All over the world, people use waste vegetable oil (WVO) in diesel engines, generally in one of two very different ways. Some, like me, use chemicals to process the WVO before it goes in the car.

Others install a pre-heater in or around the fuel filter. In Los Angeles This method is usually called "Lovecraft". I have never used Lovecraft myself, but some people like it.

Anyone who is knowledgeable about Lovecraft should feel free to add and correct.

Here is what one company, PetroSun, is doing to turn algae in to biofuels. They happen to be an oil company. Rather than reject them as oil/war profiteers, I welcome them because if their experiment works, it will get some real attention. Also, it will be the oil companies, hopefully sooner, than later that will be the major distributors of thees fuels.

I've been waiting for this to happen. I don't eat at McDonald's, but they are such an influential company that this is good news.

My friend said "It looks like the big boys are going to co-opt you," and I replied "...but that was my plan all along..."

Several States are prosecuting users of biodiesel (or waste vegetable oil) for evasion of state road use taxes. The laws were written before the alternative fuel movement took shape, so need to be changed. The prosecutors should be fired. I have no idea what these States would do if you drove an electric or solar car. So, check your local laws and don't get in trouble.

This is a outline of the chemical process I use to make biodiesel. Detailed explanations written by other people are linked in the Biodiesel Resources section. Also, I knew nothing about chemistry before I started doing this. I still don't know much.

First some definitions. Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is any vegetable oil used to make biodiesel. A sub category of SVO is waste vegetable oil (WVO), the stuff restaurants use for frying then discard. I only use WVO because its has much less of a CO2 footprint than virgin SVO. Otherwise, WVO is used as in fertilizer or dog food. It will eventually decompose or compost on its own. I'm simply speeding up that process. The CO2 footprint remains virtually the same whether it composts by itself or I burn it in my car, so I'm getting a free ride. Most biodiesel you can buy at the pump is made with virgin SVO, so while I'm trilled its conveniently available, because new users can use biodiesel and avoid petro-diesel while they set up a processor. There are issues with using virgin SVO as a fuel, but eventually biodiesel will be made from algae which can double in size every fou4r hours and sucks up CO2.

SVO is thicker than petro-diesel, the fuel diesel engines were designed for, so using SVO for prolonged periods can harm an engine. Diesel engines can take a lot of abuse because they are built stronger than gasoline engines, but they are not indestructible. Some people convert their cars to use SVO, using specialized fuel heaters to thin it out.

I chemically thin it out instead, using these two chemicals:

1. Methanol, a kind of alcohol; and
2. Lye, which reduces the pH of the oil.

Caution: Methanol is flammable and lye is caustic. The mixture of methanol and lye is called methoxide.

Methanol is by far the most expensive chemical I use. I pay about $3.50 per gallon, but methanol is only 20% of the volume of the finished fuel, bringing the final cost of biodiesel down to less than a dollar per gallon. I make batches of 40 gallons of oil and 8 gallons of methanol.

There are several kinds of Lye. I use Potassium hydroxide (KOH) mostly because thats what I was told to do. It costs about a dollar per pound, but I use very little of it, so the cost is negligible. The amount of KOH I use depends on how damaged the oil is. There is a test, called titration, that measures the damage and tells me how much KOH to use.

Next, I follow these steps:

• pump the oil from the collection tank to the processor;
  
• make methoxide in an air-tight container;
  
• heat the oil to 130 degrees;
• begin recirculating the oil;
  
• pump methoxide into the processor;
  
• recirculate the oil for three hours; and
  
• let it settle

If it works, I should have 40 gallons of dirty biodiesel and 8 gallons of glycerin. The glycerin settles to the bottom of the tank and can be drained off and saved to make soap.

I use four 55 gallon drums that I got for $2 each from a fruit processor to make biodiesel from waste vegetable oil. I cut off the tops and drilled three holes in each (in, out and drain) to turn the drums into inexpensive tanks. You can use metal drums if you don't want to use plastic. Each tank is for a different task:

1. Collection
2. Processing
3. Washing
4. Drying
   

I move the oil form one tank to the next with pumps. I built a wooden platform to raise the tanks above the pumps (to keep them primed). I was able to get the four tanks and pumps into an area about 8 by 3 by 3 feet.

The tanks' tasks in more detail:

Collection Tank: oil I get from restaurants settles in the collection tank. When it contains 40 gallons, I'm ready to make a batch. It has to settle for a few days before I pump it to the...
Processor: I heat the oil to 130 degrees, add eight gallons methanol and some lye. I recirculates the oil for about three hours. When it settles, I have 40 gallons of biodiesel and eight gallons of byproducts (glycerin and a little soap). I drain off the glycerin then pump the biodiesel to the...
Wash Tank: Oil and water don't mix, but if you spray a fine mist of water on top of the biodiesel, It slowly makes its way through, pulling out excess methanol, glycerin and soap. Once the biodiesel is washed, it goes to the...
Dry Tank: It will dry by itself in the summer, or I can use a fan to speed up drying. Once its dry, it gets filtered and goes into the car.