Biodiesel Centrifuge Interrelated Hint

Good history on biodiesel development, less on technical.
It gives a good chapter on the development/adoption of biodiesel around the world.

Pahl’s book on Biodiesel is a great introduction to the basics and some of the more thought-provoking possibilities of how to create this biofuel. Though biodiesel is given much media attention, it is barely in use at all in the US, and this book tells it like it is. I particularly liked the fact that it shows the efficiencies of different feedstocks, pointing out that plant oils might not be the best resource (particulary soybeans), much like corn is a terrible feedstock for ethanol. What I did find amazing is how great of a feedstock brown grease and algae are….the latter has tremendous possibilities, especially when coupled with carbon sequestration in applications such as coal plants. It’s a great book that will get you thinking, if not running out to get another book on how to apply some of these ideas at home or in the business world.

I didn’t purchase this book. I received it as a gift. In my review, I will list the pros and cons of Biodiesel Basics and Beyond. Before making comments, I would like to point out an observation of the other reviews. Most, if not all of the reviewers, except for me, haven’t made a drop of biodiesel. I hope Biodiesel Basics and Beyond didn’t scare anyone from attempting to make biodiesel.

First the pros:
The best information; reacted biodiesel contains methanol. The methanol should be removed from the biodiesel before washing. Kemp suggests to drain the glycerin from the reacted biodiesel and to burn off the remaining methanol by reheating the biodiesel. Normally the methanol would mix in the wash water and be disposed into a drain field. Kemp also stresses that raw glycerin should be decontaminated. Glycerin contains a lot of methanol and it can be recovered. Kemp explains how to remove methanol from glycerin and goes one step further. Vinegar can been added to the glycerin to bring the pH to neutral levels. The glycerin can then be used as a humectant or dust suppressant.

I can say some are taking glycerin byproduct to sewage treatment facilities. Call your local plant and see if they can process leftover glycerin. Be aware that it’s a good idea to keep methanol from polluting wells and it is highly toxic if ingested. However, since methanol is readily biodegradable in both aerobic (oxygen present) and anaerobic (oxygen absent) environments, methanol will not persist in the environment. The “half-life” for methanol in groundwater is just one to seven days, while many common gasoline components have half-lives in the hundreds of days (such as benzene at 10-730 days). Since methanol is infinitely soluble in water and biodegradable, methanol is unlikely to accumulate in groundwater, surface water, air or soil. (Reference: Evaluation of the Fate and Transport of Methanol in the Environment, Malcolm Pirnie, January 1999). In short methanol should be handled with care and it’s a good idea to read an MSDS when handling any chemical.

Now the cons.
If you were baking a cake would you need to know the molecular structure of the flour? The book is filled with incredible amounts of graphs, charts, and other information that would be useful for a chemical engineer. For most readers, it only serves to make one’s eyes glaze over. Biodiesel Basics and Beyond is a mix of college textbook chemistry and “how to”. Echoing a complaint from another reviewer-too wordy.

Kemp was too often a “turn off” with an obvious disdain for the home brewer. Steve Anderson is made an example of in the book. Kemp forces the reader to go through all of Steve’s production procedures, several pages, only to criticize Mr. Anderson. His biodiesel did not pass ASTM standards, his processing was too dangerous, etc.,etc… This book has too much misplaced criticism aimed at the home brewer. I found Kemp’s reactor design to have major flaws.

First, Kemp suggests using a particle strainer to extract WVO from a collection bucket. After the particle strainer it goes through a 15 micron oil filter and then into a de-watering vessel. I’d like to see this method in action on You Tube. Many of us use a 400 micro strainer over a 55 gallon drum and it can take a few days to strain the WVO. The temperature of the WVO has a big part in the filtering process. I believe that Kemp’s method would clog instantly.

Kemp uses a closed system to de-water the WVO and washed biodiesel. I do not like his design. It’s too complicated and unnecessary. Kemp uses lots of power to get rid of water. All one has to do is wait a few days or sometimes a few weeks and the water-laden oil will settle. Solar heaters can speed the process. You can also heat WVO to 140F and within 24 hours the water will settle and be safe for processing. Using all this electricity is unnecessary, unless all of us have a generator powered by biodiesel.

His setup is new and expensive. I use, like most, a $15.00, 5 micron water filter from Lowe’s to filter biodiesel. Salvaged hot water heaters can be used to process and clean the biodiesel. I use stainless steel, store-bought thermometers that are accurate. All in all, I have made hundreds of gallons of biodiesel successfully using inexpensive equipment and recycled hot water heaters. My biodiesel passes a 3/27 Warnquist test every time.

I would have liked information on making WVO with high titration values more user friendly. By adding sulfuric acid to acidic oil, one can lower titration levels. This will yield a higher quality fuel, less catalyst, less chance of emulsion, and less glycerin production. Over-used cooking oil becomes very acidic and is a nuisance for home brewers.

The tone of Biodiesel Basics and Beyond is pessimistic. It mentions nothing of algae being on the cutting edge of biodiesel production. Please Google Silox, Sapphire Energy, and Valcent to learn more. Green Solution Inc. is making regular diesel, not biodiesel, from garbage in landfills.

Like Steve Anderson mentioned earlier in this review, it is the garage tinkerer/inventor that often comes up with a holy grail solution. Jim Sears of Silox discovered, in his garage, that algae could be made into biodiesel. Silox and others are hoping to create 25,000 to 100,000 gallons of biofuel per acre. To make algae more attractive it can be fertilized with massive amounts of CO2. A perfect fit for a coal fired power plant spewing it’s CO2 into the atmosphere. That means less sulphur dioxide creating acid rain and less green house emissions. Algae eliminates the controversy over making fuel or food with limited resources. Doug Mizzel is another example of the garage inventor. Doug is making ethanol from a noxious weed called kudzu at a cost of only $80.00/barrel. Alvert has a great homebrewing guide and is, I believe the inventor, of the Appleseed Reactor. This is like the one in Biodiesel Basics and Beyond. She can be added to the list of backyard tinkerers.

If people like Jim Sears, Doug Mizell, Maria Alovert, and a host of others had read Biodiel Basics and Beyond before making their amazing discoveries, would they have pursued the quest for making biofuel? My own interest in making biodiesel came from developing a paint stripper that contained FAME. At the time, I didn’t know that Fatty Acid Methyl Esters was biodisel. I got into making biodiesel by accident. Not everyone is into producing biodiesel to save a buck – which is the general attitude of the book. A book that champions the efforts of the “back yard” biodiesel producer, while charting a course that is safe and environmentally friendly is what’s needed. The book falls short of that goal.

Ken Fritz author of The United States Radio Directory: A Traveler’s Favorite Companion 2008-2009