I ran a 50 gallon BioPro semi-automated machine for a bit over a year back the last time diesel hit $5 in the US. It was a great experience, but I always like people to know the bad with the good. Issue #1 was just acquiring enough used cooking oil to process. Most of the mainstream places like McD's etc all have contracts with larger companies to come pump their waste oil tanks. That left us with gathering up the scraps from various "mom and pop" places, and it's a nasty smelly process. We had a couple of 50 gallon plastic drums on the back of a small trailer, and a 12V pump. We'd spend half a Saturday driving around collecting up enough oil to process, then after we got back to our shop you would have to filter all the collected oil into other barrels, then heat/de-water the oil if it had been exposed to water, then load the machine with the oil, the methanol and the Sodium Hydroxide or Potassium Hydroxide, then start the machine. Then the #2 big issue was the waste glycerol.. not glycerin, because at that stage your separated glycerin still has a bit of methanol in it and is nasty stuff. So you either have to find some place to take the glycerol off your hands (and you'll have a LOT of it), or you'll need to do another process of separating they glycerol into methanol and glycerin, and then hope you can find someone to take all that glycerin off your hands. At the end of the day, it's a LOT of work, with a lot of messy oil, chemicals, waste products, etc.

That's a REALLY nice setup. The only thing that could be added is an old top loader washing machine to agitate the mixed solution. However, you've essentially accomplished the same thing by recirculating your water heater for approximately one hour.

nice ! i read a paper once that mentioned the {glycerin/koh /alcohol} by product could be used as a rust remover , id be interested to find out if that is correct ,, i think they were heating it up and soaking parts in it , somewhere below the vapor temp , 120 degrees?

Very well.made video easy too understand...thank you

How does this excellent video have only 58K views? It should easily have ten times that number!

Great video, love the set up.

Ive watch the 3 part videos, and then this video multiple time and i am just fascinated by this whole process. I want/need to do this once in my life. Not many people know this, but this whole process can be produced self sufficiently. Solar panels to a car battery to produce, by electrolysis with seawater, sodium hydroxide. Chlorine and Sodium Hydroxide is produced in two chambers, the gas expelled is Hydrogen , this can be used to heat the Distillation of wood to produce methanol. Both used in the catalyst. You can also grow sunflowers to produce the oil. This can all be done at home, completely off grid. Pro tip. To avoid the inlet settling glycerine, run the pump with catalysis valve open to draw in air. This will force the remaining inlet tube up the side into the heater capturing all of the reacted biodiesel, allowing all glycerine to settle in one batch.

Thanks for the awesome video and for all the info too. I'd like to know if this could possibly applied to used motor oil turned into Black diesel. I know I would have to filter it way down to remove containments down to possibly 1 micron with a centrifuge then into preheating but wanting to see if the chemical's being applied can possibly help with particulate matter separation such as soot. thanks again for the great video and info on your setup and helping other with their biodiesel ventures.

Hey Greg, great video, Is this fuel good for a diesel generator such as Denyo,Perkins...etc. its 25KVA ..??

I’ve heard the methoxide reaction that the catalyst undergoes is exothermic and that you shouldn’t do it in a plastic container. Do you know if that’s only with a different ratio than yours or are you using a plastic that’s better suited to high temperatures?

can you use or any uses for the glycerin and other contaminates, also can you use water to clean the biodiesel?, I love the way you explained the process, other question is can this biodiesel be used in modern diesel cars?? thank you

Iv'e known quite a few people to make their own biodiesel over the years and a total of zero of them still do it, even though it worked and even though it saved them money. Its messy, time consuming un fun process but Ive seen another guy spin out the contaminates then just mix it with paraffin and thats it, I don't know what the cons are of doing it this way are though. Making this stuff seems like something that needs to be done at scale to be viable but by the time they add their margin on top how much cheaper is your fuel?

I want to build a set up like this. Would you mind guiding me into building one? And then list the tools or stuff which I’ll need to successfully build one

Hi Greg, I’m interested to know… with your water heater tank, did you buy it brand new or used ? Reason for asking is that if you naught it used how did you ensure that all the water scale and rubbish that accumulates and builds up inside when in hot water service is all removed before you use it for heating your oil ? Thanks mate

i wish ask about the heat air blower.What do you think it can work with an hair dryer? or what else simple machine is good to replace? What is it when in the pipes , inside the barrel (what is fulfill with gasoline) its coming back the oil in the plastic air pipe?? or the air push out from pipes? thanks

Excellent video Sir.

What happens to this oil when filtered and spun in centerfuge. I've had trouble even burning it. Maybe it's junk?

Hey Greg, great video. How do you dispose of the waste wash water?

what about the water thats already in the oul from the supplier? don’t you let it settle in the first tank to drop any of that out or does that boil off anyway? why don’t you use a water washing stage near the end to further clean the oil? what do you then do with 20litres of ‘glycerine’ and methanol?? has the oils viscosity changed, thinned maybe?, because of the methanol? or is the methanol purely part of the reaction process and you expect most of it to be mixed with the glycerine waste? do you have a fuel preheater before your filter or combined with your filter to heat up and thin the oil/diesel mix? what ratios of oil to diesel do you use across the year? what about titration? do you add any anti oxidant? or microbial biocide to your mix? to stop the oil going rancid if its in your tank a while? or do you run a tank off pretty quick so preventing any stagnation….

I got filtered oil. Ready to mix. I mixed with gas and acetone. Tried in my diesel heater. I think the pump had issues? I even thinned it out like crazy, trying. Still stops running. How much lubrication does that have vs diesel

Im doing this in my organic chemistry lab. Super awesome.

Yeah... precarious is the word. Nice touch using the water heater and the pump, though.

where did you find the screen you use to filter the big chunks out?

It is amazing that they manage to squeeze that much nutrient oil out of the top soil. Good to have potential chemical facilities though for what not

Have you ever considered growing some oil yielding trees like pongame pinnata or copaifera langsdorffii? Im planting some pongame trees after winter so I can run the seeds through my oil press and extract clean oil for the biodiesel

do you have a parts list and affiliate links, for educational purposes.

Can you help please what problems are coming , when imnot washing the ready bioiesel with water? I mean im not washing out the catalyst will problem becouse from the alkaline chemical? thanks. and thanks for video, this is most clear ,smart, easy , im lik eit..

I made plans for a similar system. I will turn my heater tank upside down in order to funnel and completely drain all contents of heater tank also making it more efficient at separating the glycerine and dirt that settle; hot water tanks usually have concave top and convex bottom (from inside). Thanks for the very excellent video

Did you ever measure how much electricity is required to process say 100 litres and figure out a cost per litre? You seem to be a wealth of knowledge on bio diesel it’s a shame you now hate it lol! Great video Greg thanks very much!

Great video, might build something like this on the farm to power the old tractor

Heating coil, connected to a controller, that is getting input from a thermometer. You can set 140 and it will only heat to that point and hold there. At least that’s what I would do from an industrial stand point. System like that come up to maybe $100

How do you dispose of the by products the glycerine and whats left over from the reactant

After you heat the oil in the water heater why not pump it into a cone bottom tank for the reaction and especially the draining off of the glycerin and then later when you drain off the wash water. A cone bottom tank would save lots of frustration and allow ease of draining contaminants. I like the use of the hot tub air pump, good thinking. Why did you not do a water wash and settle to remove and any leftover base from the KOH and bring the final fuel as close as possible to neutral?

Last question from me, can a guy use 1” pex line and brass or plastic fittings? Or will it deteriorate the lines

Do you mind sharing what the catalyst is?

When I was younger I grew up out in the "sticks" (very country small town). I'll never forget it, there was an ancient old man who had a nasty old IDI 6.9 liter diesel f350. I got to talking to him about the gross looking tank in the bed of his truck all plumbed in. He literally just went around and gathered up used fryer oil for free back then, and said all he did was heat it, filter it while heated, 1st through paint filter, then through an oil filter or something similar. After that it was ready, his waste oil tank had a heating element, he would warm the truck up on regular diesel, shut off the diesel with a valve and turn on the heated veg oil, it ran fine. When he was ending his trip he would turn off the veg oil and turn back on the diesel let the residual fryer oil get burned up in the engine (if not the truck wouldn't start again) 🤷 that's literally all he did. Long term side effects I never seen him again to ask...

Is that pump a standard transfer pump, or is it rated for fuel?

Could you not re run the process to clean the diesel even more? Also could you not make the catalysts out of other common chemicals? Last suggestion put a 90 on that drain pipe for removing the nitro. Thanks for the video

This is cool. Can i get plans? As I am paying $180 For 65 litres for diesel atm. I am not scientific at all 😶

I know ur in Canada but where do I look to buy Methanol from? Looking online I am seeing prices of $500 for a 53 gallon barrel. At this price bio fuel wouldn't be cost effective

What do you do with the glycerin resulted?

What do you do with the byproducts?

I have watched many methods for biodiesel, apparently glycerin is also used as a fuel its very flammable despite what the paperwork says. So some have opted to keep it in their biodiesel. To get rid of the junk in the vegetable oil in the method where glycerin is desirable, you would simply heat the oil and mix in gelatin powder which is easier to get ahold of, and then cool it down in a fridge. the gelatin latches onto impurities like a magnet as it settles. When the gelatin solidifies, what your left with is biodiesel on top of it because it won't mix with the gelatin. Simply pour out the liquid and remove the gelatin which took out any water or impurities from the solution which should be suspended in the gelatin. The amount of gelatin you need is somewhere around 15% to the solution. It creates a biodiesel that can run simpler diesel engines, and heaters. I wouldn't run it in a newer vehicle but I would in a generator. What I love about both versions is all of the ingredients can be made at home. (best to make the catalyst outside>>)The Catalyst is simply LYE crystals, which is made from burning hardwood (but other woods work too, hardwood has more concentration) and filtering water through the ashes and boiling the water off to make crystals. Methanol comes from making alcohol but alcohol also works to make biodiesel so basically you ferment your alcohol the typical way for three to four months, but since it is not for drinking purposes you can simply freezer distill it, which gets rid of the water and other junk, and use the unfrozen alcohol for it. The vegetable oil can be made in a mill you can order online for pretty cheap, it's made from any plant seeds you can find the biproduct is fertilizer. Make sure to label your ingredients. Gelatin comes from animal bones but I'm not really sure about that one. I know Gelatin is possible to make at home as well, but pectin might work as a substitute though may have a different result. The Pioneers could have made biodiesel technically so why not.

@19:28 It took a bit of finding. The lower heater is 3000W @240V. Power = V^2/R The R of the heater doesn't change. So half the voltage means quarter the power. I.E. 750W

Can you share a .PDF blueprint of how you build the Reactor/Processor? Can you do a video on how to make Gasoline from Oil as well.

What do you use the glycerin for?

If you can make it cheaper than regular diesel you struck gold any trucking company will gladly do business with you if you can save them money and if your product works with no problems.

Awesome!! But I believe it’s PVC. Poly Vinyl Chloride.

What do you use or do with the waste?

Nice set up im retired with lots of time lol

I didn't see you do any titration tests in the beginning to check to see how acidic your oil is. also no mention of a quality check before or after your finish tank. I did see some small glass jars in the video so maybe you just left those steps out for some odd reason. have you ever done a water wash to remove methanol ?

Have you tried the gelatin method of removing contaminants from the used oil? Then doing a 70/30 ratio mix with kerosene? (70% oil/30% kerosene) The total cost will still be less than the current price of diesel. No added cost of electricity, no dangerous chemicals, no chemical by products to dispose of. Just some solidified gelatin that can be used to fertilize the garden. My neighbor's brother runs his farm tractor on diesel made with this method.

Can you use this oil to power generators or sump pumps?

Once the reaction between the biodiesel and Methanol occur. Could you boil both the biodiesel and glycerin at about 150-160 degrees to extract the methanol?

I like the face blaster valve. One wrong move and you’re the elephant man.

Hey you didnt talk about the need to check the oils acidity content to calculate the correct amount of catalyst. The catalyast is to get rid of the acid in the oil. More dirty the oil contains more acid so an acidity test needs to be done to the oil to determine how much catalyst to use. If you use too much the diesel will be Alkaline, if you use too little the diesel will be Acidic, both are bad for your fuel system pump seals and cause corrosion of the fuel system in your vehicle.

Would this process with beef dripping?

Can u use glycerin for anything?

How much biodiesel can be obtained from 1 liter of waste oil.

Can we use athanol....?

Interesting!

Iran a 1981 volks wagon on waste canola oil by simply by cleaning it using a cream separator as a centrifuge and pouring directly into my fuel tank. Now the temperature had to be 16c or above for starting, but on the upside, there was nothing to dispose of

Where’s the cheapest place to get methanol?

I am cautious with Bio diesel, when running pure in a 20 thousand plus dollar engine, gum up the rings quickly Canola is bad for that. Warranty is void, I know used to use it. Lot of work, spills mixed with methanol glycerine is a bi product that one has to dispose of. Environmentally. This seems to always make a hit when fuel goes up in price. When it drops, nobody does it. plus, having a loyal oil base supply very hard. been using it for 10 years plus.. Diesel engines around 10% more as a lube. or some mix with gas depending on the Temperature, 20% gas to 80% bio. you can really smell the gas fumes when mixing.

I saw a guy comment about using old ATF I would like to learn about that

I enjoyed that... 🙂

So, what does it cost you a Litre to make the Biodiesel?

this is only good for SHTF situation, at the moment we still can buy diesel which is probably cheaper in time and buying by products,

how about instead using pyrolysis/gasification/synthesis of grass into various standard heavy light oils gases, instead of chickening out of the biodiesel for some fear reasons

Well just found this Channel and to be honest for the average guy would maybe run this process once / Twice a year just to run his lawn mover type machine 100 Ltrs would last quite a while, enough time to collect more dirty oil, Most modern engine cars would have problems after a while. it's more of a hobby thing. just saying. well done for sharing though.

Leave the methanol in. It reduces viscosity and increases atomisation of the fuel.

Interesting

I really like the setup. But one thing that he said that almost made me exit the video. For ANY vehicle, it MUST be clean. Just a screen at the start is not good enough in my opinion. It should always run through a much better filter system before ever starting. Contaminates will eventually clog the system. Then at the end, starting with a 10 micron filter is good, but should go through at least a couple more filters like a 5 then a 2. Last thing you want is a small particle that got past the 10 to kill an injector. With fuel, cleanliness is key. I've made a similar system myself a long time ago. Ran my tractor on it. Stopped using it when someone stole my tractor.

where are your fiters you only used a screen so your Biodiesel is dirty Diesel you did not use a 5 or 1 micron pre-filter and do you do a water wash on it ??? as the your using the chemical reaction method so if you did porper filtering and water washing you could run it with no issue with out mixing or you could do 80 bio 20 diesel mix but all and all a decent setup

la question ? avez vous suprime la glycérine dans l huile végétale avent de la mélanger ! la glycérine est responsable du blocage des pistons et les segments de compression et vas ruiner le moteur diesel bien sûr CI vous avez soutirer la glycérine YA PAS DE problème 🙂

A Canadian using CANola oil to make biodeisel... NICE.

I'm DEFINTELY NOT going to do any of this...😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉😉

I wonder if you could get away with just running the old oil through a filter and making a B50 mix?

That was more about the system you made, and less about the making of biodiesel. my oh my that was one complicated vesion.

dude your cough is serious, make sure your ventilation is working fine cuz I think it's not :)

Don't you water wash your solution?

Looks like overkill process. I saw other KZfaq content creator that filter the used oil to 1 micron then thin out the oil 50/50 with diesel and done. No extra Glycerol to dispose. Ive never done this before but looking to get an old diesel truck to try it out. Anyone try that method??

Settle and Filter oil good mix it with diesel and run it.

Lol it should literally be as simple as straight pouring in vegetable oil into your gas tank but no modern diesels don't want it.

PVC PVC PVC

I make diesel from waste motor oil... i make 10x profit on it

Here is a simpler method without the glycerol waste. Also this method technically isn’t biodiesel because on the chemistry. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/mbWdaJRnu97Dep8.html

I'm disappointed the process is so involved. I know a place where I can lay my hands on never used canola oil, 5,800 gallons, for free.

Германияа

Why do you continually state that ppl shouldn't do this? They have every right to, if they so desire & can do it safely

An easier method is to mix gelatin in water, dissolve it with a little heat then add to the filtered oil, ( filtered to remover larger bits) leave till the gelatin settles and solidifies, then remove the oil as ot is now clean, once empty get rid of the solid gelatin in your waste, the oil now has no smell of food and add 10% of your methanol, ready to use. All this kerfuffle is just not needed try it on a small sample, one liter add 5g of gelatin dissolved in 200 ml water. Much easier. Found this from a guy that found this method in a patent.

You sure do make allot of excuses on why you shouldn't but in fact you SHOULD make BIODiesel! Saying that there are times where you shouldn't. Some of the newer vehicles have engines where it doesn't like it and gaskets and other parts would degrade. So, you need to check all of that first. As far use making and using it on vehicles, heaters, etc that can, you should. You should make it if you can. Problem these days it's hard to get a solid volume of it. And before you ask, yes, I have made and used BIODiesel. Just careful in what I use it in.

Why not just burn the cooking oil with 50% diesel and it'll be fine

Good info, but damn you talk to much!!

It is the worst video I've ever seen in youtube dont make videos like this Be careful

One of the most annying videos, as too may "uh", "um" and "urp" in the speach. Really bad way to tell how something is done, and many more errors. There are housands who can tell better, and show more clearly how it is done.

the time you put in doing all that would be more than what the fuel is worth if you bought it at the pump

Each element in the water heater is 125 volts ... don't want to confuse some of the people using this as a how to and send 250v into 1 element boom

Omg Walter White is a real person and he had a child with Ron DeSantis and now I’m watching him on KZfaq 🫢

How funny are Canadians ?