Ye Olde BIODIESEL

What Biodiesel Is Not

Biodiesel is not coconut oil. It is not soya oil nor is it jathropa (tuba-tuba) oil. It is not beef tallow nor is it pork lard. Biodiesel is as different from oil as soap is. You can bathe with soap but you cannot bathe with oil. (Unless you want to. LOL) Although biodiesel and soap are both made from oil, both are not oil. In short, biodiesel is NOT oil.

Biodiesel is not oil because of chemical change. Chemical change is a process where a new substance is formed. Tearing a piece of paper in half will leave you with two smaller pieces of paper. This is merely physical change.  But if you burn paper, you end up with a totally different substance—ash (among others). That is chemical change.

Mix oil with alcohol and you get a mixture of oil and alcohol which will inevitably separate out. This is physical change. Now, mix oil, alcohol and a catalyst and you get biodiesel, glycerine and some by-products.  Now that is chemical change!

What Biodiesel Is

Biodiesel is an ester. It is not oil nor is it a mixture of oil and alcohol. It is the product of trans-esterificationof an oil and an alcohol with the help of a catalyst. It is a whole new substance that is even less toxic than common table salt. 

Biodiesel offers several advantages with virtually no engine modification. It decreases particulate matter, carbon monoxide and unburned hydrocarbon emisions. It does not emit sulfur compunds and carcinogens. It also increases lubricity which reduces wear and increases engine performance.

Quality made biodiesel from used cooking oil is no different from biodiesel made from fresh oil. Impurities in used cooking oil are removed in the biodiesel making process and therefore have no effect on its performance. Making biodiesel in this way helps lessen the amount of used cooking oil that end up clogging sewers and the tons more that find their way back to our food supply. 

Used cooking oil that is still clear and not discolored is sold as cheap no brand cooking oil to households. Filthy used cooking oil is reused for making “chicharon”. Some oil producers mix the used cooking oil with fresh unrefined oil and pass it off as crude coconut oil to oil refiners. Used cooking oil is also used as additive in animal feeds, which is not all that bad assuming that there are no cockroaches or rat droppings in the oil that may carry pathogens like hog cholera.

Will It Hurt Your Engine?

You decide for yourself.

I started making biodiesel May 2003. I came across biodiesel as I was researching on how to fix diesel engines. Since I teach chemistry, I got sort of addicted to it. Just imagine making your own fuel at home. Initially, I only used it as an enhancer to reduce my emissions because I can only make liters at a time.  At first, I couldn’t judge its performance so I built a 12 gallon processor. I ran my jeep with 100% biodiesel and it worked really well with no problems, less the smoke and better performance (from my trusty old jeep I affectionately call Rusty). We were so impressed with the product that we stepped up to a 1000 liter processor.  

We’ve produced more than 30,000 liters of biodiesel and lost count. We have had variety of vehicles test our pure biodiesel with no complaints. We’ve had pajeros, revos, everests, starex's, fx’s, delicas, crosswinds, hilux’s, pick-up trucks, jeepneys, delivery vans, and ten wheeler trucks fill up with 100% biodiesel.

Is It Affordable?

Fresh refined bleached cooking oil costs about P70 per liter. Biodiesel made from fresh refined oils will naturally cost more than its feedstock. Factor in cost of chemicals, processing and overhead, and you have a product that is expensive enough to be used only as an additive. There is, however, a way to make relatively cheap biodiesel for fuel. And that is to make it from crude coconut oil. Cheaper still is to make it from used cooking oil bringing the price down for practical consumption. You can even make your own biodiesel.