Simple Process to Make Biodiesel Fuel - Foolproof Method from Aleks Kac- 1

Here I will give you some series of foolproof method to make biodiesel fuel which originally written by Aleks Kac. This guy from Slovenija will share you a basic to advance method to make biodiesel fuel at home. You could make your own biodiesel fuel in your living room!.

In this first series of the making biodiesel at home method will share you with the introduction.

This is a FOOLPROOF way to make biodiesel. No titration is required, and no extra equipment or special equipment -- a thermometer's handy, but NO pH meter!

This is a two-stage procedure, acid first-stage, base second-stage. It is based on the highest free fatty acid (FFA) content found in used cooking oil, but it can be used with any waste vegetable/animal oil or fat, whether or not it has a high FFA content. The process increases yields dramatically. Use it as your standard method.
Introduction

To make biodiesel fuel efficiently from used vegetable oils and animal fats we have to avoid one major problem: soap formation. Soap is formed during base-catalyzed transesterification (using lye) when sodium ions combine with free fatty acids present in used (and some virgin) vegetable oils and animal fats. The soaps diminish the yield because they bond the methyl esters to water. The bonded esters get washed out at the washing stage but make water separation more difficult and increase water consumption. This process takes care of the free fatty acids.

In one early test I used a mixture of 50% heavily used cooking oil and 50% pork lard. The result was a pure product with absolutely no trace of soap! The biodiesel looked nice, and smelt nice, as if made from virgin oil.

Aleks (background) and friend Matevz making biodiesel in Matevz's living room.
This is a simple procedure. The first-stage process is not transesterification, but pure and simple ESTERIFICATION. Esterification is followed by transesterification, but under acid conditions it's much slower than under caustic conditions and it won't do a complete oil-to-methyl ester conversion as the reaction is much more equilibrium-sensitive. Without methanol recovery, the alcohol overdose required would make the price of your fuel jump, and even with recovery it would still be much more expensive. Hence the second base-stage.

For the first stage you'll form a compound out of an acid and an alcohol. The alcohol is still methanol, but instead of using lye (sodium hydroxide), the CATALYST in this reaction is sulphuric acid ("battery acid"). It needs 95% sulphuric acid (battery acid is around 50%). Sulphuric acid is one of the commonest chemicals on Earth, just like lye. More concentrated sulphuric acid -- 98% and above -- costs more, but 95% works just fine if you follow these directions. Other acids won't work: it must be sulphuric acid. The second stage uses lye, as usual -- but it only uses about half as much as other methods.

The sulfate ion in the sulphuric acid combines with the sodium ion in the lye during the second-stage reaction to form sodium sulphate, which is a water-soluble salt and is removed in the wash. No sulphur remains in the biodiesel fuel product.

Will continue to the next step on making biodiesel at home using foolproof method of Aleks Kac.

Reference:http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_aleksnew.html
Note:I have got a permission from the owner of this article to copy and published here for educational purpose.