back to Daniel's VeggieWagon
Date: June 30-July 1, 2007 (Saturday and Sunday)
Time: 10 am to 4 pm
Location: Berkeley, CA
Registration: girlmark.com/tour
Biodiesel is a clean-burning diesel alternative made from any natural oil or fat. It can be made easily in a backyard or garage environment.
In this class, you will learn how to make your own clean burning diesel fuel alternative and how to build the processing equipment to make it at home safely...
This is a comprehensive, hands-on workshop on making homebrew biodiesel fuel out of waste restaurant fryer oil, which can usually be acquired for 'free'.
Most of the class focuses on the chemistry behind biodiesel homebrewing and quality control, and we'll be doing a lot of 'lab' work making test batches, and variations on different formulas.
The feel of the class is a bit like the mad scientist version of "high school chem lab" (hopefully without the spitballs and giggling)- you'll be doing hands-on lab exercises in small groups, which will teach you how to make and troubleshoot your home batches- and we'll be learning the chemistry basics that underlie making good quality fuel for your vehicle.
This is a fast-paced class, and I strongly recommend that you read this website first: www.biodieselcommunity.org to get a background for this subject.
The class will also cover equipment and system construction. We will discuss heat exchangers, solar thermal heating of the process, some minimal methanol recovery information, and other equipment topics.
At the end of this class, we build some biodiesel processors for those students who wish to buy the parts. Everyone helps, regardless of whether you want to buy your own kit or not. Buying a kit is completely optional.
I'd like you to get those parts kits for the class from b100supply.com. They offer us a discount of $50 off of either of their processor kits once you've registered, and their kit is very high-quality. The deadline for ordering their parts is June 16 so that the kit can be shipped to your house in time.
I sell the Biodiesel Homebrew Guide in this class as well, for more info, please see my book page at localb100.com/book.html. Jennifer Radtke's book, Not a Gas Station, the story of the local biodiesel fuel station Biofuel Oasis and tips on getting into the biodiesel distribution business, will also be available for sale. For more information on her book, please see Jennifer's web site at www.backyardbiodiesel.com
To register, please see the online registration at www.girlmark.com/tour