vegetable oil) does not have the same water or corrosion problem, but then, you are wasting our food (or the arable land that could produce food) by burning it as fuel thus driving up the cost of food. Then again, the food/fuel debate might also include feeding grains to animals for furs or meat, the tendency for many people to eat more than they need, the amount of food which is wasted or thrown away, but again, that is an entirely different debate. Rapeseed is a great winter cover crop with nitrogen fixation, so for some farms it might provide a good 2nd rotation crop.

[Nastie_Bowie]

Hail MEAT, fellow Santa Barbarian!

:w00t:

p.s. I think McCormix are wholesale/corporate sales only.

[kandrathe]

Hail MEAT, fellow Santa Barbarian!

:w00t:

Santa Barbarian's are cool!