Diesel biofuel is still primarily made in small batches by private citizens throughout much of the U.S. The process is not difficult, but diesel biofuel has still not been entirely accepted by the car-conscious society. The materials needed for making diesel biofuel are not expensive, nor are they hard to come by, but it's imperative that they all must be as clean and pure as possible to avoid build-up of sediment and carbon within the diesel engine that burns them. The materials most often used are as follows: 1 liter of clean vegetable oil, 200 ml of pure methanol, sodium hydroxide granules, a set of scientific scales, an old blender, duct tape, a thermometer, several small bottles with screw-on caps, funnels, and three clean 2-liter bottles.
Prepping Ingredients
Before diesel biofuel can be made, sodium methoxide must be made. This is a combination of the sodium hydroxide granules and the methanol. Both must be handled with gloves and extreme care because of how caustic they are. They must not be left open to the air for long, as they both absorb water from the atmosphere quickly, causing them to degrade fast. Weigh exactly 3.5 grams of the sodium hydroxide on the scale and pour it into one of the bottles with the screw caps with a funnel. Pour in the methanol quickly afterward. Cap the mixture shut and swirled until the sodium hydroxide is completely dissolved. This may take from 10 minutes to several hours depending on the purity of the sodium hydroxide.
Making Diesel Biofuel
Heat the vegetable oil to 130 degrees Fahrenheit and then pour it into the blender, making sure that no water or other impurities are in the blender's vessel. Add the sodium methoxide is to the mix and blend it at a low speed for 1/2 hour. Then pour the mixture into a 2-liter bottle and screw the lid in place, where it's allowed to sit for a full 24 hours. The resulting mixture will be dirty diesel biofuel with a layer of glycerin sitting at the bottom of the bottle. The diesel biofuel must be "washed" of excess water and methanol before it can be safely used in a car's engine. Take another 2-liter bottle, drill a small hole into its bottom and then cover it over with duct tape. Add 1/2 liter of water to the bottle, as you carefully decant the diesel biofuel into the new bottle, making sure that none of the glycerin from the bottom of the first bottle gets into the new bottle. You shake up the new bottle and then allow it to sit for several more hours. Over time, the water will collect the excess methanol in the mix and form a layer on the bottom of the bottle. Removed the duct tape and allow the water to drain away, but plug the whole before the diesel biofuel can drain as well. The finished product in the bottle is pure diesel biofuel.
