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Alt.Transportation: Make biodiesel in five minutes

Whatever you do, don't do this! You'll nail your IP & injectors. The video shows Wendy pouring crued bio into her VW. Crued bio contains methanol, soaps and glycerine. After reaction the fuel needs to be either resin or water washed / dried. It also needs to be tested at various stages (titration, 27/3 reaction test, wash test to ensure all contaminants have been washed out and a final check to ensure no water content).
 
cue wendys next video - how to rebuild the engine and injector pump of a new VW Beetle :lol:
 
My last 120 litre batch was left after reaction for 4 days before dropping the glycerine, cycled the bio through the pump and dropped the glycerine again after a couple of days. Water from the first wash had the colour of watery gravy (40 litres per wash) and stunk of meth / glyc. I'm now on my 5th wash which is looking clear... So that's 200 litres of waster misted through the Bio to eliminate the nasty stuff that will kill your motor...

So I'm with Ecoman
 
A guy I know poured some crued bio-fuel into his old Massey Fergurson tractor. It ran another week and then simply gave up. Don't know how he made the stuff, but everything was clogged up nicely and some kind of tar ran out of the exhaust.

They don't call them diesel engines for nothing. :D
 
Not after a detailed proceedure, but when you say you've washed it with water what's the process in a nut shell :?: :)
 
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Hi Steven (this is the abridged version)

Folk often think that the vegetable oil that some pour into their tank is Biodiesel. This is a misconception, Biodiesel is chemicaly different from oil - once reacted it's Methyl Ester (the reaction is called transestification). Biodiesel will run in most cars whereas Straight Vege Oil (SVO) will kill most diesels eventually.

Process: Simple test to identify acidity (titration), this determines how much Lye (I use potassium hydroxide - some use caustic soda) to mix with methanol. 120 litres feedstock (oil) in machine heated to 55 deg. then add chemicals (methanol and KOH). Leave to react with pump running for 90 mins. Test crude fuel to check for complete reaction.

Turn everything off and leave overnight, run off glycerine (byproduct) and then run pump and allow to settle again. Run off Glycerine after a few hours. Heat up to 55 deg again and mist cold water over the crude and leave for an hour. Run off water and repeat until water comes out clear. Water test to ensure that all contaminents have been removed, ph test and then dry fuel until crystal clear like whiskey.

Basically the longer you leave each part of the process the better result you get. So I've been experimenting with leaving water (2nd wash) in for 2 - 3 days and leaving the glycerine in for a couple of days.

Hope that helps... if you ever get seriously interested, give me a shout!

regards

Nathan
 
Guys... Just got my LC's injection pump and injectors back from TT Automotive and this is what they found:
1. Gell like build up within the pumps internal.
2. Block I.P. internal filter
3. Injectors were as clean as a whistle

This was either caused by the biodiesel (which has solvent cleaning properties) cleaning years of slugde build up from dino diesel in the tank and sending it down the line to the filters. Once saturated the filters allow some of this through to the I.P. An alternative explanation could be that despite all my testing some soap residues (made during the chemical reaction process - free fatty acids bonding to potassium hydroxide) are getting past my wash process.

So I'm going to redesign my process and test results till I can consitently meet recognised bio standards (EN14214, ASTM D6751 etc.). It would seem however, that if all residues can be removed and final polishing down to less than 1 micron can be achieved, the 100 series direct injection pump will happilly run on B50 (50% bio) without causing damage!
 
nathanrobo said:
Hi
Straight Vege Oil (SVO) will kill most diesels eventually.

regards

Nathan
Why, what happens, I use 12ltr to a tankful, would that be a problem, should I stop?
Chas
 
I'd stop if it's straigh vege oil... Do you run a 100 series with an electronic fuel pump?

There are a number of issues to consider...
1. with SVO engine components can be gummed up and can destroy piston rings and reck havoc on valves etc.
2. IP will get gunked up - could nail the timing control valve, but even if it just gums up the IP internal filter, you pay £360 for a strip down and recalibration
3. If you oil is not brand new you need to filter down to 5 micron
4. The 100 series has a tempreture sensor on it's IP, this triggers a heater on the fuel filter. Problem is that this is set up for Dino diesel, different types of vege oil will go solid at different tempretures.
5. The viscosity difference between oil and diesel even when hot will be significant. Electronic pumps are sensitive to this.

Diesel Bob's is a good source for info... http://www.dieselbob.co.uk/vegetable.asp (page down to Denso V4/V5) Electronic denso pumps gets 4 our of 5 stars for perfectly made biodiesel, but only 2 out of 5 stars for vegetable oil. Savings would soon be wiped out if you get any serious damage.

From what I can tell if you were able to purchase or make very good bio you'd be ok! Problem is that commercially made bio is not regulated and therefore often variable quality, particularly in the wash process. Glycerine, Methanol or Soaps will cause problems. If you want to talk more about bio, give me a shout!
 
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