How to Make Biodiesel Fuel With Used Canola Oil
Biodiesel is a non-petroleum fuel that's capable of being used to run diesel internal combustion engines. It is made from vegetable or animal fats and, if made properly, can be used in standard diesel engines without any modification to the engine. Biodiesel typically performs worse in cold weather than petroleum diesel, but that can be compensated for by mixing biodiesel with normal cold-weather diesel. A simple way to understand the process of making biodiesel is starting with used canola oil.
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Things You'll Need
- Rubber gloves
- Safety goggles
- Large paper filter
- 2 two-liter glass beakers
- 1 liter of used canola oil
- 500 mm glass beaker
- 200 ml methanol
- 5 grams of sodium hydroxide
- 500 ml distilled water
- Heating plate with stirrer
- Stir bar
Instructions
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1
Put on the rubber gloves and safety goggles, then stretch the paper filter over the top of one of the two-liter beakers.
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2
Pour the used canola oil through the filter into the beaker. Remove the filter paper along with anything caught in it.
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3
Dissolve the sodium hydroxide in the methanol in the 500 ml beaker. This makes sodium methoxide, which is extremely caustic.
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4
Pour the sodium methoxide mixture into the canola oil, then place the beaker with canola oil and sodium methoxide on the heating plate and add the stir bar to the beaker.
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5
Stir the mixture for an hour while heating it at 95 degrees Fahrenheit. Then turn off the heat, stop stirring and allow the mixture to separate for 8 hours. The mixture will separate into biodiesel (top layer) and glycerin (bottom layer).
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6
Pour off the top layer into the empty two-liter beaker.
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7
Add distilled water to the biodiesel and mix for 15 minutes.
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8
Allow the water to separate out of the biodiesel for 10 to 30 minutes, then pour off the top layer (the biodiesel) into your storage container.
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Tips & Warnings
You can use denatured alcohol (ethanol) in place of the methanol. Lye can be substituted for the sodium hydroxide also.
Glass is preferable; however, you can use some PVC plastics for the reaction vessel.
Sodium hydroxide and sodium methoxide are toxic and caustic. Do not allow them to come in contact with any part of you body. Methanol is toxic.
References
- Photo Credit moteur image by berdoulat jerome from Fotolia.com
