Isuzu Trooper Owners Club UK™

[auto]

May be able to get bio deisel plants at a great price of around £600 if anyone interested. I am petrol so no good for me, but some may be derv and find it usefulo. I have seen second hand units for a grand, so i think it's pretty cheap!

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[richard wilkinson]

can we have a bit more detail
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isuzu 3.0 about to be a 3.1 it is now
vauxhall astra club 1.6

[lurgs]

found this on "it's not easy being green"  forum - Sorry unable to post link due to being a newbie but you can google for
The GL Eco-System - waterless biodiesel processor and find out how to make your own  - not quite as straight forward as most people think.

[baldrickxjr]

Been making biodiesel for years and done right is relatively easy.
Don't get hung up with the some / most of the rubbish thats floating around on the internet.
Basically you need

1. The ability to do DIY
2. A source of oil
3. Some space in the corner of a garage / shed.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON EXPENSIVE BIO PLANTS !!!

You can make a biodiesel plant using just about anything from 205 litre drum down to a 10 litre B&Q bucket.

If anyone wants to know i'll post details and figure out how to upload some pics.
I will also post where i buy parts, where i get chemicals, quantities etc

2 things to consider

1. start small untill your confident.
2. methonex ( methanol mixed with sodium hydroxhyde or potassium hydroxide ) is very flamable, very toxic.
You will need nitrite gloves, carbon filter mask and eye protection.
Trust me this solution is nasty s**t

other than that small downside its a doddle  

[keithj]

Well i'm suprised no one has asked  so i will.  If you wouldn't mind baldrickxjr further info on parts and chemicals would be good and anything else you've learned.
thanks keith

[baldrickxjr]

The chemicals you requie are :

Methanol 99% pure
sodium hydroxide ( caustic soda) or
potassium hydroxide

obviously caustic is easier to get hold of and about half the price of potassium but caustic makes the waste product ( glyserine ) go solid where as potassium keeps the waste liquid.
Its hard to get rid of solid waste where as some chemical suppliers will have your liquid waste off you, they then extract excess methanol out of it.

I get my supplies from trinity reserch at lymn i've got to go up soon so i'll keep the recipt and post address.

If memory serves methanol is about £12.50 for 25 litres
Caustic is about £27 for 25KGS
Potassium is £54 fir 25KGS but the price on potassium jumps around a hell of a lot.

There are loads of sites on the web but most try to baffle you with things like titration and iodine values.
A good one to check out is a site called journey forever, its american so they seem to be able to get stuff from every corner shop but there are suppliers all over the country that supply to the public.

I started with a 3 litre bottle but i'd advise a glass blender, its a lot quicker and easier, they were selling them in asda for £15
Spend the money and buy some new veg oil to get use to the process and you'll need a set of scales that do gramms, mine cost about a fiver from some cheep shop.

basically you need 20% methanol + 3.5 gramms of caustic ( add 50% more if using potassium eg 5.25 gramms ) for new oil

Make up a large batch of chemicals eg 4 litres of methanol , 70 gramms of caustic or 105 gramms of potassium.
Thats enough to make 20 litres of basic fuel, you can add less methanol as you get used to the pocess, trying to measure out enough chemicals to make 1 litre can be a bit of a nightmare.

Put your chemicals together is a suitable container, with a good lid and shake untill the solution goes clear, thats about 10 mins with caustic and about 2 mins with potassium.
USE GLOVES AND EYE PROTACTION AND RELEASE PRESSURE BY UNSCREWING THE LID PERIODICALLY, THERE IS A LOT OF HEAT BUILD UP.

Put 1 litre of oil into blender, add 200 mls of mixed chemicals and mix together for about 30 secs.

Tip contents into suitable container and let it stand, you usually see the waste dropping away within 5 mins and after 20 mins you should have approx 200mls of dark waste at the bottom of the container.
You should have a litre of clear fuel on the top.

This is your biodiesel but dont put it in your car yet.
The fuel needs to be crystal clear and your bio will still have methanol in it. methanol will wreck your car.
Pour the bio off and let it stand for at least 24hrs to let methanol evapotate or warm the fuel up to 70-80 degrees, you will see the methanol boil off.

Once the fuel is cool it needs to be polished, or so they say.
2 common ways

1. Water wash
Very gently add water to the fuel, the water will flow through the fuel and you will get cloudy water below your fuel.
This is the cheep way but for 1 litre of fuel it should take about 4 litres of water and if your not carefull it will wreck your fuel.

2. Dry wash
Pass your cold fuel through a drywash medium, such as iella (dont think thats spelt right) this absorbes any remaining methanol and salts in the fuel.

Get some ph paper, plenty on eebuygum, dip it into your fuel, it should read around 7 thats lightish green to you and me and this means your fuel is ph neutral, never actually had any fuel that wasn't green but always better to check.

If your using old oil try to get it from a good source, at first let it stand for at least a cuple of days and use the clear oil off the top, preferably filtered.

if using good used oil use 6.5gramms of caustic or 9.75 gramms potassium / per litre of oil.

Well thats a start i'll get the catalogues out for parts for reactor.
I've downsized to a 20litre beer barrel for mine, i use to use 150 litre steel drum and have got access to 400 litre reactor but thats a lot of oil, more space and a lot of mess if things go oriblly wrong. I can usually knock up a good 100 litres in a day.

If someone can tell me how to upload photos i'll put some up of me making test batch and of the reactor i use.