Just use plain veg/animal oils. Rapeseed is the best, but anything goes.
Need KOH/NaOH lye and methane = methoxyl. volatile & toxic when warm, closed loop containers! lye determined at 0.1% titrate of oil
Get rid of water in oil: Heat 58C maybe.Coalesce,settle, drain. Vacuum helps. no need to filter. centrifuge is crap. Settle!
Mix in methoxyl at 55C.Mix _well_. Decanter.
Methane and/or titration test. Wash oil. Bracket tests. Ready for use.
End up with soap and glycerine, and impurities. Can use glycerine pre-wash for drying. 1:9 ratio. Can separate out lye and methanol from the glycerine/impurities.
Gels at 15C(animal) to -5C (purer veg). Additives for winterproofing? Diesel(15-20%) I guess, or heat pads (tank), heater (tubes/fuel filter) and block heater. In emergence, hot water on fuel systems should do it.
Old dirt might clog system/filters once biodiesel is used.
The energy produced from biodiesel is some 3 to 6 times larger than that expended producing the biodiesel, ditto ethanol and methanol. One of the stages of production of biodiesel produces heat due to an exothermic reaction. This means the process is self-sustaining given a stable source of plant oil.
Combustion engines burning biodiesel or ethanol have a higher efficiency, lower carbon footprint, and the amount of carbon dioxide released is equal to the amount consumed by the biodiesel plant source.
The reason crude oil has traditionally won out in energy efficiency analysis is that the costs to the environment have never been factored in, all the while assuming that oil comes from practically nowhere. Consider Exxon Valdez, Canadian oil sands and the Gulf of Mexico and you will see the costs of crude oil are too high to bear. Continuing in this direction is the socioeconomical equivalent of cutting one's own legs off.
Farms can produce 100,000 liters per year and be more efficient due to synergies than factories producing 10,000,000 liters per year.
A real concern in the large-scale production of biodiesel is that the plant production will offset food production. Indeed when profit-seeking corporations start repurpusing food crops for biodiesel production the poor will starve.
The reason an energy crisis is looming is in part due to our unneccessary and wasteful consumption. We are obsesssed with things.
Biodiesel is edible, biodegradable in the earth and in the oceans, and the chemical process is easy enough to produce 100% pure biodiesel at home by ordinary human beings capable of following recepies. Also, biodiesel is safe for kids!
Contrary to popular belief plant oils are harmful to humans, unless they are cold treated and in small quantities. This is true despite the recent marketing campain to convince everyone that margarine should replace butter.
Better eat plants and feed animals. We have an industry built on producing plant oils to heat treat it for butters and deep fried chicken mc french fries. If heat treatment is avoided the oil becomes better biodiesel, while the renewable process is simpler and demands less energy.
We don't have to wage wars in the middle east for it, we don't have to poison the oceans with it, and we don't have to figure out how to dispose of radioactive wastes while we are at it.
In addition, people don't get fat and cancerous.