Rapeseed oil makes a high-quality biodiesel fuel.
Millions of tons of biomass waste are produced by the citizens and animals of planet earth every year. The pressing question is what to do with this much waste material. According to the civil engineering department of Colorado State University, it has been shown that nearly all biomass materials can be digested to produce methane gas and the remaining solids, which are odor-free, and can be added to garden soil or composted. "The fermentation process to produce ethanol converts the carbohydrates in the grain while leaving the protein, with the addition of the high protein yeast that does the fermenting," says the website Journey to Forever. These proteins can be added directly to the soil or composted for a year or more.
Instructions
1. Measure exactly 200 ml of methanol. HEET antifreeze is 100 percent pure methanol. Pour the methanol into the half-liter container. Measure exactly 3.5 g of lye and add this to the methanol. Swirl until the liquid is clear.
2. Pre-heat the oil to 130 degrees F. Pour the heated oil into the blender.
3. Pour the methoxide into the blender with the oil. Methoxide is what you made when you mixed the methanol with the lye - potassium hydroxide. Turn the blender on for 20 to 30 minutes.
4. Pour the entire mixture into a PET bottle. You could use high density polyethylene (HDPE), glass, enamel or stainless-steel, but do not use metal.
5. Allow the mixture to settle for 12 to 24 hours. The glycerin by-product will settle to the bottom of the container. Once you are sure that the mixture has completely settled, pour off the biodiesel into another clean container.
6. Test your product by pouring 150 ml of unwashed biodiesel into a clean jar. Shake the jar violently for 10 seconds. The biodiesel should separate cleanly from the water. If the product turns cloudy white and will not separate, it is unusable as a biogas. Reprocess the result or start over. The lye pulls all moisture toward itself.
7. Begin using waste oil to prepare bio-gas and compost once you have mastered the test for using new oil. A vertical digester tank can be used to digest several kinds and combinations of biomass wastes, including dairy cattle manure, waste from a meat packing plant, a landfill and other organic wastes. The wastes are placed into the tank in influent water --- flowing inward --- through a pipe that is 15 feet above the bottom of the tank. The water is directed downward to cause solid material to collect at the bottom of the tank where they are digested, then removed for compost.
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