1 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:39,600 Hi, I'm Joshua Thickel. 2 00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:44,519 I first learned about biodiesel fuel in 1996 when I was working on an organic farm in 3 00:00:44,519 --> 00:00:45,799 Germany. 4 00:00:45,799 --> 00:00:49,120 On this farm they didn't have many machines, but they did have two. 5 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,400 One was a tractor and one was an old station wagon. 6 00:00:52,400 --> 00:00:56,980 They fueled these machines with biodiesel fuel made from locally grown canola. 7 00:00:56,979 --> 00:01:00,000 I was amazed the first time I saw biodiesel fuel. 8 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,179 This is the first time I'd seen a natural product fueling a man-made engine. 9 00:01:05,179 --> 00:01:07,459 It changed the way I viewed the world. 10 00:01:07,459 --> 00:01:11,979 When I came back to the United States, I researched biodiesel fuel until I learned ... 11 00:01:11,979 --> 00:01:12,979 it. 12 00:01:12,979 --> 00:01:17,739 After that I built a machine called the Green Grease Machine, which took used frying oil 13 00:01:17,739 --> 00:01:22,939 from fast food restaurants and made it into pure biodiesel fuel. 14 00:01:22,939 --> 00:01:29,700 That biodiesel fueled my motorhome, the Veggie Van, for 25,000 miles across the... 15 00:01:29,700 --> 00:01:33,219 The response to the Veggie Van tour was amazing. 16 00:01:33,219 --> 00:01:38,219 The Veggie Van was on Dateline, CNN, the Discovery Channel, and even Good Morning... 17 00:01:38,219 --> 00:01:42,959 I received hundreds of emails from people all over the world asking how they too could 18 00:01:42,959 --> 00:01:48,640 make biodiesel fuel, because it's better for the environment and it's cheaper. 19 00:01:48,640 --> 00:01:53,439 As a result of the demand for information on biodiesel fuel, I wrote a book, From the 20 00:01:53,439 --> 00:01:58,920 Fryer to the Fuel Tank, The Complete Guide to Using Vegetable Oil as an Alternative Fuel. 21 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,280 The book sold thousands of copies now all over the world, and people everywhere are 22 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:06,439 making their own biodiesel fuel. 23 00:02:06,439 --> 00:02:11,039 Biodiesel is becoming an important political issue in the United States, in Europe, and 24 00:02:11,039 --> 00:02:12,759 in Australia. 25 00:02:12,759 --> 00:02:15,960 People want biodiesel, and they want it now. 26 00:02:15,960 --> 00:02:21,120 I believe that people deserve to have biodiesel fuel, as well as diesel fuel and... 27 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:23,760 at their local fuel station. 28 00:02:23,760 --> 00:02:28,180 This video is made to help you make biodiesel fuel. 29 00:02:28,180 --> 00:02:33,740 We follow Chapter 6 in the book, so if you have a book you can follow along watching 30 00:02:33,740 --> 00:02:36,800 the video and reading at the same time. 31 00:02:36,800 --> 00:02:39,960 Well, that's enough said. 32 00:02:39,960 --> 00:02:42,960 Let's go make some biodiesel fuel. 33 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:44,960 Great. 34 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:48,599 We're ready to make biodiesel. 35 00:02:48,599 --> 00:02:50,760 Now we need to gather our supplies. 36 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:52,960 First thing you're going to need is a scale. 37 00:02:52,960 --> 00:02:58,439 The scale has to be sensitive to 0.01 grams, meaning it has to be very sensitive. 38 00:02:58,439 --> 00:03:05,240 This is a scientific scale that I bought from Edmund Scientific for around $100. 39 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,200 So you just order that through the mail. 40 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:09,280 Very useful item. 41 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:12,140 Next thing you're going to need is something to measure pH. 42 00:03:12,139 --> 00:03:17,919 You can use a pH tester or pH meter, which is what I use, or you can use litmus paper 43 00:03:17,919 --> 00:03:19,459 or phenolphthalein. 44 00:03:19,459 --> 00:03:22,059 Those things also work to measure pH. 45 00:03:22,059 --> 00:03:24,739 Let me just give you a look at this little pH tester. 46 00:03:24,739 --> 00:03:27,759 It's a wonderful little device. 47 00:03:27,759 --> 00:03:30,759 Very reliable. 48 00:03:30,759 --> 00:03:32,619 And next you're going to need a good blender. 49 00:03:32,619 --> 00:03:38,699 I like to use a blender with a glass top. 50 00:03:38,699 --> 00:03:41,459 Glass top is a lot better for use with methanol. 51 00:03:41,460 --> 00:03:45,379 Methanol tends to be a little corrosive, and if you have a plastic top it may not 52 00:03:45,379 --> 00:03:46,740 last as long. 53 00:03:46,740 --> 00:03:51,500 So I like to use a nice glass top in my blender. 54 00:03:51,500 --> 00:03:53,900 And a nice high speed blender. 55 00:03:53,900 --> 00:03:57,340 I use this one to make biodiesel all the time. 56 00:03:57,340 --> 00:04:01,780 And you'll see that it's kind of, it's not exactly clean. 57 00:04:01,780 --> 00:04:05,580 It's probably not a good idea to eat out of your blender once you make biodiesel. 58 00:04:05,580 --> 00:04:07,420 You know, margaritas and biodiesel don't mix. 59 00:04:07,419 --> 00:04:10,699 Some other items you're going to need. 60 00:04:10,699 --> 00:04:12,979 Beakers or Pyrex containers. 61 00:04:12,979 --> 00:04:18,419 I use Pyrex because it's easy to buy, easy to find at any shopping center or grocery 62 00:04:18,419 --> 00:04:19,819 store. 63 00:04:19,819 --> 00:04:23,459 Wonderful thing about a Pyrex container is usually they have the metric measurements 64 00:04:23,459 --> 00:04:27,659 on one side, and on the other side they have the standard measurements. 65 00:04:27,659 --> 00:04:30,699 So that's very helpful for those of us in the chemistry world. 66 00:04:31,579 --> 00:04:38,019 Should have some paper towels to mop up your mess, which you may or may not make. 67 00:04:38,019 --> 00:04:42,180 Grab a plastic spoon and the top to some kind of a container. 68 00:04:42,180 --> 00:04:44,219 Just use a plastic container here. 69 00:04:44,219 --> 00:04:47,980 Put it on the scale and that's what you're going to measure your lye into. 70 00:04:47,980 --> 00:04:48,980 Very useful item. 71 00:04:48,980 --> 00:04:50,740 And expensive. 72 00:04:50,740 --> 00:04:52,819 A ladle. 73 00:04:52,819 --> 00:04:57,539 You can also use a hand pump or some other thing to scoop the biodiesel out once it's 74 00:04:57,539 --> 00:04:59,579 made. 75 00:04:59,579 --> 00:05:02,259 You're going to need some isopropyl alcohol. 76 00:05:02,259 --> 00:05:04,899 This is something you can get at any drug store. 77 00:05:04,899 --> 00:05:07,060 It's sold as rubbing alcohol. 78 00:05:07,060 --> 00:05:12,379 You look on the label, it's actually going to say something like 70% isopropyl alcohol. 79 00:05:12,379 --> 00:05:13,379 That's fine. 80 00:05:13,379 --> 00:05:19,500 You'll never find 100% isopropyl in the drug store, but you will find 70% and that's... 81 00:05:19,500 --> 00:05:22,219 for our purposes. 82 00:05:22,219 --> 00:05:24,259 This is a crucial item. 83 00:05:24,259 --> 00:05:26,680 A graduated eyedropper. 84 00:05:26,680 --> 00:05:31,319 Once an eyedropper is graduated to one half of a milliliter, you need an eyedropper... 85 00:05:31,319 --> 00:05:33,480 graduated at least to a milliliter. 86 00:05:33,480 --> 00:05:35,199 Nothing bigger than that. 87 00:05:35,199 --> 00:05:37,240 This is very important for your titration reaction. 88 00:05:37,240 --> 00:05:40,879 I use a shot glass that I got in Texas with this eyedropper. 89 00:05:40,879 --> 00:05:46,120 You can use anything you want so long as the eyedropper can get in there and drop. 90 00:05:46,120 --> 00:05:47,120 Okay. 91 00:05:47,120 --> 00:05:50,480 Next, rubber gloves. 92 00:05:50,480 --> 00:05:54,519 You really need a few extras in case a friend stops by. 93 00:05:54,519 --> 00:05:59,199 That's pretty much it except for the fact that I recommend you have a copy from the 94 00:05:59,199 --> 00:06:01,039 Fryer of the Fuel tank around. 95 00:06:01,039 --> 00:06:04,599 This is just helpful to follow along the chapter while you make the fuel. 96 00:06:04,599 --> 00:06:07,680 It's not necessary you can learn from the video itself. 97 00:06:07,680 --> 00:06:08,959 Okay. 98 00:06:08,959 --> 00:06:10,519 That's everything that I have here. 99 00:06:10,519 --> 00:06:15,240 We're going to have to go to the store to get methanol, lye, and used vegetable. 100 00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:17,120 Now, they're not going to sell us used vegetable. 101 00:06:17,120 --> 00:06:22,199 We'll have to go behind a restaurant or a cafeteria and find some. 102 00:06:22,199 --> 00:06:27,920 Why don't we go to the store and purchase our items. 103 00:06:32,479 --> 00:06:34,199 All right. 104 00:06:34,199 --> 00:06:36,519 Off we go. 105 00:06:36,519 --> 00:06:41,120 Lye can usually be found at a hardware store and methanol can usually be found at either 106 00:06:41,120 --> 00:06:45,680 an automobile parts store or an automobile racing store. 107 00:06:45,680 --> 00:06:48,959 We got lucky and we found a store that has both. 108 00:06:48,959 --> 00:06:52,599 So we're going to go get our methanol and our lye. 109 00:06:52,599 --> 00:07:00,919 The best place to find lye is in a hardware store, plumbing department. 110 00:07:00,919 --> 00:07:03,159 First thing you need to do is go to the plumbing department. 111 00:07:03,159 --> 00:07:06,879 That would be where they have things like drain cleaners, toilet cleaners, things like 112 00:07:06,879 --> 00:07:07,879 that. 113 00:07:07,879 --> 00:07:08,879 And look around. 114 00:07:08,879 --> 00:07:14,599 What you're looking for is the shelf with stuff like basically the liquid stuff you 115 00:07:14,599 --> 00:07:16,799 pour into the drain to clean it out. 116 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:19,600 What you're looking for is lye. 117 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,520 And lye is a powder or granulate. 118 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:25,079 It's not something that you get in a bucket. 119 00:07:25,079 --> 00:07:27,079 It's not something that pours out. 120 00:07:27,079 --> 00:07:29,000 It's literally a granulate. 121 00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:32,160 You want to shake the lye when you find it to make sure it's not clumped up. 122 00:07:32,160 --> 00:07:35,240 Lye is a desiccant, which means it absorbs water. 123 00:07:35,240 --> 00:07:38,920 So you want to find lye that has been sitting on the shelf for as little time as possible 124 00:07:38,920 --> 00:07:40,519 and has not absorbed any water. 125 00:07:40,519 --> 00:07:44,199 And you also want to make sure that it's a 100% lye. 126 00:07:44,199 --> 00:07:49,319 You don't want something that's 70% lye or 30% lye or has lye as one of the ingredients. 127 00:07:49,319 --> 00:07:55,519 The reaction will only function if you've got 100% lye. 128 00:07:55,519 --> 00:08:02,360 Now that we've got our lye, we need to go get our methanol. 129 00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:08,879 A good automobile parts store or racing parts store will sell methanol fuel. 130 00:08:08,879 --> 00:08:11,240 Now you don't just need methanol fuel. 131 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:14,680 You need a good container to put the methanol in. 132 00:08:14,680 --> 00:08:17,280 These containers are rated for racing fuel. 133 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:22,040 They're made to carry things like methanol, ethanol, and other harsh chemicals. 134 00:08:22,040 --> 00:08:23,759 It's a thick plastic. 135 00:08:23,759 --> 00:08:28,079 We can be sure that when we put our fuel in here, it's not going to eat through the... 136 00:08:28,079 --> 00:08:31,079 So we're going to go ahead and get one of these racing fuel containers. 137 00:08:31,079 --> 00:08:34,080 Now we're going to go get our methanol. 138 00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:38,720 How you doing? 139 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:39,720 How you doing? 140 00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:40,720 All right. 141 00:08:41,200 --> 00:08:42,200 Methanol fuel? 142 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:43,200 Yes sir. 143 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:44,200 How low? 144 00:08:44,200 --> 00:08:45,200 A gallon? 145 00:08:45,200 --> 00:08:47,200 We'll do just about a gallon. 146 00:08:57,200 --> 00:09:00,200 So there are a lot of places that sell racing fuel. 147 00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:03,200 Not too many. 148 00:09:03,200 --> 00:09:08,800 We're behind the restaurant here, and I was lucky enough to get to talk to the manager, 149 00:09:08,879 --> 00:09:14,879 and have them scoop out all of their used frying oil and wait to put it into the... 150 00:09:14,879 --> 00:09:19,279 It's best to talk to the manager, get the frying oil before it goes into the dumpster 151 00:09:19,279 --> 00:09:25,079 rather than after it goes into the dumpster, because once it goes into that big evil box, 152 00:09:25,079 --> 00:09:30,799 it gets filled up with water and other terrible things, and you never know what... 153 00:09:30,799 --> 00:09:31,799 out. 154 00:09:31,799 --> 00:09:37,359 So here we know we've got pretty much clean vegetable oil, clean in the sense that it 155 00:09:37,440 --> 00:09:39,320 hasn't been in the garbage can. 156 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:44,519 It's just been frying away with french fries and fish and chicken, things like that. 157 00:09:44,519 --> 00:09:49,240 It smells lovely, and as you see, I've already collected a little bit. 158 00:09:49,240 --> 00:09:54,159 So we're going to go ahead and collect some more for our blender experiment, and I'm just 159 00:09:54,159 --> 00:10:01,159 going to scoop out the vegetable oil here and ladle it into my container. 160 00:10:01,159 --> 00:10:08,159 As I said, this stuff smells wonderful, and once I get used to making fuel in big... 161 00:10:12,199 --> 00:10:17,000 I'll probably bring much bigger containers, and I'll just fill them completely up with 162 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,079 the vegetable oil. 163 00:10:19,079 --> 00:10:22,240 Okay, our work here is done. 164 00:10:22,240 --> 00:10:29,240 It's time to go back to the Bat Cave and turn this ugly used frying oil into pure... 165 00:10:31,559 --> 00:10:34,559 Let's go. 166 00:10:34,559 --> 00:10:39,399 Okay, we're back from the store. 167 00:10:39,399 --> 00:10:46,279 We have our methanol, we have our lye, and we have our vegetable oil. 168 00:10:46,279 --> 00:10:49,480 We're almost ready to do the biodiesel reaction. 169 00:10:49,480 --> 00:10:54,939 Now the biodiesel reaction is called transesterification, and that sounds very... 170 00:10:54,939 --> 00:10:59,699 of you who aren't familiar with chemistry, don't worry, it's extremely simple. 171 00:10:59,700 --> 00:11:05,020 What happens in transesterification is we take the vegetable oil and we mix it with 172 00:11:05,020 --> 00:11:07,660 methanol and lye. 173 00:11:07,660 --> 00:11:13,020 Vegetable oil molecule is a long molecule, three hydrocarbon chains attached to a... 174 00:11:13,020 --> 00:11:14,340 head. 175 00:11:14,340 --> 00:11:18,620 When that molecule comes in contact with lye, it breaks apart. 176 00:11:18,620 --> 00:11:22,460 The glycerin falls to the bottom, and we're left with three hydrocarbon chains. 177 00:11:22,460 --> 00:11:27,400 But those chains have to attach to something, so they seek out the methanol and they attach 178 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:28,660 to the methanol. 179 00:11:28,659 --> 00:11:34,699 So what you end up with is a hydrocarbon chain attached to a little bit of methanol. 180 00:11:34,699 --> 00:11:38,039 That chain is called biodiesel. 181 00:11:38,039 --> 00:11:39,500 What falls to the bottom is the glycerin. 182 00:11:39,500 --> 00:11:42,759 The glycerin combines with the lye and forms glycerin soap. 183 00:11:42,759 --> 00:11:47,620 So you put these three things together, blend them up, and what you get out of the reaction 184 00:11:47,620 --> 00:11:51,339 is biodiesel on top and glycerin soap on the bottom. 185 00:11:51,339 --> 00:11:55,059 Very simple, very straightforward, anybody can do it. 186 00:11:55,059 --> 00:11:58,500 Let's move on to the next step now, which is our titration. 187 00:11:58,500 --> 00:12:03,500 We're at the titration stage. 188 00:12:03,500 --> 00:12:09,539 The first thing we do for the titration is we measure out one gram of lye. 189 00:12:09,539 --> 00:12:11,619 We open our lye. 190 00:12:11,619 --> 00:12:15,019 It's important not to spill lye on anything or get it anywhere. 191 00:12:15,019 --> 00:12:21,739 It's a very corrosive substance. 192 00:12:21,740 --> 00:12:24,860 Our scale. 193 00:12:24,860 --> 00:12:37,279 Once you have your one gram of lye measured out, you put one litre of water into a... 194 00:12:37,279 --> 00:12:40,960 You really should use distilled water, it's a lot better. 195 00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:49,460 Take your one litre of water, open it up, and pour the one gram of lye that you measured 196 00:12:49,460 --> 00:12:51,139 into your litre of water. 197 00:12:51,139 --> 00:12:56,460 The lye can be very sticky, so it's important to get all of the lye that you measured into 198 00:12:56,460 --> 00:13:01,460 the water. 199 00:13:01,460 --> 00:13:08,660 Once you've got it in there, just give it a bit of a shake. 200 00:13:08,660 --> 00:13:16,259 It'll help the lye dissolve in the water. 201 00:13:16,259 --> 00:13:19,100 Watch the water until all of the lye is dissolved. 202 00:13:19,100 --> 00:13:31,019 Once you have the lye mixed into your one litre of water, your lye water solution is 203 00:13:31,019 --> 00:13:32,019 done. 204 00:13:32,019 --> 00:13:38,980 The second step in the titration process is to measure 10 millilitres of isopropyl 205 00:13:38,980 --> 00:13:42,300 alcohol into a flask or a small container. 206 00:13:42,300 --> 00:13:44,700 Remember I'm using my Texas shot glass here. 207 00:13:44,700 --> 00:13:48,779 I pre-measured 10 millilitres into this shot glass. 208 00:13:49,059 --> 00:13:53,199 On top of that, you've got your 10 millilitres of isopropyl alcohol. 209 00:13:53,199 --> 00:13:57,659 You add one milliliter of used vegetable oil to that. 210 00:13:57,659 --> 00:14:05,539 10 millilitres of isopropyl alcohol and one milliliter of used vegetable oil. 211 00:14:05,539 --> 00:14:09,819 I'm just using my little eyedropper here, my graduated eyedropper. 212 00:14:09,819 --> 00:14:13,220 Each eyedrop is one half of a milliliter. 213 00:14:13,220 --> 00:14:15,419 That's one half there. 214 00:14:16,419 --> 00:14:22,539 And that's the other half there. 215 00:14:22,539 --> 00:14:26,819 Now I have my mixture. 216 00:14:26,819 --> 00:14:34,500 This will tell me basically how acidic my vegetable oil is. 217 00:14:34,500 --> 00:14:39,579 So I want to measure what the acidity of the vegetable oil is right now. 218 00:14:40,220 --> 00:14:50,220 I take out my handy dandy pH meter, turn it on, and just go ahead and stick it in here 219 00:14:50,220 --> 00:14:53,500 and see what I get. 220 00:14:53,500 --> 00:14:56,820 Make sure all of the little electrode is covered. 221 00:14:56,820 --> 00:15:01,379 I'm getting a pH reading of about, well it's fluctuating. 222 00:15:01,379 --> 00:15:05,860 It's fluctuating between 4 and 5. 223 00:15:05,860 --> 00:15:16,379 Okay, the next step, once I take my initial reading, I want to see the pH of the liquid 224 00:15:16,379 --> 00:15:20,500 in the, let's see the pH of my mixture here shift. 225 00:15:20,500 --> 00:15:28,740 So what I'm going to do is I'm going to take very small amounts of my lye water solution 226 00:15:28,860 --> 00:15:34,980 and I'm going to drop that into my mixture. 227 00:15:34,980 --> 00:15:35,980 One milliliter at a time. 228 00:15:35,980 --> 00:15:41,740 Counting the milliliters that I drop in, after each milliliter I'm going to measure... 229 00:15:41,740 --> 00:15:45,539 So here's my first milliliter. 230 00:15:45,539 --> 00:15:50,940 Pull that in, that's half a milliliter there. 231 00:15:50,940 --> 00:15:53,060 That's the whole milliliter there. 232 00:15:53,459 --> 00:15:58,739 Okay, kind of mix that up a little bit. 233 00:15:58,739 --> 00:16:02,979 And let's measure the pH of that. 234 00:16:02,979 --> 00:16:08,539 Now I'm getting a pH, see it varies for a second and then you get a reading. 235 00:16:08,539 --> 00:16:13,179 My pH is still at 5, it hasn't shifted much. 236 00:16:13,179 --> 00:16:16,979 Well that didn't do what I wanted to do, so I'll keep adding. 237 00:16:16,979 --> 00:16:17,979 Counting one milliliter at a time. 238 00:16:17,980 --> 00:16:23,779 This is my second milliliter, that's half. 239 00:16:23,779 --> 00:16:24,779 That's full. 240 00:16:24,779 --> 00:16:30,580 Now I've got two milliliters of lye water solution in my mixture. 241 00:16:30,580 --> 00:16:31,580 Let's read it. 242 00:16:31,580 --> 00:16:45,620 We're getting a pH now, we're getting a pH of, looks like, 243 00:16:45,620 --> 00:16:49,659 almost 8. 244 00:16:49,659 --> 00:16:51,860 Oop, even higher than 8. 245 00:16:51,860 --> 00:16:53,700 So we've shifted the reaction. 246 00:16:53,700 --> 00:17:00,019 Our pH has changed from what it initially started at was 5 or 6, in that range, now 247 00:17:00,019 --> 00:17:02,019 it's up at 8. 248 00:17:02,019 --> 00:17:04,859 That's what you want to look for, you want to look for more of a shift in the pH rather 249 00:17:04,859 --> 00:17:05,859 than anything else. 250 00:17:05,859 --> 00:17:11,660 The titration reaction is really to tell you when does the reaction, when does the... 251 00:17:11,660 --> 00:17:13,660 shift from being acidic to basic. 252 00:17:13,700 --> 00:17:19,019 When that shift happens, if the shift is from 5 to 8 or 4 to 9 or whatever that shift is, 253 00:17:19,019 --> 00:17:23,779 you'll see it in your meter or you'll see it in your pH strip, that's the point where 254 00:17:23,779 --> 00:17:29,259 you neutralize the acid in the vegetable oil with lye, which is mixed in with water here, 255 00:17:29,259 --> 00:17:32,779 but in the real reaction it's by itself. 256 00:17:32,779 --> 00:17:38,660 So what this tells us, we added two milliliters of lye water to our mixture an... 257 00:17:38,660 --> 00:17:39,980 the reaction. 258 00:17:39,980 --> 00:17:48,299 Two milliliters is the magic number that we're going to add in the next step to our... 259 00:17:48,299 --> 00:17:49,299 grams of lye. 260 00:18:02,420 --> 00:18:09,220 The next step in our transesterification process is to measure our various reactants. 261 00:18:09,460 --> 00:18:16,819 We're going to need 200 milliliters of methanol because we're making a little mor... 262 00:18:16,819 --> 00:18:19,579 liter of biodiesel. 263 00:18:19,579 --> 00:18:26,460 We're starting with a liter of oil and we're going to need 5.5 grams of lye. 264 00:18:26,460 --> 00:18:33,259 Let's go ahead and measure our 200 milliliters of methanol right now. 265 00:18:33,259 --> 00:18:36,779 Here's our racing fuel that we got from the race store. 266 00:18:37,339 --> 00:18:41,099 See we've got a nice big hose on the end. 267 00:18:41,099 --> 00:18:47,660 I'm just going to pour my 200 milliliters of methanol into this container. 268 00:18:47,660 --> 00:18:54,019 You want to make sure not to spill your methanol anywhere or to get it on your han... 269 00:18:54,019 --> 00:18:55,019 eyes. 270 00:18:55,019 --> 00:18:59,980 You want to be very specific with your measurement. 271 00:18:59,980 --> 00:19:05,980 So we have 200 milliliters. 272 00:19:06,180 --> 00:19:09,180 Okay, that's it for the methanol. 273 00:19:09,180 --> 00:19:15,180 Put that down and I'm going to put the cap back on it. 274 00:19:20,180 --> 00:19:23,900 You want to make sure that before you pour the methanol into the blender, the blender 275 00:19:23,900 --> 00:19:25,460 is nice and tight. 276 00:19:25,460 --> 00:19:26,740 You don't want any play in it. 277 00:19:26,740 --> 00:19:30,180 You don't want any chance of it coming out of the bottom while you're blending or even 278 00:19:30,180 --> 00:19:31,180 before then. 279 00:19:31,380 --> 00:19:33,700 So you've got your blender. 280 00:19:33,700 --> 00:19:36,420 Take your 200 milliliters of methanol. 281 00:19:36,420 --> 00:19:39,420 Go ahead and pour it in your blender. 282 00:19:46,420 --> 00:19:50,420 Put that to the side and put the top on it. 283 00:19:51,420 --> 00:19:52,420 Okay, good. 284 00:19:52,420 --> 00:19:55,740 Now, it did spill a little bit. 285 00:19:55,740 --> 00:19:57,820 Just mop it up. 286 00:19:58,460 --> 00:20:01,460 Next thing is you want your 5.5 grams of lye. 287 00:20:01,460 --> 00:20:03,460 Turn on our scale. 288 00:20:03,460 --> 00:20:11,460 We're going to measure out 5.5 grams, which is a lot more than we measured last time. 289 00:20:13,460 --> 00:20:17,460 That is 4.8, 4.7. 290 00:20:18,460 --> 00:20:26,379 Remember, this is the 3.5 grams that we will always use for any liter of vegetable plus 291 00:20:26,940 --> 00:20:34,940 a little extra, exactly 2 grams more for this vegetable to neutralize the extra acid in 292 00:20:34,940 --> 00:20:36,940 the vegetable. 293 00:20:38,940 --> 00:20:41,940 And that is 5.5. 294 00:20:42,940 --> 00:20:43,940 Great. 295 00:20:43,940 --> 00:20:50,940 We've got our 5.5 grams of lye, 200 milliliters of methanol. 296 00:20:51,500 --> 00:20:57,500 Go ahead and put our methanol, which is in the blender, on top of the blender itself. 297 00:20:59,500 --> 00:21:01,500 Make sure it's nice and secure in there. 298 00:21:01,500 --> 00:21:03,500 You don't want it falling out. 299 00:21:03,500 --> 00:21:04,500 Open it up. 300 00:21:04,500 --> 00:21:09,500 You see you have to be very careful when you put the lye into the methanol. 301 00:21:09,500 --> 00:21:14,500 You're creating a substance called sodium methoxide, which is extremely caustic,... 302 00:21:14,500 --> 00:21:18,500 dangerous to the eyes and all of the membranes. 303 00:21:19,059 --> 00:21:20,059 Just stay away. 304 00:21:20,059 --> 00:21:24,059 Just pour it in slowly so not to splash it. 305 00:21:28,059 --> 00:21:31,059 Make sure to get all of your lye in there. 306 00:21:33,059 --> 00:21:39,059 Once your lye is in the methanol, you're going to put the lid on it and you're goin... 307 00:21:39,059 --> 00:21:46,059 blend it up for about a minute, maybe less, depending on how long it takes for the... 308 00:21:46,619 --> 00:21:49,619 and the lye to become one substance. 309 00:21:50,619 --> 00:21:52,619 We're going to go ahead and blend now. 310 00:21:52,619 --> 00:21:54,619 Here we go. 311 00:21:58,619 --> 00:22:01,619 Okay, that's blended for about a minute now. 312 00:22:01,619 --> 00:22:05,619 What we're going to do is we're going to measure out our vegetable oil that goes in... 313 00:22:05,619 --> 00:22:07,619 reaction. 314 00:22:08,179 --> 00:22:18,179 We want to have one liter of vegetable oil, which is exactly four times the amount that 315 00:22:18,179 --> 00:22:20,179 will fit in my little Pyrex container. 316 00:22:20,179 --> 00:22:24,179 I'm going to go ahead and measure out 250 milliliters. 317 00:22:38,179 --> 00:22:42,179 Perfect, perfect stuff to make biodiesel. 318 00:22:43,179 --> 00:22:45,179 Go ahead and pour that into the blender. 319 00:22:45,179 --> 00:22:47,179 Look how thick that is. 320 00:22:49,179 --> 00:22:51,179 Just like Grandma used to make it. 321 00:22:51,179 --> 00:22:55,179 Okay, we've got it all in the blender there. 322 00:22:55,179 --> 00:23:05,179 Now our blender has got one liter of vegetable oil and 200 milliliters of sodiu... 323 00:23:05,740 --> 00:23:09,740 We are actually beginning the transesterification reaction right now. 324 00:23:09,740 --> 00:23:12,440 The vegetable oil molecules have begun to break apart. 325 00:23:12,440 --> 00:23:18,100 The purpose of the blender is to excite the entire mixture and really get those molecules 326 00:23:18,100 --> 00:23:22,440 broken apart and make the biodiesel reaction complete. 327 00:23:22,440 --> 00:23:28,380 Now we're going to blend for about five, ten minutes, just kind of feeling the glass, 328 00:23:28,380 --> 00:23:31,700 making sure it doesn't get warm, making sure the motor doesn't get too warm. 329 00:23:32,220 --> 00:23:37,220 After we've blended, we're going to let this sit for eight hours while it becomes... 330 00:23:37,220 --> 00:23:39,220 All right, here we go. 331 00:24:02,220 --> 00:24:09,700 Okay, so now our biodiesel is blended and the reaction, the primary phase of the reaction 332 00:24:09,700 --> 00:24:11,539 has begun to occur. 333 00:24:11,539 --> 00:24:16,140 We're just going to allow the biodiesel to settle now for about eight hours, at which 334 00:24:16,140 --> 00:24:21,700 time we're going to come back and with any luck, we're going to see a nice layer of... 335 00:24:21,700 --> 00:24:26,980 on the top, making up about 80% of this mixture, and we're going to see our thick,... 336 00:24:26,980 --> 00:24:28,980 soap down at the bottom. 337 00:24:28,980 --> 00:24:33,980 So cross your fingers, go to sleep, and let's check it in the morning. 338 00:24:54,980 --> 00:24:56,980 Oh, you're still here. 339 00:24:56,980 --> 00:25:03,980 Well, there's nothing like waking up to a fresh batch of biodiesel. 340 00:25:05,980 --> 00:25:09,980 Just like the sun rises, this is the most wonderful smell in the world. 341 00:25:09,980 --> 00:25:15,980 It'll wake you right up. 342 00:25:15,980 --> 00:25:20,819 As you can see here, the biodiesel reaction has been completed. 343 00:25:20,819 --> 00:25:23,099 On the top, we have the biodiesel. 344 00:25:23,099 --> 00:25:24,660 The bottom layer is nice and dark. 345 00:25:24,660 --> 00:25:25,660 That's our glycerin. 346 00:25:25,660 --> 00:25:29,259 Just a little bit of soap, maybe a few crystals in there. 347 00:25:29,259 --> 00:25:31,580 That means we might have used a little too much lye. 348 00:25:31,580 --> 00:25:36,660 Definitely could have used a little less, but the only real way to know that is to 349 00:25:36,660 --> 00:25:38,540 do a few trial and error. 350 00:25:38,540 --> 00:25:41,860 Small batches in the blender like this are really good to tell before you go making 351 00:25:41,860 --> 00:25:47,460 800 million gallons and learn that, oh my God, we miscalculated lye by a little bit. 352 00:25:47,460 --> 00:25:54,180 So next step, next thing we've got to do is we've got to test the biodiesel's density. 353 00:25:55,660 --> 00:26:02,820 Now we're going to test the density of our biodiesel. 354 00:26:02,820 --> 00:26:07,980 Density is very important because the whole reason we make biodiesel from vegetable oil 355 00:26:07,980 --> 00:26:09,580 is to reduce the density. 356 00:26:09,580 --> 00:26:12,300 We're trying to make it thinner rather than thicker. 357 00:26:12,300 --> 00:26:18,180 A thicker fuel won't run very well through our fuel injectors, our fuel pump, and other 358 00:26:18,180 --> 00:26:21,820 calibrated fuel parts of the engine, but a thinner fuel will. 359 00:26:21,820 --> 00:26:23,660 That's why we make biodiesel. 360 00:26:23,779 --> 00:26:30,100 In order to test that we've actually made something thinner, we use a hydrometer. 361 00:26:30,100 --> 00:26:34,620 A hydrometer is just a long piece of cylindrical glass with a weight at the... 362 00:26:34,620 --> 00:26:37,820 It's calibrated in numbers along the side. 363 00:26:37,820 --> 00:26:41,660 These numbers correspond to something called specific gravity. 364 00:26:41,660 --> 00:26:45,900 The biodiesel's specific gravity of vegetable oil is usually above 0.90. 365 00:26:45,900 --> 00:26:48,580 We have 0.90 here. 366 00:26:48,580 --> 00:26:50,980 It's usually here. 367 00:26:51,019 --> 00:26:55,660 I'm saying above, but the numbers go from least to greatest this way. 368 00:26:55,660 --> 00:27:01,180 When I say above 0.90, I mean it's going to be 0.95 or even 1. 369 00:27:01,180 --> 00:27:03,660 That's the specific gravity of vegetable oil. 370 00:27:03,660 --> 00:27:11,740 However, biodiesel's specific gravity is less than 0.90, meaning biodiesel is usually 0.88, 371 00:27:11,740 --> 00:27:17,019 0.87, or even 0.85 because it is a thinner liquid. 372 00:27:17,019 --> 00:27:19,220 Very similar properties, though. 373 00:27:19,259 --> 00:27:25,779 We use our hydrometer and our cylinder to test how thick our fuel is by simply dropping 374 00:27:25,779 --> 00:27:31,819 the hydrometer very carefully because it is made of glass into the cylinder and letting 375 00:27:31,819 --> 00:27:33,339 it float. 376 00:27:33,339 --> 00:27:38,740 Then we look at the number on the side of the glass and we see that it's very close 377 00:27:38,740 --> 00:27:49,180 in this case to being just below 0.90, meaning ours looks like it's about 0.88,... 378 00:27:49,220 --> 00:27:50,220 or 0.89. 379 00:27:50,220 --> 00:27:51,220 That's fine. 380 00:27:51,220 --> 00:27:55,940 The industry standard for biodiesel is 0.88 on the specific gravity scale. 381 00:27:55,940 --> 00:28:01,820 We know that not only has our reaction been successful, but we have successfully... 382 00:28:01,820 --> 00:28:07,700 that icky used vegetable oil into a thin, clean-burning fuel, biodiesel. 383 00:28:07,700 --> 00:28:12,180 Once you've tested the specific gravity of your biodiesel, you can filter it and use 384 00:28:12,180 --> 00:28:14,620 it in a diesel engine. 385 00:28:14,619 --> 00:28:20,699 This video is concentrated primarily on making biodiesel in a blender, but you can... 386 00:28:20,699 --> 00:28:22,379 in any size. 387 00:28:22,379 --> 00:28:23,779 It's up to you. 388 00:28:23,779 --> 00:28:28,859 You simply scale the amounts of the reaction in accordance to how much more biodiesel you 389 00:28:28,859 --> 00:28:29,859 want to make. 390 00:28:29,859 --> 00:28:35,619 Now, in future videos, we're also going to cover running a car on pure vegetable oil 391 00:28:35,619 --> 00:28:42,979 and building a large-scale biodiesel refinery. 392 00:28:42,980 --> 00:28:45,779 Now you see how easy it is to make biodiesel. 393 00:28:45,779 --> 00:28:51,059 I hope you'll continue to make biodiesel fuel for yourself as well as for others. 394 00:28:51,059 --> 00:28:56,579 Following is a list of important resources and information that will help you making... 395 00:28:56,579 --> 00:29:04,620 Don't forget to log on to the Veggie Van website at www.veggievan.com and check out 396 00:29:04,620 --> 00:29:11,140 the discussion forum as well as the new and updated information on making biodiesel fuel. 397 00:29:11,140 --> 00:29:14,660 I hope you've enjoyed this video and I look forward to hearing from you soon.