TDI Bio

I've taken several initial steps to further build my processor.  Some of the holdup has been waiting on drums from the welder.  A buddy of mine at work has graciously jumped in to help me out with some welding, and it took a bit for us to work out timing, transfer, and resources.  I'm not complaining mind you, since he's working for cheap, it's just one of the necessary gaps in the process when I'm not willing to plunk down $1500 for commercial tanks.

In the interim, I'm fitting the water heater with some plumbing, and am working on setting up two 1/2 size pallets (2' x 4') with heavy-duty caster wheels, which should give me some mobility in my biodiesel rig.  I want to find one more pallet, and that can let me have two oil tanks on a pallet, a processing tank + wash tank on another, and wash + settle tank on the third.  At this point, that seems prudent, as I don't think that I can avoid having two oil tanks in the interim, and it seems appropriate to have as many of the drums on moveable pallets as possible.  With 3 pallets strung end-to-end, it should fit in a 12' line going down the side of my house, and taking up 2' of space along the wall.  Anyway, that's the theory.  What is less obvious is how to plumb between each pallet with sufficient strength flexible pipe to resist crushing by suction, resist harsh chemicals, and with sufficient flexibility in design that I can move my rig around somewhat.  I may have to be resigned to moderate flexibility with rigid pipe (moderate = semi-permanent!), but I have some fabrication challenges to iron out first.

When you look at the pictures of my drying drum, you'll notice the shiny black pipe.  It's amazing how 1 week in the rain turned that a terrible rusty mess.  Fortunately, I found a spray-can substance that (after rigorous steel brushing first) converts the rusty parts to paintable parts.  Two quick coats of that + a coat of Rustoleum seems to have done the trick.  From now on, I'm going to pre-paint my pipes with Rustoleum to avoid that issue.

One thing I've learned in constructing a biodiesel processor:  The parts lists on websites and even in Girl Mark's famous Appleseed book are woefully inadequate.  They don't address all the myriad components needed to actually perform backyard biodiesel production.... perhaps about half.

So, in the hopes that you, dear reader, can help me pull some things together, I'm going to provide the wishlist of all the junk I still need to be able to complete my biodiesel production first processor and mobile processor.

First Processor Wishlist

• Air compressor with hose, fittings
• 12volt pump, capable of pumping oil/waste
  
• Small trailer, personal watercraft size
  
• Trailer towing rig for my Jetta
• Shed or carport
• Lab stirrer/heater (2)
  

Second Processor Wishlist

• 3/4HP - 2HP pump (2)
• Air powered motor
  
• Utility trailer - 6x6 and up
• Pump isolation dampener
• Belt-drive fabrication
• Cone-bottom tank
• Flexible hose rated for chemicals
  

My rig for filtering oil seems to be working pretty well, except that it's manual and only does 4.5 gallons at a time. Basically, it's a 30 micron sock filter (known to you and me as a blue jean leg sown shut on the bottom), inside a 6" PVC pipe, with 10 pounds of rock salt below the filter, providing 6" of salt drip. At the bottom of the pipe is a 6-to-4 and 4-to-2 bushing, with a 2" male fitting. Screwed onto the maile fitting is a 2" end cap with several holes drilled in it, and a shower drain cover trimmed so that the mesh is inside the end cap. I drilled a 2½" hole in a sheet of plywood, and the pipe sticks down inside a 5 gallon drum. I'm able to use a 3qt. pot to dip oil out of my drum and fill the pipe, and it takes about 30 minutes to drain. The final sludge in the bottom of my 10 gallon barrels is poured through a cone filter that gets most of the nasty breading and bits. I had to use the plywood, as I quickly found out that the lid of a 5' gallon plastic bucket cannot support 20-30 pounds (two lids later). As I indicated before, the only pain is that my filtering rig is full manual at this point, and that it only filters 4.5 gallons at a time, max. The reason for this is that I don't want to lift 80-90 pound mini-drums over my head on a step ladder to filter directly into a drum. So, I scoop out the oil into the filter on top of a 5-gallon bucket, and guestimate how many times I can fill my filter without overflowing. This should get easier once I get a pump or compressor to move the oil, then I can skip the bucket phase. The salt seems to be giving a nice separation of the water, time will tell.

After 90 tedious minutes with a razor blade I cut out a template that permitted me to label my oil collection barrels so that I hope they won't disappear. It's not much, but I think it lends a professional air to the process. Regrettably, one of the pictures does a great job of showing off my junky garage, but you get the idea. Oh, and the number is Member Number (001) and drum number (-1 and -2). Since I made the first label, I call dibs on Member Number 001. :-)

I had some picture issues, so I've updated several older posts, and inserted a few. So, avid reader, you might want to skim the archives. The posts added/updated are:

6/26 - Oil processing tank setup
6/29 - Dewatering fabrication
6/6 - Great free tank