YES!

YES!!! Today the bus started!  Im so glad that all of our hard work paid off.  The class didnt get to see the bus pull away because of some lockdown but the bus did start on the biodiesel the WE made!!!
Im very happy that I had an amazing time in my science class with Miss Rioux and all of my peers this year.  Thank you Mrs. Rioux!

May 18

Today in class was another repeat day.  We went over to out bottles that were upside down and had sludge in them and then we squeezed the sludge out.  I do have to say that the first time was alot better than the second.  After we poured ot the sludge we poored our clean biodiesel into the beakers and left themon the table in groups.  After that 3 other people an I cleaned up the tables while most people watched....

5-17-11

Yesterday we filled up the bottles with clean vegetable oil.  Then we got 250 mg of lye.  After we mixed the lye with the water, we had to shake it so it could dissolve.  The shaking took forever and then the jar got hot.  When I was shaking, some of the water dripped on me and started burning so I had to go to that eye wash and put my arm in it.  After that I finished mixing and the water and lye we put it in the oil and shook it 8 times.  After we just put the bottles upside down on a beaker for 24 hours to react.

Catalyst

We used lye in are experiment.  Lye is used to speed up the chemical reaction without undergiong any chemical changes.

May 12 and May 13

We walked into class to check out our oil and we all saw something funny on the bottom of it.  There was some sort of sludge.  Wat we did to get it out was we got 2 people.  One held the bottle and squesed the sludge out, and one was looking at the bottle to make sure that only the sludge came out  and no biodiesel leaked and fell.  When the sludge was all gone the person watching had to quick put his/her hand on the bottle to make sure no biodiesel came out.  When it was safe we flipped the bottle over, put the cap on, and started to clean up.
On Friday we looked at our bottles. There wasnt sludge on the bottom of the bottle, but there was something on them.  What we did to clean it was we poured the diesel into the beaker and stopped when the gunk was about to go in.  Then we poured out the gunk in the bottle and cleaned it out.  When the bottle was clean we poured the diesel back into the bottle with a funnel.

May 11 post

Sorry I forgot to blog on May 11.  On that day measuring the methanol  beads on the scale.  What we were doing was taking the methonal and putting it into a Mason jar with water in it.  WHen we put the cap on really tight we stared to shake the jar.  Making the methanol disolve took FOREVER!!  When you were done shaking the methonal into the water tha glass got really hot.  After we were done dissolving the methonal we got are clean vegetable oil and we mixed the two together and shook it 8 times.  Then we put are bottles upside down and we let them sit for the night.

Diesel engine

My teacher gave me adiesel engine picture to label.  Above is the picture.
Today were studying the parts of a diesel engine.  Our teacher gave us a picture to study and it is also labeled.  This is the link http://www.wheelsofitaly.com/wiki/index.php/Reciprocating_engine.  As you can see all of the labeled parts of the engine are underneath the diagram. 
E - Exhaust camshaft
I - Intake camshaft
S - Spark plug
V - Valves
P - Piston
R - Connecting rod
C - Crankshaft
W - Water jacket for coolant flow.