Biodiesel is Kind of Nasty

This past weekend I co-taught at the Vermont Governor's Institute Winter Weekend (which mainly advertizes the summer program). All the summer programs were represented there, and students could choose which "strand" they wanted to pursue (e.g. Arts, Music, Current Events, Youth Activism, Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics), but the general theme for all the strands was Global Warming... and what we can do about it.

It was, in a word, phenomenal. Everyone came out of it completely psyched to carry on the work they started. We I got to help students plan how they would change their schools when they got back. And the best part was we are hopefully taking some students to the legislature to propose a bill around biomass, but that's for another post. In fact, this weekend will undoubtedly supply fodder for many many subsequent posts.

But, more to the point of this post: One of the highlights from the weekend was making Biodiesel. Ken Oldrid (pictured below) of GreenDiesels.net led a workshop in which we made biodiesel. Here's the general plan:

Heat up vegetable oil
Mix together NaOH (sodium hydroxide) and methanol - shake until dissolved
Mix methanol and NaOH solution together with warm vegetable oil - shake even harder and longer
Wait until it the liquid separates into two layers (glycerin on top, biodiesel on the bottom)
Pour or syphon off glycerin layer.

If you wanted to use straight veggie oil in you diesel car, it'd get all gummed up because it's too thick. So to thin it out, you'd just need to heat up the vegetable oil. And then start and end your run with regular diesel so that it doesn't solidify in your engine.

Ok, let's compare:

• Biodiesel requires two extremely dangerous chemicals (NaOH will give you a chemical burn if it gets on your skin, and Methanol is one of the primary ingredients form making meth so you actually can't buy methanol in Vermont. Methanol was so dangerous we had to go outside to open it up, and in addition to that he told us not to breath while it was open!)
• OR
• Vegetable Oil requires a 2nd tank and a heater in addition to a regular diesel tank.

Which is easier for mass production? Which is safer for mass production?
I think you get my point.

This means I'm jumping off the biodiesel train and moving more towards vegetable oil.
Yay for clarity and information.