Quirks and Quarks: Talks reality

The CBC's excellent radio show Quirks and Quarks had a guest who wrote a book "Physics for Presidents" and it got people in a bit of a tizzy. Listen to it in MP3 or OGG.

So much was the reaction, the host Bob MacDonald wrote about it in his blog.

Read it, then check the responses from people. My favourite:

Dave from Ottawa
"A kilogram of coal, on the other hand, contains about 1,000 times more energy than an equivalent volume of air blowing past a windmill."
Now subtract the energy it took to extract and transport that coal to the power plant.
My point is that energy density is a misleading measure. Update the article to compare net energy output of the sources.

My comment to Dave from Ottawa:
Now substract the energy it took to mine the iron, refine it into steel, bend and melt it into a turbine and alternator and transport it from Europe to Ontario. My point is that energy density is not the only measure but the single more leading indicator of a fuel's viability.

I repeat my theorem:
For an energy source to be viable, it must be produced from raw materials using only that fuel source.

Example:
If wind power is so great, produce more wind farms from raw materials using only wind power.

This test passes for coal, natural gas, petroleum, and nuclear power. It does not (yet?) pass for wind, solar, hydrogen, or ethanol. Biodiesel is on the fence.

More on Algae Fuel

As I've said before in my blog, algae as biofuel is attractive.

Here's a proof of concept (shown on History Channel) that is using transparent tubes as bio-reactors collecting waste gas from a 1GW power station. It claims that 100% capture from the power station will need 2,000 acres of land or 8 square kilometers (2km x 4km).



The University of Kentucky is making making headlines on this. It's not new, but this is the direction we need to go in considering the 100-fold increase in photosynthetic performance.

Fuel - A motion picture about BioFuel

Always bugs me when you see a film that is one sided (Roger Moore?) - even when I support their cause. But when I saw the guy going up to fast food joint saying:

"Can I have a medium Sprite and, uh, all your used cooking oil please?"

I have to admit a sense of respect for someone whose doing the same stuff I am.

Apple has the trailer up:
http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/fuel/

Or watch it now at lower quality from YouTube:

The CBC and Algae

The CBC is carryintg a story close to my heart.

Algae blooms: A new source of energy?

They cover the important details:
- ethenol isn't our future
- algae is the fastest growing plant
- algae has had a billion year head start
- link to the awesome CBC program Quirks and Quarks talking about Algae and engergy.

Let's hope the public learns more about this and next time I mention it at a party people don't look at me like I have two heads.

Benefits of having a Veggie Vaggon

A local radio station was giving away tickets to people who had the best story for how they were going to get to Montreal to see Radiohead in concert.

I sent in my application with links to this blog and my youtube videos and I won. Nice.

Oh, furnace is in. I need to make some good videos before I post. It's kinda neat.

So you think you want do this?

$1.40 per litre fuel getting you down? Going veggie is a way to save some money. But don't go into this to save a couple bucks. It is important to keep in mind this is a hobby - treat it as such. Guidelines:

Spend time and thought to find the cheapest and best parts you need for your filtering.

Take effort into making the best quality oil you can

Pay attention to your car - check the engine temp before throwing the switch to run on veggie, check the oil temp while driving, sudden changes in outdoor temp will effect you so watch for it

And most of all - don't blame veggie oil for your flat tire. Use your brain, think things through.

Here's someone who has emailed me asking questions I'd like to share. I got his permission to post this because he really seems to have the right mindset to take this on. Notice how cautious, analytical yet excited he is.

I thought it would be a great thing to share - lots of juicy info.

1. From Patrick to me

Hi there,

I should first probably start by thanking you, your YouTube videos and blog cleared up about a dozen lingering questions I've had stored up about the whole process. I'm sure you get a million e-mails so I'll try to keep it short...

I'm about to buy a diesel Jetta, probably the exact same one you have (1999-2002-ish Jetta TDI) and I'm going to convert it immediately. I'd love to do it myself but I simply don't have the time or the workspace to undertake that kind of project. I'll end up taking it into a shop that offers the conversion. But you mentioned in one of the videos that the Jetta doesn't heat up quick enough and the trunk tank doesn't reach temperature as fast as you would like it to. When I take my car in for installation, should I insist that they install a heat element in the inside of the tank? Will that remedy the problem? I'd like to use as little diesel as possible.

Basically, what would you do differently if you were going to buy a Jetta all over again? What should I make sure about when I go through my installation process?

Thanks so much, I really appreciate your time and the valuable information you've made available. I'm in Rochester, NY, if that's pertinent.

2. From me to Patrick

Good call on bringing it to a shop. That era of Jetta is very low to the ground and the hoses are not easy to run. I was going to do it myself and just about started to disconnect stuff then I tried to crawl under my car while I had it jacked up 10 inches. It just can't be done without a full hydrolic lift. You need full 6 degrees of freedom do install the kit in a Jetta.

Here's what I'd do:

get a vegtherm mega from plantdrive make sure it's positoned just before the injector pump so it heats up the oil as a final stage.

get a rocker switch with a back light ($5) from canadian tire or some hardware store - this will control the VegThermMega

get a flat flate heat exchanger (or brazed plate, same diff). I got mine from Omar: OmarSales.com 16 plates will do.

You want the hotest coolant from the engine, and the vegoil from the filter assembly for maximum benifit

ask your mechanic if this is possible (it wasn't for me because I did each of the above in seperate steps) to install a ZeroStart coolant heater. This is a 110V plug-in-the-wall heater. It doesn't heat the engine block. It heats the coolant and by convection (depending on how your coolant lines are run) the coolant will circulate. This will heat up your engine + veggie oil + coolant 10x better than a simple block heater.

If you can't do a ZeroStart, or even if you can it *might* be a good idea to ... Install a hot-water heating element in the veggie oil tank. If you get a GreaseCar/Frybrid/PlantDrive kit, this means you need to drill a hold sideways into the tank. The electrical cable would need to remain accessible so you can plug it in overnight in the winter.

install temperature sensors on the FPHE and just after the VegTherm. Once the FPHE is @ about 50C (or 45C in weather over 20C) and the car engine oil temp on the dash is at the steady-state temp then you know you can switch on the VegTherm and go veggie powered. After that, just watch as the 2nd temp guage rises and gives your confirmation that everything is going well. The temp guages I used were $20 SnapOn brand Air Conditioning guages that run on 1 AAA battery. I run the wire under the hood and into the driver door. They rest in my drive-side door well where I can grab them as needed. Maybe I'll velcro them to the dashboard. but then the wires would be visible... meh. Temperature montioring is vital to knowing you're not feeding sludge into your fine car.

Big email. But the jist is - get it installed right the first time. It's annoying as heck to bring the car back 6months later to install another heating unit. Best of luck and send photos. :)

3. From Patrick to me

Hi again!

Thanks so much for the reply, I now feel like I'm prepared to make the leap. I think I've got a line on an '01 TDI, also. Hopefully I'll be the owner in a few days.

I'll definitely be picking up the parts you've listed. I'm in Rochester, NY, so I'm probably in the same boat as you with needing to heat up the coolant and oil as much as possible in as many ways as possible. You're in Canada, right?

I read the product description for the VegTherm Mega, and it looks like it can be configured to turn on using the same switch that you would use to start the WVO flow. In the interest of simplicity and less wiring/switches, would you recommend doing it this way? Are there any problems that you could foresee that doing it this way would present? Here is what it says on the VegTherm page:

...it can be installed to switch to SVO at the same time SVO is selected, in fact, the same "trigger" that switches a valve to SVO can turn on the Vegtherm.

The ZeroStart kit you mentioned, is it the one produced by FrostHeater - the TDIHeater (http://www.frostheater.com/)? It looks like a good kit and it's relatively low-cost. What currently prevents you from installing one? Did you mount something in the place where the TDIHeater is supposed to be mounted? Or will it just be more trouble for you than it's worth to do it at this point?

You bring up a question that I did still have... When the veggie oil is just sitting in the trunk tank overnight, is it in danger of thickening in sub-freezing temperatures? Does this slow down the changeover process? Is there any difficulty in drawing the oil from the rear tank during cold-weather months? Obviously, it does eventually warm up, but it would probably be wise to install a heating element, like you've mentioned, correct?

Like I said, if there's a way to shorten the window from diesel startup to WVO switch-over, I'm all for it. I'd like to use as little diesel as possible. If it means installing an element at an additional cost, I'm sure I'll recoup it over time if I burn less diesel, and of course it would be that much less emissions into the atmosphere, which is my primary objective. What kind of wattage should I think about using for the heating element in the trunk tank?

You also made mention that you would be switching over to 1 micron bags soon. Did you do so yet? How has it worked out? Also, I went over to fiterbag.com, and I'm having trouble figuring out which bags I'll need. I'll probably construct a similar filtration rig, if not identical, to the station you've set up. At FilterBag, they've got everything labelled as part numbers, but I can't tell which one is the 1 micron package. Can you tell me which ones you order?

I also had one last question about your dewatering tank. I'm headed off to the scrap yard soon to try to locate something similar this week. What material would you consider ideal, and how clean does it have to be? Obviously I'll avoid anything with corrosion, but should I look for something that's really spic & span? Or will any old tank do, as long as it can be cleaned up? I'm trying to save money on this aspect of the process, but if you'd consider it very important to get a high-quality tank, then I'll do what I gotta' do.

I can't tell where exactly in the video, but where should I install the heating element? Right near the bottom? Maybe 4 inches or so from the bottom? Also, I see that you've got an exhaust fan at the top of the tank, which has a lid. Is the lid part of the tank? Or did you fabricate it yourself? Did you cut any sort of hole at the top of the tank to work with your venthilation? If so, what size?

I'll definitely be documenting the process with photos and probably a blog. A large reason for doing this is to also raise environmental awareness. I'll be sure to point people to your blog and YouTube channel, they're easily the best how-to resources on the 'net in the field.

Again, thanks so much, I know I've sent over a million questions, any help would be very, very appreciated!

Talk to you soon,

4. From me to Patrick

Hey,

I'll try to answer everything here.

You're in Canada, right? - Yup, Ottawa.

VegThermMega sharing a switch? - It'll work. but I recommend a separate switch. Check this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhR7TIgDgOs), it can be done very nicely. You want to be careful not to overload your alternator. In the summer you'll probably have a huge load from the AirCond and you will not need the VegThem for very long in the summer.

TDIHeater and the ZeroStart are the same unit? Yes. They work by convection - there is no pump. This means there are restrictions on how the plumbing of the coolant lines. I found it to be (a) incompatible with how I routed the lines and (b) little to no room for it. The FPHE took up a fair amount of space. For it to work you need a good 1-2ft of vertical coolant hose leading directly into the top of the engine block. This will create the draft needed to circulate the coolant. If you don't do this, the coolant will not circulate and you'll just melt the coolant line directly above the heater. And since most veggie kits make your coolant system "unconventional" this can be tricky. Not impossible I think, just tricky.

GreaseCar uses hose-in-hose for under the car. With with proper back-flushing will eliminate any clogged fuel lines. The vegoil in the tank will gel of course, but heat from engine will eventually heat that up (once the engine heats up and then the coolant, and then the vegoil). Installing a 12inch 240V AC heating element and only running it on 120V AC wall-outlet power will make it a 1000W heater (1kWh costs me $0.05). That'll heat the vegoil in a full 40L tank from -25C to 30C in 1hr. It's important to make sure that element is 100% submerged when you plug it in. Otherwise it'll make stinky smoke from the burned oil. I currently have a 750W j-shaped element I poke in from the top of the tank. Not ideal - but saves about 30min of highway driving in switch-over time. Live and learn.

That reminds me - make sure you insulate the tank. You have the cylinder like mine, don't use expanding foam - it'll crush/crack the molding of your car trunk. Do for 0.5" or 1.0" heat resistant Styrofoam and cut it to shape for under/around/ontopof the tank. Save all that precious heat.

filterbag.com's "bag finder" tool is great. Polyprop felt, size #1, plastic ring (cheaper), micron rating 1-3. I see two options there right now. Donno the difference. Pick any one. Get 50 bags, it'll last you 3 years, easy. Havn't done any filtering yet, still got my stock pile from the fall. It'll flow slowly, so just process a bit at a time. Once in the morning, once when you get home, once before going to bed. That should be about 40-60L per day.

My barrel was used to store mangoes I think. So I guess it was "food grade" at some point. The paint lining inside the barrel was intact, and only corrosion was on the outside along metal seams where the rain got at it. I took it home, hosed it down, and even took a rag and some dish detergent (get a 4L bottle of this, it does magic with cleaning up any vegoil mess) and made sure it was clean. Exposed metal is OK if there is no rust. VegOil is great for corrosion protection. Seriously.

I'm not happy with my ventilating hole at this time. It double duties as a place to dump in the filtered oil. So it's huge (1ft x 8in I'd say). If I had my way, I keep that hole (which I made with some power tools - the barrel came with a lid) but make a "lid" for it to keep dust out. Then have a small 2-3" hole for venting. On that I'll put my cheapo bathroom fan to suck out any smell and blow it outside. The heating element is about 4" from the bottom yes - I like it there. 2" would be better, but beware - come barrels have wavy ridges. These cannot be drilled-and-sealed properly. Only put holes in the barrel/tank where it is smooth. Then just use rubber washers to finish the seal.

Well, best of luck with your setup. You're asking all the right questions and I don't get a sense you're rushing to save money - a good sign you'll make it to the "yay! I'm now saving money" before you reach "dang, I need to rebuild my injector pump". Cutting corners by using 2nd hand barrels and such is OK - just don't get lazy. And I see you're taking this seriously.

Cheers.

Hydrogenated or non-H Veggie Oil?

I only use non-hydrogenated veggie oil when I filter or in my car. In short, hydrogenated oil is not commonly called veggie oil, but veggie shortening or veggie lard (ie. Crisco).

My pumping hot hydrogen gas under pressure and in the presence of a catalyst - veggie oil will cease being liquid at room temperature. This is what McDonald's and KFC use for cooking. This is also how margarine is made. Still think it's healthy?

So when you collect veggie oil for your car - be sure to ask that it's in fact veggie oil and not veggie shortening. Then ask again - "is it liquid at room temperature?" - some people need that last bit of clarification.

Washing waste veggie oil and why I don't do it.

I've read around that it's a good idea to wash waste veggie oil (WVO) - I wasn't convinced.

I know one must wash biodiesel to get methanol, glycerin and Sodium-hydroxide by products out. But to wash straight-up WVO?

There are two common ways to wash BioDiesel (which some people recommend for WVO as well):

1. Mist washing
2. Bubble washing

Both methods can cause emulsification of the water and oil (aka. salad dressing) so heating the water and oil is important to inhibit this behaviour. 50C will do fine if you're gentle - higher temperatures will be needed if you really agitate the two fluids.

I tried to wash 10L of my 10 micron filtered oil (my car fuel) with 10L of tap water in a small 30L glass aquarium. I bought an aquarium air pump, a 30cm wand bubbler (to make a bubble curtain), and a 150W aquarium heater. I hooked it all up, poured it all in and let it all go for 48 hours.



Result? No much changed in the colour or clarity of the oil. There isn't an other way to know if the quality improved without getting scientific testing equipment. The water got smokey - but that might just be oil suspended in the water. Plus I'd have to spend more time and mess dewatering now.

As it stands, I will not add any washing stage to my filtering operation until I can see more evidence.

BioDiesel for non-hobbiests

My dad sent me think link today. Groovy. Expensive, but groovy. Don't know how good it is, but the description seems to suggest they know what they're doing. Acid/base pH balancing, 3 stage water wash, 110V @ 15A power suggests a drying stage.

If you're a boating marina selling fuel or farmer that wants to go with green fuel without modifying your vehicle - this looks like the fastest route. At $9,000 USD you better be prepared to make about 10000L of BioDiesel before this thing breaks even.

Note: you can use BioDiesel in an oil furnace too, so 10,000L may not take too long for some of you.

Vids of my GreaseCar

Video 1: Under the hood


Video 2: In the cabin, on the dashboard


Video 3: In the trunk, the tank itself


Bonus Video: Changing veggie fuel filter

More photos of Mark's Generator

Here are some pictures of the recent videos of Mark's Generator.


Picture 1:
- 12HP 2cyl engine, 8KW 220V AC alternator ESA approved
- currently unused water tower for cooling


Picture 2:
- Flexible Aluminum exhaust pipe
- 2 piston exhaust joined in a Y-joint
- Copper fuel line is wrapped around exhaust for pre-heating (better burn, better flow)


Picture 3:
- 3 fuel tanks (Veg-1, Diesel, Veg-2)
- Flexible Aluminum exhaust pipe
- Copper fuel line is wrapped around exhaust for pre-heating (better burn, better flow)
- Exhaust going out the fron door for now.

Mark's Lister in operation

Here are two videos of Mark's generator in operation.

Added since last post:
1. exhaust pipes vent to outside (flex pipe on left)
2. glow plugs added for easier starting (battery powered - right)
3. 3 40L fuel jugs hung from cieling
4. 3-to-1 fuel valve to select fuel (diesel or veggie)

Still to-do:
1. cooling system
2. muffler
3. sound-proof the shed
4. install electrical cables to his house

With any luck, he'll have a generator working for this spring's thaw-and-melt-and-flood-your-basement season.


Video 1: Single cylinder firing.


Video 2: Both cylinders firing.

Jets and BioFuel

So, Virgin Atlantic flew a short flight on biofuel. What remarkable about this is Sir Branson pointed out that Algae based biofuels are targeted to produce their Jet Fuel.

Stroke of common sense, brilliant.

The problem with biofuel

The problem is the people who make biofuel are chemical companies and not agricultural companies.


Fundamentally, a company will focus its efforts on the things it does best. Why would a chemical company making fuel ever want to grow the crops used to make the fuel? It makes about as much sense as a bank getting into the business of real estate.



So why is this a problem? Because as a chemical producer, you care only about price and availability.

Result - biofuels are mass produced using human food crops. Why would BiofuelCompany grow its own crops when they can get soy or canola cheap prices? The return on investment isn't there for BiofuelCompany.

So now - as I'm sure you know - we're in a state where biofuels are trendy (ignoring ethenol, rightfully so) and food prices are going up because there are two markets buying the product.

Solution - grow crops specifically designed for fuel. What would this crop look like?

No intellectual property concerns
Anyone can grow it without fear of litigation. After all, more competition means more product. It's very very hard to conceive of supply outstripping demand for any cheap energy source.

Inexpensive to grow
The raw materials needed to grow the crop have to be cheap. Little to no pesticides is a bonus. Less work the better.

High fuel content
The crop needs to produce very high amounts of fuel per acre.

What would my solution be? Algae. Algae will grow in just about any body water (ask anyone who owns a chlorinated pool). All it needs is CO2, some nitrogen, 25C temperatures and lots of sunlight. You don't even need to displace prime food crops to grow it. Deserts have lots of sunlight, a water-tight greenhouses will conserve almost all the water.

As for fuel content? Corn - 145kg of oil per hectare. Soybean - 375kg/ha. Canola (rapeseed) - 1,000 kg/ha. Algae - 6,894kg/ha (theoretical 39,916kg/ha).

Staggering? Not if you answer these questions:

• What produced 99% of the oxygen present in our atmosphere during the primordial years of our planet?
• What is the base of the food chain for most of the world's ecosystems?
  
• Algae has been harvesting power from the sun for billions of years, humans have been at it (photovoltaic/solarcell technology) for 40 years. Who would you expect is better at it?
• Why is photosynthesis almost 100% efficient while photovoltaic research has only gotten 42.8% with super-expensive Gallium-Arsenide triple-junction semiconductor crystals?
  

The oil from algae can be used to produce plastics (1950's plastics were made from soy bean oil until the farmers couldn't keep up with demand and Tupperware started using slag from oil refinement).

The oil from algae can be blended (say, 50%) with home heating fuel which doesn't need the same level of refinement as transportation. Or better yet, displace large amounts of petroleum oil used in electrical generation.

Addi tonal energy can be spent to convert the oil into BioDiesel for transportation.

M's Generator Coming Together

My long time friend M lives away from the city and when the power goes out - he's not in an area with a high priority for restoring power.

Without electricity his home is at risk of flood, freezing/bursting pipes and other damage. Not to mention his little girl would be stuck in the cold with no water (water well needs power to pump) or warm food (electric range and oven).

With his wife's blessing (I assume) he began building a shed to house a lister engine to power his home. His eventual goal is to sell power back to the grid through OPA RESOP at double the market rate.

Here is the engine mounted on the I-beam frame. The I-beam frame is rested on 2cm thick rubber padding - like this. Then the I-beam frame is anchored into about 1,000 kg (2,204.62262 pounds ...) of concrete.

We got the two fly wheels on (about 90kg each) after much grunting. We figure he's close to getting the engine started. We'll start with just diesel. There are still exhaust, cooling, veggie fuel considerations to prepare. Oh yeah, and the alternator, electrical cabling, throw switches in the house, etc. But for now, we're happy.

Powering a home on the fat of the land

No man is an island. I have a good friend M whom I feed my need to talk about crazy ideas like heating your home without gas, wood, or fuel. We also talk about running a car using waste oil.

We had an agreement - that I would get a ground source heat pump and he'll get a Lister generator powered by veggie oil.

Lister engines were made in Lister England in the 1930's and knock-offs are now made everywhere - especially in India. These engines are very primitive. Hand crank to start, no muffler or transmission. But primitive it good - it can run on veggie oil no problem.

If you strap a large alternator to it - you now have a waste oil to electricity device. Free power.

In this blog I will present how we setup M his very own grease sucking power plant.

BioDiesel vs. Streight Veggie Oil

One Tuesday night in September 2005 the Arbour Environmental Shoppe had a guest speaker present after store hours; his name was Steve Anderson and he made is own BioDiesel.

He would collect waste cooking oil (canola typically) from the local chip waggons in Arnprior outside of Ottawa and process it in to fuel for his diesel pick-up truck. The process which he demonstrated for the audience that night was very simple.

1. Filter the used oil - he suggested ladies' pantyhose
2. Mix Lye (aka. NaOH) and Methanol (aka. Wood Alcohol) in solution (100g of Lye, 1/4 oil volume of Methanol, I'm skipping a big part here so don't use this recipe)
3. Heat oil to 60C
4. Mix "MethOxide" solution with Oil and continue mixing
   
5. Wait for the mixture to separate into (top to bottom)
1. BioDiesel
2. a thin water/soap interface
3. Glycerine / Glycol
   

This is important:

BioDiesel is not Veggie Oil. It's made from vegetable oil, but it's entirely different.
The lower viscosity is the prime difference - this is why they sell BioDiesel not VeggieOil at the pumps. Thick veggie oil will kill your injector pump. BioDiesel is thin - your injector pump doesn't know the difference.

If you've ever made soap at home or in school you'll notice this almost identical. But instead of adding water, you add Methanol. Making soap bonds a water and oil molecule using Lye. This reaction bond oil (triglyceride) to the Methane ion after the lye is used to remove the glycerines from the oil.

The only major cost is the methanol - typically $1CAD / Litre. So little lye is used that it's a non factor ($30CAD/kg). Oh, and methanol is highly flammable, odourless, and carcinogenic. Nasty stuff. The cooking oil is free if you find the right restaurant - they pay for a special service to dispose of the oil. They typically restaurants will go through 60L per week - more if they're picky about flavour or get a lot of fried-food business.

So I went about to try to make some myself. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't a success. Using an electric hot water tank element found at any hardware store I cooked up some oil. A pub in Bell's Corners called The Cock & Bull had a head chef nice enough to let me have 20L for my first experiment. I bought methanol from Canadian Tire (labelled as cooking stove fuel) and my good friend M had got himself a 1kg pail of lye. Cooked up the oil in a HDPE plastic pail, added the methoxide, and poured it into a glass carboy used for making wine.

The result:

A big disgusting mess.

There are cleaner ways to make biodiesel in much larger quantities for the run-of-the-mill homebrewer. The hot water tank design seems to be the most popular and sensible.

But this is the point were I learned that making fuel for my car is tricky for a few reasons:

1. Methanol is dangerous
2. I'd need by 205L (50gal) barrels at a time to keep costs down
   
3. Cost per litre of fuel is generally $0.30CAD after accounting for bulk purchase of methanol
4. It makes a f'ing mess
5. If I mess this up, I could hurt my car and need to pump out my fuel tank
6. I have no real way of knowing if I messed this up until it's too late

I tried to get a biodiesel co-op going from the interested parties at Steve A's presentation. But basic human "what's in it for me" out-weighed "let's do something cool". Nice people and all, just not my kind of crazy and the whole thing fell apart. I was even going to put in $5,000 of my own money to get rental space and equipment.

I started to look what it would take to run on veggie oil - no biodiesel - just pure filtered veggie oil. I found happiness in simplicity and cost. More on that later.

Oh, and I did get a good batch of biodiesel made. Using fresh oil I bought at the grocery store I was able to make 1.5L of pretty biodiesel. Notice that I removed the glycol from the bottom of the batch except for a little bit more water and glycol at the bottom of the jar.



As messy as it was - I tried it and learned what I am not willing to tolerate in my adventure of mine.

Next - how to make a 2001 diesel VW Jetta run on used cooking oil.