Can you make Biodiesel

Posted by | Posted on 2:58 AM

By Razel Kilmer

If you have the idea that you can fuel your car by simply filling your gas tank with used cooking oil, you're going to be sorely disappointed. While it is possible to power a vehicle using only cooking oil, it has to be very high quality and pure - and your vehicle needs to have some extensive work done before it can operate on this fuel. One thing a lot of people don't get about biodiesel is that unless you've modified your engine, this alternative fuel is made for compression/combustion engines, not the regular internal combustion engines used in most vehicles. Biodiesel does not have the same levels of octane as does gasoline.

This doesn't mean that you can't power your car with biodiesel, however. It's a fuel which is already widely used for a number of different applications. It can be used as the sole source of fuel for a vehicle or to partially replace the used of petroleum-based fuels. Many cities use biodiesel to power buses in their mass transit systems as well as school bus fleets, taxis and other vehicles.

Many government vehicles are also fueled with clean, renewable biodiesel; and there are even those who use biodiesel to heat their homes in the cooler months of the year. Farmers (as well as states whose economy is heavily reliant on the agricultural sector) are increasingly looking to biodiesel as a cash crop as well as a renewable source of energy. Interest is also increasing in the use of biodiesel as a fuel for generators, generators and even some aircraft in the interest of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and harmful pollution in many cities.

There is much more detailed information on the exact procedures in making biodiesel fuel online, and what is presented here is just the basic process. While you can make biodiesel on your own, it is important that the mixtures and techniques are just right. Too much oil will be to thick to run, and a thinner mixture will be insufficient enough to count. Generally, you want your biodiesel to be around twenty percent oil base and eighty percent other ingredients.

To put it in as simple terms as possible, the first thing you do would be to pour the waste oil into a processor, and heat it to a temperature of at least 130 degrees. Then you would titrate the oil, which is a test for free fatty acids, found in restaurant fryer oil. You combine a small amount of this with a premade tester solution. Exact information on this solution can be found online from any site dealing with making bio fuel.

A catalyst (typically lye) is usually needed to make biodiesel from used cooking oil since the oil and methanol don't mix without help. You'll need to combine the lye with the methanol and then add to the oil and mix well once the oil has been heated. The process creates glycerin and other byproducts which need to be removed from the fuel. After these byproducts have been separated from the biodiesel, the next step is to "wash" the fuel with water to remove any remaining impurities. Following this, the fuel can be stored and any water left behind can evaporate before the biodiesel is finished and ready to use. This procedure is not the only way to make biodiesel, but it is the most common and the ingredients needed are easily available and inexpensive. You can find out more about the details of the procedure and the equipment you'll need online, as well as about how to modify your engine to use biodiesel, if needed.

Once you begin using biodiesel, you may find yourself needing to change your filters more frequently for a short time. This is because the deposits left behind in your engine will actually start to be flushed out by the biodiesel. After these deposits have been cleared out of your engine, it will run more efficiently; a good thing by anyone's standards.

Biodiesel has come a long way since 1912, when Rudolf Diesel was making fuel out of rancid peanuts. It's gone from being a barely-used energy source to one which has become inexpensive to produce and is increasingly being employed worldwide. For decades, fossil fuels were cheaper and eclipsed biodiesel, but the public began to come to the realization that petroleum was a finite resource in the 1970s. Ever since, interest has been increasing in this fuel, particularly with the state of the environment at the forefront of the public consciousness.

There are many sites on line that can help you find what you are looking for. There are a wide variety of kits for making your own biodiesel fuel, which have many of the ingredients needed all in one and ready to be put together. These also include the equipment and tools that are needed and how to get a hold of some of the more complicated ingredients.

The details given in this article has, we hope, gotten you interested in the idea of making biodiesel. At the minimum, you should be more aware of the possibility of this clean, environmentally friendly fuel source as a means of reducing our reliance on fossil fuels. With the incredible advances that have been made in biodiesel technology, it may well be people producing biodiesel in their garages and back yards who are the next big names in the energy sector rather than the enormous multinational corporations who currently dominate this vital economic sector.

About the Author:

Comments (0)