How to Make Biodiesel

Biodiesel is diesel fuel made from renewable sources of carbon such as used vegetable oil or animal fats used in cooking. In diesel engines it can be used as a direct substitute for petrodiesel fuel made from petroleum.

Biodiesel is clear amber liquid. Its consistency is similar to that of petrodiesel. Biodiesel fuel can be used on its own in a diesel engine or mixed with petrodiesel. Some people mix small amounts of biodiesel into gasoline to decrease its air-polluting qualities.

Biodiesel is usually made out of the vegetable oil that is most readily available in a particular area. In France most commercial biodiesel manufacturing are using rapeseed oil as its raw material. Other kinds of oil used to make biodiesel include palm, mustard, Jatropha, and soybean.

In the United States, soybeans make up the biggest source of biodiesel production because they are widely grown. Soybeans are not a particularly good source of biodiesel, but soybean growers have been able to expand the market for soybean-based biodiesel. Rapeseed, mustard, and Jatropha all produce two or three times as much oil as soybeans. Palm oil is an excellent source of oil to make biodiesel, and there has been some research into growing algae to use in making the fuel. Scientists are working on developing crops that produce larger amounts of oil for use in biodiesel process.

Biodiesel Characteristics

Biodiesel is non toxic (you could drink it!), 100 times more biodegradable than petro-diesel, is cleaner burning, does not contribute additional Co2 to the atmosphere when burned, less explosive and less dangerous in a spill or accident, and smells like a deep fryer when it burns instead of the nasty diesel smell.
Biodiesel is non toxic liquid, hence it is save for you to drink it. It is does not dispose CO2 when burned, hence it is also cleaner burning fuel. If there was accident or spilling, Biodiesel is less dangerous and less explosive in nature. Compare to diesel, the smell of biodiesel if it burns is more like deep fryer not as nasty as diesel.
Biodiesel users sometimes refer to biodiesel by the letter B followed by a number indicating the percentage of biodiesel in the mix. For example, B100 is 100 % biodiesel, while B20 contains 20 % biodiesel fuel and 80 % of petrodiesel.

Vegetable Oil into Biodiesel Fuel

It is possible to run a diesel vehicle on plain vegetable oil from the grocery store. The first diesel engine ran on straight peanut oil. In diesel engines, however, unprocessed vegetable oil is not very good for the engine because it eventually clogs the filters. In order to keep running the vehicle on biodiesel vegetable oil, the owner must modify the engine; this is generally true even if the owner mixes the vegetable oil with petrodiesel or kerosene. If the vegetable oil is transformed into biodiesel, however, it becomes so similar to petrodiesel that it can be used in an unmodified diesel engine with no ill effects.

Biodiesel can be made from either new or used vegetable oil, restaurant oil or from animal fat. Vegetable oil is the most common raw material feedstock. Waste oil is more difficult to be used into biodiesel process than virgin oil because it must first be filtered to remove impurities. On the other hand, it is cheaper, often free, and is a good way of recycling a product that otherwise would be thrown away.

How Biodiesel is Made

Making biodiesel involves joining the fatty acids of the vegetable oil or animal fat into long chains of triglycerides in a process called transesterification in biodiesel plants. This process converts the oil into long chains of mono-alkyl esters and glycerin. To transform the fats into biodiesel, a processor mixes an alcohol with a lye catalyst (something which causes a chemical reaction faster or at a different rate than it normally would) and then combines the mixture with warm oil. The most common alcohol used in this process is methanol, or methyl alcohol, but ethanol will work as well. The fatty acids float to the top of the mix and are siphoned off as biodiesel, while the glycerin stays at the bottom of the mixing vessel. After some time to allow complete separation, the glycerin is drained out and the remaining biodiesel production is washed to remove excess catalyst, contaminations and other impurities before finally being filtered for use.

Biodiesel can be purchased directly from biodiesel producers, petroleum company distributors, biodiesel plants, or at several public pumps throughout the nation. But it is common nowadays that many people make their own biodiesel at home. There are many formulas available, easily found on the Internet. Though biodiesel fans claim that whipping up a weekly batch is no problem, the procedure involves a certain amount of trouble, mess, and danger.