How to Clean Biodiesel

Biodiesel fuel is made of fatty oils from such items as soybeans.

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel source used to power cars, motorcycles and other machines. It is composed of fatty oils, such as soybean oil. It is made through a refining technique called transesterification, where an alcohol, such as methanol, takes out the glycerin from the fatty oil to produce biodiesel fuel. Cleaning and washing your biodiesel fuel requires some basic materials and measurement devices to let you know when your fuel is properly cleaned.

Things You'll Need

• Safety glasses
• Rubber gloves
• Mounting blocks
• Container with a valve
• Airline tubing
• Bucket
• Water
• Cork
• Plastic gallon jugs
• Plastic 16-ounce cups
• Aquarium air stone
• Aquarium air pump with at least 3 watts of power
• Rope
• Timer
• Potential of Hydrogen (pH) strips

Instructions

1. Put on safety glasses and rubber gloves.

2. Place the container evenly on mounting blocks. Connect airline tubing to your container's valve and place the other end into a bucket. Test your tubing by dumping water into the container. Make sure it drains out through the valve into your bucket. Dump out your test water and seal the tubing with a cork.

3. Measure the amount of biodiesel fuel you're cleaning by dumping it into plastic gallon jugs. One gallon equals 128 fluid ounces. Measure any fuel that does not fill a plastic gallon jug with plastic 16-oz. cups. Tally the total amount of fuel in ounces. Divide that number by 2 to see how much water needs to be added to your fuel to clean it. For example, if you have 2,000 ounces of biodiesel fuel, you will need 1,000 ounces of water.

4. Dump the biodiesel fuel into the container. Add water gently to your fuel. Drop an aquarium air stone into the mixture. Tie an aquarium air pump to your container with rope. Place it over your mixture, making sure it is not submerged. Plug it in to a functioning power outlet and turn it on. Your mixture will bubble.

5. Set the timer. The mixture should bubble for at least three hours, but no more than six hours, according to Green-Trust.org. Water bubbles will clean by attaching to soap and other contaminants and sinking below the biodiesel fuel. Water also will collect below your fuel.

6. Turn off your aquarium air pump and unplug it. Remove the cork from the tubing and drain the water from the bottom of your mixture into a bucket. Stop this process repeatedly by putting the cork back into your airline tubing to check how much water you've drained with the 16-oz. cups. Stop when you are close to draining as much water as you put in. For example, if you put 1,000 ounces of water into your container, and you have drained 998 ounces out of it, stop draining.

7. Test the pH of tap water with pH strips, then use the strips to test the pH of your drained water. The pH of your tap water needs to be equal to that of your drained water for the cleaning to be complete. For example, if your tap water pH is 7.1, your drained water pH needs to be 7.1. Repeat steps 3 through 6 as many times as necessary to get the right pH. You may need to repeat the process at least three more times to get the right reading, according to Green-Trust.org.

8. Add acid to the drained water and check its pH level with one of the pH strips. The water is ready for disposal when its pH is 7. Dump the water into a sewer.

References

• National Biodiesel Board: What is Biodiesel?
• National Biodiesel Board: Biodiesel Production
• GreenTrust: "Washing Biodiesel"; Maria "Mark" Alovert