How to Make Bio-Diesel at Home

Biodiesel is a clean burning fuel that can be made at home from renewable resources. Biodiesel can be made from cooking oil. You will need four things to make biodiesel: waste vegetable oil, methanol, household lye, and water. Your first step should be to find a source of waste vegetable oil. The ingredients in biodiesel are dangerous, so be sure to educate yourself on the hazards. Methanol is flammable and does not have visible flames when it burns. Lye is dangerous to your skin. When the two are combined together its vapors are dangerous to breathe. Always have a fire extinguisher and a water hose at the ready. So, when making your biodiesel always use extreme caution. 

Kits are sold that allow you to make the biodiesel. You can use a water-heater type mixing tank or a polyethylene funnel-bottomed mixing tank. The methanol and lye will start in the smaller tank and transfer to the larger tank containing the cooking oil. The mixing takes about one hour and the chemical process take about 24 hours. In order to determine how much lye is needed for the chemical process, titration must be done on the cooking oil. PH tests are sold that allow the titration process of cooking oil to take place. The water is added to the mixture after the chemical process has taken place. Water removes any waste products in the mixture. This is just a general overview of how biodiesel is made. If you click here you can watch a video of biodiesel being made.