| Author |
Message |
t gojenola
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 2:01 am: | |
http://www.ktuu.com/cms/templates/master.asp?articleid=2689&zoneid=1
tg |
Bruce Henderson (Oonrahnjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 2:35 am: | |
__. Yeah, to convert WVO (waste vegetable oil) to "biodiesel" at home, you have to add methanol to disolve the glycerin molecules. Then when you've driven off the methanol (hopefully!!!), you have to heat the remainder to dry out the water molecules. Try to visualize heating the mixture with the methanol still IN it! |
Donald Lee Schwanke (Dontx)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 - 9:02 am: | |
Well, sometimes you are the windshield - sometimes you are the bug! |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 25, 2005 - 10:26 pm: | |
And the ATFD calls it distillation, and says you need a license to do it legally. (The size isn't important) Is your homeowners going to cover a loss due to explosion/fire created by trying to save a few dollars?
Cheers...JJ |
John MC9
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 25, 2005 - 10:32 pm: | |
Mind as well make a meth lab, the money's better. |
John Jewett (Jayjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, December 25, 2005 - 10:32 pm: | |
And the ATFD calls it distillation, and says you need a license to do it legally. (The size isn't important) Is your homeowners going to cover a loss due to explosion/fire created by trying to save a few dollars?
Cheers...JJ |
Gary Stadler (Boogiethecat)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 11:00 am: | |
John, a few facts about "distillation"...
As far as the government is concerned, distillation is described as the process of evaporating something AND recapturing those vapors 'n condensing them for reuse of whatever it was that you "drove off"...
"Driving off" is not considered distillation as long as you don't try to capture what you've "driven off" in order to reuse it.
More important for this discussion...distillation is only illegal if it's ethanol that you're distilling.
Distilling Methanol (anything BUT ethanol for that matter-) is absolutely legal, because you can't drink it. It is poisionus and the BATF/ATFD or whatever it's called, doesn't care about solvents that you can't get drunk on.
The ONLY laws against distillation in this country are about ETHANOL, distilling any other solvent is legal.
And of course you can't just stick a pot of diesel fuel containing ethanol on a gas stove and boil it... you HAVE to use proper equipment to do it safely. The proper equipment for doing this even in large quantities is actually a LOT less expensive than buying a bus, and it's a LOT easier to do safely than is driving said bus... you just have to do your homework and do it right. It's actually quite safe with the correct equipment.
That said, I'm sure that there are a lot of dummies out there who will try it without the brains or equipment to do it right, and end up in flames from being stupid... that's why we have Darwin Awards...
Let's just hope they don't live next door... OR drive busses...!!!
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Bruce Henderson (Oonrahnjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 12:08 pm: | |
__. Whoa, whoa, hodeda phone! Nobody is talking about distillation here. Making vegetable oil into a diesel fuel involves chemically bonding the glycerin (and similar waxes, but it's mostly glycerin) to chemicals (usually NaOx and methanol) -- this turns the glycerin into a soapy paste that falls to the bottom of the tank. Once this stuff has settled, you have to heat the remaining fuel to evaporate the water and methanol left in the fuel. (I'm guessing a very big, sophisticated commercial operation may re-condense the methanol for reuse but if you find anybody doing this at home, you've probably run across a chemistry professor.)
__. Yeah, *distilling* light chemical fractions is a touchy, potentially dangerous activity but making what's basically Wesson oil explode is an activity that should be reserved for the seriously stupid! Not that I put great faith in a lot of people not being that dense.
__. Ethanol isn't used as a component in biodiesel fuel or as a chemical in it's manufacture. |
Sam Reenu
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 12:50 pm: | |
Actually, you can use either sodium or potassium hydroxide (NaOH or KOH), and either methanol or ethanol, although the recipe is different for each combination. The thing with ethanol is that it can be derived from biomass, whereas methanol is typically sourced from petro; it has to be almost perfectly anhydrous (dry), though, like 98%. |
Bruce Henderson (Oonrahnjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 11:26 pm: | |
__. Thanks, Sam. I'm in a bio-coop for our diesel Jettas and we've never used or considered ethanol. I'll suggest that we look at it. Anyway, I'm not aware of any process that uses "distillation" in making bio-diesel.
__. BTW, for the Leyland, I'm looking at a heated straight-oil system. Why not just burn it as it is rather than chemically convert it? |
John MC9
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, December 26, 2005 - 11:37 pm: | |
Because we're "busnuts" Bruce, and we like to make three
right turns, instead of one left.
WazzamattawidU? |
Bruce Henderson (Oonrahnjay)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, December 27, 2005 - 1:37 am: | |
"WazzamattawidU?"
__. That's the problem - it's obvious! My steering wheel is on the right side so I have to make three left turns instead of one right. |