- #1
OgreOwner
- 5
- 0
Hello all,
I have been bitten by the bug of taking the Waste Vegetable Oil produced by the kitchen at the school where I teach Physical Science and reforming it into BioDiesel. I have spent the last two days absorbing what I can find on the net.
All the recipies use lots of alcohol, Sulfuric Acid and base. Each is commercially available to me, but since I am scrounging the WVO, I want to try to scrounge as much as I can, or purchase pure and recycle it.
I can make Alcohol using the sawdust from my wood shop and the newspaper that I currently throw out. Not sure how to make methanol, but I found a recipie for ethanol... Gotta use high concentration Sulfuric to treat the cellulose before letting the yeast at it. Need a way to regenerate the Sulfuric Acid used to treat the cellulose.
Transesterfication of the Oil:
Oil + Alcohol + catalyst = biodiesel and glycerine. I am wondering if the transesterification reaction can be catalyzed by platinum? I can easily plumb into the reactor a catalytic converter from the junkyard if it will save me some feedstocks.
Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
Karl "Ogre" Peterson
I have been bitten by the bug of taking the Waste Vegetable Oil produced by the kitchen at the school where I teach Physical Science and reforming it into BioDiesel. I have spent the last two days absorbing what I can find on the net.
All the recipies use lots of alcohol, Sulfuric Acid and base. Each is commercially available to me, but since I am scrounging the WVO, I want to try to scrounge as much as I can, or purchase pure and recycle it.
I can make Alcohol using the sawdust from my wood shop and the newspaper that I currently throw out. Not sure how to make methanol, but I found a recipie for ethanol... Gotta use high concentration Sulfuric to treat the cellulose before letting the yeast at it. Need a way to regenerate the Sulfuric Acid used to treat the cellulose.
Transesterfication of the Oil:
Oil + Alcohol + catalyst = biodiesel and glycerine. I am wondering if the transesterification reaction can be catalyzed by platinum? I can easily plumb into the reactor a catalytic converter from the junkyard if it will save me some feedstocks.
Any suggestions or help would be appreciated.
Karl "Ogre" Peterson