Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Wanna Make Biodiesel?

Well, surprise, surprise (and I was a bit surprised to find this in my inbox), you can! MAKE, the amazing publication that is a brother to CRAFT, has a newsletter, and today it contained a link to a video on how to make biodiesel. I have to admit, since MAKE is more for the type of person who wants to work with power tools, electronics, engines, etc, I don't usually read all the newsletters but this one peaked my interest. Check it out if you are keen...

Here is a little bit o history:
Where it did come from?
"On August 31, 1937, G. Chavanne of the University of Brussels (Belgium) was granted a patent for a 'Procedure for the transformation of vegetable oils for their uses as fuels' (fr. 'Procédé de Transformation d’Huiles Végétales en Vue de Leur Utilisation comme Carburants') Belgian Patent 422,877. This patent described the alcoholysis (often referred to as transesterification) of vegetable oils using ethanol (and mentions methanol) in order to separate the fatty acids from the glycerol by replacing the glycerol with short linear alcohols. This appears to be the first account of the production of what is known as 'biodiesel' today."
Source: Wikipedia

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