Biodiesel Ingredients

Video Transcript

"CRAYDON BLAIR: My name is Craydon Blair and I'm from Utah Biodiesel Supply and on behalf of Expert Village, I'm going to tell you what we need to do to make biodiesel and I'm making a small batch. It's as easy as making a cake so it's going to be pretty easy. First of all, the things that you're going to need to get are some vegetable oil. It doesn't really matter what kind. This is canola oil. I've picked it up at Wal-Mart, paid about $4 for it, but you can get it in smaller quantities about a $1.84. You need some methanol can actually be had in a form of Heet. Heet is a gas dryer that's commonly sold in the automotive section of Wal-Mart or any automotive store. And then, you're also going to need some lye, either potassium hydroxide or sodium hydroxide. This one you might have to hunt--a little bit harder to find. Sometimes, you can call chemical stores. You can find it online through various websites that sell these types of things. Soap makers commonly will have this as well. But you need some lye and it needs to be fairly high proof. This is 92% potassium hydroxide. It's very caustic and so you got to be careful around it. You're also going to need some rubber gloves. You can get your good old rubber gloves from washing the dishes or what have you or walk into a store. I got these at a place called Harbor Freight. They allow me just to put them on and keep my hands clean. You're also going to need something to cook with or heat the oil with. You can use the stove in your kitchen. You can use a little heated burner. Make sure that no one else is kind of around so that they don't see you rough trashing the pans and different things. But you basically just need something to heat it with, something to stir it with. You can use a little fork or what have you, and these basic components. Once you have those components, you're ready to make biodiesel."