How Biodiesel Kits Work
The brouhaha about biodiesel has now reached even homes across the US. All because of biodiesel kits available!
Bio diesel kits are apparatuses that can be used at homes to convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel. You can then use biodiesel instead of diesel in your car. Interested? Yes. Okay, read on.
I know the first thing that you would like to know is how the processing costs pan out. Well, the processing costs can be less than a dollar a gallon.
The first thing to do is to procure waste vegetable oil. It is available quite cheap from restaurants. Use transportable oil containers or drums to collect the oil and transport it home. Next test the oil for the free fatty acid (FFA) level (%) by using the titration method. This will help you know the difficulty of conversion of oil to biodiesel. Testing will also be done to know the wetness of the oil. If the oil is very wet and also highly acidic, the conversion will be that much more difficult. However, if the oil is dry and its acidity level is quite low, it will be easier to convert it into biodiesel Wet oil can be pre-heated to remove its water content. Some biodiesel kits include oil pre-heaters. To convert oil into biodiesel, a base is used. Now, if the oil is highly acidic, part of the base will neutralize the acid and less quantity will be available to convert the oil into biodiesel. Therefore, in that case, additional quantity of the base will be needed to convert the oil into biodiesel. The FFA test gives you an idea of the acidity level, so you can decide the quantity of base used for oil conversion into biodiesel. Next you can use the 400 micron filters in the biodiesel kits to filter the waste vegetable oil. This is to remove any impurities or food particles from the oil. Next the filtered oil will be processed in a biodiesel processor. Such processors are major components of biodiesel kits. Basically these processors are heating drums in which the filtered oil can be safely heated upto approximately 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Additionally, they must be capable of metering and transferring the filtered oil into reaction vessels. Finally, they must be capable of draining off the glycerin, which is a by-product of oil conversion into biodiesel. Some of these processors are part of fully automated biodiesel kits. They can dewater, process, wash, and dry oil at a button push. The chemical reaction between the oil and methanol (base) takes place in the reaction vessel to produce biodiesel and glycerin (byproduct). Sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide (preferred) is used as a catalyst during the process. Besides all of the above components, biodiesel kits also include pumps and hoses for oil and biodiesel transfer and biodiesel storage vessels. Further, you will need to use gloves, masks, goggles, and fire extinguishers.
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