Fuel your future
by Josh Maynard

As population growth increases, so does our consumption of resources.

Eventually consumption reaches a point when alternatives are needed to continue current use. It is only a matter of time before oil demand causes cost-prohibitive prices, a glimpse of which we saw in 2008. Because our economy depends so heavily on oil, we are already forced to import two-thirds of our demand. Just as too many CFCs from aerosols destroyed the ozone layer, too much CO2 from exhaust is causing climate change. Because our population growth (and hence consumption) rises exponentially, the need for change is imminent. Whether your motivation is personal savings, national security or the environment, CU Biodiesel can show you how to make your own fuel.

The first thing to do is secure a good oil source. You can use any vegetable oil or animal fat to make biodiesel. Most people use waste vegetable oil from restaurants because many times they must pay to get rid of it. So ask around! There are many people just like you looking for oil, so your first choice might not be available.

Next, you’ll have to build a reactor. This is a fancy way of saying a closed container that you can heat that can mix liquids and that won’t react with the biodiesel. The best materials to use are glass or stainless steel. The easiest and cheapest reactor is an old hot water heater. It’s glass-lined, and it already has a heating element. You’ll need a pump to circulate the liquids; some piping to go from the pump to the reactor; a couple of filters and containers to clean and hold the fuel you made and the byproduct, glycerin; and some various odds and ends. All of it can be bought inexpensively online or at various local hardware/supply stores.

Or for the environmental enthusiast, if you search hard enough you can make it all from recycled parts through second-hand venues (yard sales, Craigslist, BoulderFreecycle, ReSource 2000, etc).

Once you’ve got it all set up, you’ll need the other two ingredients: methanol and lye. These are the only parts that are potentially harmful. Use caution! Lye is typical toilet bowl cleaner, and methanol is a typical fuel-line antifreeze and injector cleaner. But you’ll have to buy them in bulk, which means contacting a chemical producer, a local biodiesel co-op, or possibly even a raceway (methanol is even better than ethanol as a gas-engine fuel).

Once you’ve got all these in a safe location (a.k.a., not your kitchen), you can embrace your inner mad scientist and start brewing. The steps for the process are:

1.  Boil off the water from the waste vegetable oil (WVO).
2.  Filter the WVO to remove fryer particulate.
3.  Mix the methanol and lye.
3.  Put the WVO in the reactor and heat it to no more than 60˚C (140˚F).
4.  Introduce the methanol and lye (called methoxide).
5.  React! Normally for about a half hour.
6.  Drain out the glycerin. After the reaction, the biodiesel and glycerin (byproduct) naturally separate. How convenient.
7.  Wash the biodiesel. Normally about three times with as fine a mist as possible. You want to get the water to all the biodiesel, but not agitate the biodiesel if possible. The water and biodiesel will separate naturally again, and you can remove it by draining, the same way you did the glycerin.
8.  Dry the biodiesel (boil off the water).
9.  Filter it once more.
10. Fill’er up!

We should mention that this fuel should be used in a diesel engine that is outside of warranty, for two reasons:

1. Because biodiesel was officially standardized as a fuel so recently (2002). Enough research hasn’t been done by the big car companies to make them comfortable allowing more than B5 (5 percent biodiesel) in their engines, some up to B20 (20 percent).
2. Because you don’t have expensive chemical equipment, you can’t verify that your fuel meets all the stringent standards that give it the official name “biodiesel.”
But don’t let this dissuade you! You can talk to many biodiesel enthusiasts on forums, at co-ops, or on roads in Boulder and around the world that will tell you this method has worked in their engines for years, even prior to 2002. Locally, the CU Buff Buses use B20, and RTD uses it as well.

Some fun facts:

—Biodiesel is less toxic than table salt, and more biodegradable than sugar. It’s edible.
—It will decompose in 28 days when spilled. It is actually poured onto fossil oil spills to initiate microbial growth and faster breakdown of the oil.

—Compared to diesel fuel, when burnt it has 100 percent less sulfur (lead cause of acid rain), about 50 percent less carbon monoxide and particulate matter, and about 70 percent fewer hydrocarbons (which can cause cancer). Which would you rather the school bus blow at children as it drives past?

For more information on building your own reactor, biodiesel production, chemistry, benefits, potential shortfalls and how to overcome them, or anything else you can think of, feel free to e-mail us at info@cubiodieselorg, or check out our website at www.cubiodiesel.org.

We hold monthly Biodiesel 101 Workshops to dispel myths, answer questions and teach people about changes they can make for themselves now. You can fuel your future.

Josh Maynard is the research and development director for CU Biodiesel.

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