A lot of great ideas have come from someone's Garage.  Here's one that we are starting in ours.  Actually we've moved it to a separate building now but everything still works.
For our project, the garage seemed somehow a little more appropriate because that's where cars live and since this is a project to make clean renewable fuel to power those cars it seems somehow appropriate.  Here's where we're working on.  Pictured below is the very first picture of our equipment for making biodiesel fuel for my farm after it had been set up. 
I'll grant you, this doesn't look very auspicious, but it really is the beginning.  This picture was taken right after we got our processor set up.  The area has been cleaned up considerably since this shot was taken.  Our processor is the cone shaped tank to the left of that blue barrel and inside is our very first batch of Biodiesel.
That oil is then heated and pumped from the red heating drum above into the processor (the picture on the right).  This small unit is capable of producing up to 80 gallons of finished biodiesel fuel every day.  Below is a picture of us as we pumped the heated oil into the processor from the heating tank.
Once the oil has been pumped into the processor (right) and recirculated for a period of time, we test the oil, add the proper  chemicals to the processor in order to strip the glycerine out of the oil and literally re-configure the molecular chain of the vegetable oil so it will burn more like the diesel fuel it replaces.  Then the oil is recirculated with the chemicals added, for about an hour and then allowed to sit while the glycerine precipitates to the bottom of the processor(below).  Then the glycerine is drained from the processor and we wash the biodiesel that remains.
Once the glycerine has been drained off, the biodiesel is washed with water in order to remove any remaining chemicals, after which the oil is pumped back into the silver tank you see on the right in the picture to the right,  where it is heated in order to remove any moisture from the biodiesel that remains from the washing process.  The finished biodiesel is then pumped into the green tank on the left where it is kept until it is used.  The whole process takes about a half a day to produce anywhere from 35 to 40 gallons of biodiesel.  This isn't all hands on time, it actually takes a couple of man hours total to complete the process, the rest is time the equipment is doing it's job.

Where do we go from here?   
Frankly, I'm not sure.  My farm equipment is running on the stuff and working great.  We're still learning to process biodiesel the right way and I"m presently working on a dry wash system that will simplify washing and drying my bio.  So far, the results have been pretty good, we have made our share of mistakes but at least we've learned something. 

All we know is, we are getting better at producing it.  But learning takes time and mistakes can be costly so stay tuned, we'll have more on this project as it develops.  We temporarily suspended production during the winter becuase the building we're using is just too cold.  WE'll be back at it in the spring.

The picture above is the vegetable oil we start with.

This is a picture of the glycerine that precipitates out of the oil after the first step in the process.

Above is the biodiesel after it has been washed using water.  Washing removes impurities and unused chemicals.  You may note that the stuff is very cloudy.  That is because water vapor remains in the biodiesel.  This will be removed by drying it..

Above is the finished biodiesel after it has been dried.  It is exactly the same stuff you see on the left but the water vapor has now been removed and the biodiesel is now ready to pour into the fuel tank..

Above is a picture after the oil in tank has been pumped into the processor.  It was recirculated for about 10 minutes to make sure it is mixed thuroughly and then a sample is taken for testing to determine the correct amount of chemicles to add in order to turn this oil into boidiesel.

Above is a picture of the same processor after the chemicals have been added to the oil and it has recirculated in order to extract the glycerine.  This picture was taken while we were waiting for the glycerine to precipitate to the bottom of the processor so that it could be drained off.
(Above) Brewing Biodiesel requires that you test the vegetable oil you plan to use (the picture on the left) at the beginning to determine the right combination of chemicals to add to the oil in order to convert it into something that will run in today's diesel engines.  The picture to the right is the used vegetable oil we started with.

This page last modified on Tuesday, March 02, 2010