biodieselpictures.com

[Airthug]

Hello all, after about 6 months research on every conceivable alternative fuel, I finally chose BioDiesel this past December as my fuel of choice. I can't say that what I have built is perfect (not yet anyway), but I incorporated the best features I've seen on other equipment, and kept safety at the top of the list. (Yes I know my catalyst/methanol cubbie is too high, it is secure, but will be moving it much lower soon). Yes, some of my equipment may seem to be over-kill, but I'm attempting to have as much automation as possible (timers/thermostats) so all can run unattended during the casual stages.

I've attached a few pics of my equipment, feel free to critique as needed, I'm not one to ever stop learning something new. Have made two 120 liter batches thus far, 1st batch used 5% pre-wash technique, 2nd batch did not. That test proved to me that pre-wash is definitely the way to go, it took me double the wash water on batch 2 to achive the same results.

I have my third batch titrated (5.2) and in the reactor ready to process tomorrow, next test being considered is the 80/20 80/20 two-stage process. Am running a 50/50 mix in my 05 Jeep Liberty CRD now, no problems (2nd full tank), will continue that mix for a few more tanks, then change the fuel filter, carry a spare, and then go to 100% Bio. Am filtering WVO to 10 micro before my initail de-water stage, then to 4 micro into storage station, and 4 micron again before vehicle tank.

My Plant Stages are as follows:
1 - Mulitple 5G Cubbies for oil collection
2 - Multiple 55G Poly drums for at-home storage
3 - 55G Poly drum prefilter & initial heating
4 - 55G steel drum dewater tank
5 - 50G Processor w/8G Meth/Koh Cubbie
6 - 55G Poly Wash tank & 35G Wash water heat/filtering tank
7 - 55G Dry Tank (Same tank as Stage 4)
6 - 55G Steel tank for finished bio storage & pumping with digital fuel flow meter

Many other "extras" to ease the operation, let me know if you have any questions and am always looking for ideas for improvement. Am enjoying all your pics as well, keep-em coming.
Jerry

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[thenextone]

wow thats the nicest ive seen! im new to this but man o man looks great

[Marc162]

How Much would you charge to set up a plant in Hammond LA? I think have appleseed envy.

[Marc162]

What kind of Timers, thermostats & Heating elements to you have? How long does it take to dry your WVO?

[Airthug]

Thanks for the great comments, I appreciate your input. As for setting up a processor in LA, can't do, my job here with Lockheed Martin keeps me pretty busy, and I'm really no expert on this, I just looked at what everyone else was doing, read 1 book (BioDiesel Basics & Beyond by William H. Kemp), and then planned & built 1 stage at a time. The book was really good, safety-centered, and takes the environmental impact of home brewing seriously. I recommend it as the best I found that covers almost everything.

I decided early on that I would spend a bit more than the $500 basic system, for safety and automation. I don't want spills, rats, smells, or anything else like that all over the place in my garage, even though its a big one (3 & 1/2 car), plus I do a lot of wood working in there and need to keep that going as well.

My 3rd full batch (120 liters) is sitting in the processor now (settling), ready for transfer to the was tank in a day or two. I just changed out my wash tank misting head tot he MistPro from Utah BioDiesel, as the original Arizona Misters I used on batch one and two were extreeeeemly slow, the new mist head works prefectly connected to my heated & filtered 35G poly water tank submersible pump, ready for the next wash.

As for parts, most parts I bought from Utah BioDiesel Supply, and B100 Supply, and many other places (too many to list). I just added a fuel line swivel to my pump station nozzle, just like the ones used at gas stations, only cost 19.95, a tremendous help with hose management coiling, bouth from Dultmeier Sales, a commercial fuel parts supply company. Bottom line, google for everything, then go shopping for best price/quality.

I'll attach a couple shots of the parts you asked about:

-Timers: Critical thing here was to keep cost down, had to use ones rated for 120VAC and the most amps I could get, got them from B100 Supply LLC $32.95 ea.
-Thermostats: Wanted electronic versions with a wide temp range, found great ones you see in the pics at Farmtek.com Part #102720 - $74.95 each but well worth it, reads C or F.
-Heating Elements: The key here is insulation. I just bought the $8 120VAC 1500Watt replacement elements from Lowe's. They are short, and I use only one in my dewater/dry tank. I drilled a hole in the bottom cented of the barrel, mounted one of the $10 square adapter mounting plates (available in plumbing depts for retrofit of screw-in heating elements), and mounted. I also used Red High Temp Silicone (automotive engine type) for all my heated bolted joints. I figured since it can withstand teh much much higher temps in an engine, surely it will work for me, so far they are perfect, no leaks, and no deterioration.

I also mounted mini-digital temperature gages on every tank. These are nifty. I also bought a small plastic project case from Radio Shack to mount each one in to give it the "professional" look. The important thing fort he temp gage was they were cheap ($11.95), had very wide temp range, and had a 3' wired external temp probe. (see pics) They also came from Farmtek.com, part #102448.

For all portable heating, i have 2 of the Bucket Heaters (1000W), they are quick, and easy to use, was easy, get them from Utah BioDiesel Supply.

Thats it for now, let me know if you have any further questions,
Safe Brewing!

[Airthug]

You asked how long it takes to dry my batches. First off, remember that I'm a newbie also, only on my 3rd batch now, but here's what I am doing.

-Once I have the WVO in my Dewater/Dry tank (prefiltered to 10 micron - very important), I take a sample and conduct a water content test. I don't do the hot-plate sizzle method (works I guess but too seat-of-the-pants for me), so I sprang for the professional lab-grade water tester at Utah Biodiesel Supply. I record this just so I know what I started with.

-I then turn on the timer (max 4 hrs), it energizes the thermostat which is set for 150 degrees, then walk away. It heats up quickly (2 layers of insulation on the tank), then turns-off 4 hrs later all on its own. I let this settle overnight, then draw a small 1/2 liter sample the next day, from the bottom of the tank, to see if there's been any water separation from the heating. I get a small amount, but my WVO has also been sitting in storage poly drums for 30 to 60 days, so I'm sure some water content has evaporated.

-I then retest the water content and compare to the first test. I want to see that the water content is lower than 500 PPM (ASTM Max Water Content Spec for finished Bio). It worked all three times for me so far.

-My pre-tests were all over 500 PPM, and the post-dewater tests were below, so i know this works for me. I mentioned that the 10 micron filtration was very important, remember that the tranesterfication process requires WVO to be as dry as possible for the maximum conversion to take place in your processor. Crud/food particles/whatever will hold water in the WVO (regardless of heating), so you really should pre-filter your WVO before dewatering and processing. Most don't do this other than a crude screen filtering from what I've read, but I prefer to be on the safe side and take the extra few minutes/few watts of electricity to do this step.

As for drying the washed bio, I run it in the same dewater tank, same temp (150F), smae 4 hrs, but now add the pump recirculating it to the internal fan-sprayer head for maximum surface area, and turn on the forced-air blower (simple/cheap bathroom exhaust fan/dryer duct hose), which blows air in the closed barrel directly on the fanning bio, and out the exhaust hose vented to the outside.

I keep a "Kill-A-Watt" indicator on the master power cable that all my plant routes through so I have an instant digital view/record of exactly how much electricity I'm using at any stage of the operation.

That's it, I'm beat, time for bed,
Jerry

[Marc162]

Thanks alot. I ll send pics when I build mine. Oh, where do you store youe methanol?

[Airthug]

I store the methanol just as I bought it, it comes in a 55 gallon drum. I attached a ground cable to the barrel for safety, and I screwed a 3/4 ball valve into the 3/4 inch bung hole for venting purposes. When I need some, I vent the drum first, then use my barrel wrench to open the 2 inch bung cap, then insert my plastic methanol siphon pump (bought from Utah Bio Diesel Supply), and then pump into my 8 gallon cubbie. When finished, I close it back up, close the vent, and wash the pump with fresh water and hang to dry, pretty simple.

My local supplier sells in either 5 gallon cans or 55 gallon drums, so I bought the 55 gallon drum @ $4.85 per gallon.

Take care and be safe,
Jerry

[thenextone]

ill wash about 10 or 11 times before my water starts to clear up. man alot of water wasted , is there another way to do this or a more effeciant way? how important is wash water temp and why? thanks rex

[Airthug]

I hear you Mate, water washing can be a chore, but I believe its totally necessary, especially for our crude home-brewing methods and equipment.

As for temperature, chemically speaking, warmer bio/water flows easier which allows for the remaining impurities in the bio to be pulled (washed) out faster and easier. I keep my incoming water to my MistPro head at about 90F to 120F, and keep the bio wash tank at about 85F to 95F. I use the wash tank heater (300W) that Utah BioDiesel sells, it works well. Also, my wash tank water is supplied from another 35G tank, filtered from the house supply line, and inside is a submericble pump sending water to the mist head in the wash tank. That pump works really hard, and it keeps that tank hot on its own, no other heating required

My wash tank is plumbed for continuous overflow, so the misting water accumulating in the bottom (under the bio) just flows out and into a ploy 55G drum. I use a bubbler also after about 30G runs through. It takes me 40 to 70 gallons before the water gets clear (not crystal clear mind you, but not cloudy either). I then let the bio settle overnight to be safe, before transferring to the drying tank.

Once the bio is in the drying tank, I use a Hanna PH Meter to test the PH of the dirty Wash water, the determine how much vinegar I need to add to get the water down to a neutral PH level of 7. It doesn't take too much actually, a cup of so depending upon how much wash water you need to neutralize. After that, you can sewer the water as its PH neutral again. Don't water plants with it, its will kill them, its still dirty, but ready for sewage plant disposal and processing.

Thats it, I myself am still experimenting with the pre-wash or not to pre-wash question. I have been using the 5% prewash, but I'm wondering if I am cutting my processing too short, next batch I might not use it and just let it sit for 2/3 days, then drain glycerine, how do you process?

[Airthug]

Oh yea, forgot to mention, there is a method of washing that uses no water, in fact, water would destroy this method, its called Dry Washing. There are 2 ways I know of, but the only one I have seen in person is at a workshop conducted by Houston BioDiesel. They sell a an Ion Resin System that uses Ion charged Resin called "Purolite PD206". Its a product that has an electrical charge, looks like black sand grains, and you plumb your raw bio through 2 or 3 tubes of this stuff. It cleans it completely, no water needed, and no drying needed either. The down side is that it is very slow, 1/4 gallon cleaned per hour. It works on a gravity fed system, and can run 24/7, but is very slow. It adds about 10 to 20 cents per gallon to your costs. I saw it in acvtion and it looked great, just slow, and I wanted to start with the basics (water) before I tried to go to something more advanced so early in my home brewing journey. I may switch myself at some point, click this link to see their product, prices and what they say about it.

http://www.desmoparts.com/filters/filters.htm

[thenextone]

i have a homemade appleseed unit. i heat my oil in a 55 gal. drum to around 130-140f pump it into an 80 gal. water heater, add my methoxide mix, let circulate for about an hour, pump it into my wash tank and let settle for 12 to 48 hrs while at fire station. drain off glycerin. add 1 cup vinegar per 20 gal. biodiesel then start the gruelling wash process but up until this point all with cold water. not sure how to get hot water to the wash tank. man there has to be an easier faster way to wash. ill try the hot water thing next. any ideas? thanks airthug sure would like some input on the hot water washing. talk to you in a few days going to california tomorrow to pick up mitsubishi turbo diesel to put around town in. ill get back with you sunday. semper fi, thenextone

[thenextone]

i have a homemade appleseed unit. i heat my oil in a 55 gal. drum to around 130-140f pump it into an 80 gal. water heater, add my methoxide mix, let circulate for about an hour, pump it into my wash tank and let settle for 12 to 48 hrs while at fire station. drain off glycerin. add 1 cup vinegar per 20 gal. biodiesel then start the gruelling wash process but up until this point all with cold water. not sure how to get hot water to the wash tank. man there has to be an easier faster way to wash. ill try the hot water thing next. any ideas? thanks airthug sure would like some input on the hot water washing. talk to you in a few days going to california tomorrow to pick up mitsubishi turbo diesel to put around town in. ill get back with you sunday. semper fi, thenextone

[Marc162]

I have done some research on the pd206. It is very sloooooow. What I am going to do is build a 14inch X 4ft drywash tank out of an old propane tank. This will allow 75-100lbs of resin, with a flow rate if at least 1/2 gallon/min. (the resin can be recharged at a fraction of the cost of new) This is a little more expensive, but the more I look at the waterwash it looks like a pain in the butt. after the drywash, the BD is heated and methanol is reclaimed. No wasted water to get rid of. I live in a rural area and have a septic plant, which then goes into ground water. Some sites say it is biodegradable, others say it isn't. I'd rather play it safe.
Marc

[Marc162]

I just came across a new process to Drywash. Check out this link. http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/719605551/m/9721044051