How To Make Biodiesel

Biodiesel is becoming more and more accepted as alternative fuel these days, so it is only practical that ordinary people start to make their own. Farmers have been making their own biodiesel for more than fifty years, and the practice is catching on. Here is a short primer on how to make biodiesel.

Before you begin, there are several safety precautions to consider. Only responsible adults should be involved in making biodiesel. While many of the ingredients of biodiesel are common cleaning implements found around your house, these are also poisonous.

The main ingredients you should use when learning how to make biodiesel are lye, methanol, isopropyl alcohol, and vegetable oil. The point in making biodiesel is to recycle waste products for future use; in this case, you are transforming used cooking oil into automobile fuel. However, when starting out in producing your own biodiesel, you should practice first with fresh vegetable oil as it is a lot safer. Start recycling the used oil after you've gotten the hang of the process.

Also, when starting out, make sure to make small batches at first. Perhaps you're excited to make lots of biodiesel, but don't rely on beginner's luck in this case. Your first batch will most likely not work and you'll have to throw it out, therefore negating our original purpose of minimizing waste. Also, making small batches over and over will help get you used to the complicated process of making biodiesel and, eventually, you'll be able to do it so well that the product will actually work.

Have a blender, scales that measure 0.01 grams or a 1-milliliter dropper, measuring beakers, and acid paper ready. The blender should be either an old one you don't plan to use anymore or a new one that will only help you make biodiesel.

These are the steps used in making biodiesel:

1. Make a lye solution by dissolving a gram of NaOH in 1000 ml of water. Adjust the measurements if you do take our advice and start with smaller batches.

2. Combine vegetable oil with isopropyl alcohol, that's preferably 99% IPA.

3. Use the dropper to place a milliliter of the diluted lye solution into the oil and alcohol mixture. You are using a dropper because this is the easiest way to regulate how much lye you are putting into the mixture, so check the acidity of the new solution after each ml drop. The ph level should go up as you keep adding the diluted lye.

4. After reaching the ideal ph level of 8 or 9, you are ready to test the biodiesel. The best way to test a small amount of biodiesel is to use the fuel in a lantern with a thick wick. Lantern manufacturers are beginning to remodel their products to accommodate biodiesel as well.

Don't worry if the first few batches don't work. Just keep trying, and you'll find out the right way to do it as you go along. It is fairly easy to learn how to make biodiesel , it is really the case of practice makes perfect.