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.

Class

I wasnt here today in class so I cant say anything.

Filtering oil...Day 1

Today in class we split into 2 groups of 10...one group filtered the oil and one group heated the oil.  I was in the filtering group so i dont know what really happened with the heating oil group.  The filtering of the oil made a huge mess!  The filtering did work though, we usede a paint strainer and poored the oil in to a bucket with a paint strainer wrapped around it.  My recomendations would be to put wraps on the floors or have something on the floors so that cleaning up inst hard.  Another recomendation is that we should filter the oil on the ground and not on the table, to get a better reach on the oil.  And my last recomendation is to get a pump to pump the oil out of the bucket so it doesnt make a mess.  AND I AM PUTTING THIS SENTENCE ON CAPS LOCK AND MAKING IT GREEN BECAUSE WE ARE USING FOAM CUPS WHICH ARE BAD FOR THE ENVIORMENT!!!!!....AND WERE DOING A PROJECT ON MAKING ECO-FRIENDLY BIODIESEL,SO WE SHOULD GET A PUMP AND SAVE OUT PLANET!!!!\
And no I am not a tree huger its just that using foam cups are bad for the earth and to save time and a BIG MESS we should use a pump to get the oil out of the bucket instead of foam cups.  Ok I will stop wring now...I know its probably driving you crazy to read all of this.

Hypothesis, Materials, and Procedures

Hypothesis:  If we filter the oil before heating the oil, then we will catch more food particles, because then the food particles will not be hot and soft enough enable to run throught the paint strainer.

Materials: Bucket, Paint strainers, Funnels, Bar , Broom, Handle, and Hot plates for when the oil is already filtered.

Procedures:  1. First you take the oil from the buckets and pour it into the 2 liter bottles using the funnels.
2. Then you put the paint strainer over a large bucket and pour the oil from the 2 liter bottle onto the paint strainer.
3. After finished.. you must clean your 2 liter bottle thuroughly and  then take the clean oil from the bucket and poor it into the 2 litter bottle using the funnel.
Ther you go!..In my opinion that is the best and easiest way to clean and filter the oil!

How to make and clean biodiesel

There are 3 stages and 16 steps on how to make biodiesel.  I copied and pasted the steps from http://www.ehow.com/how_2046024_make-biodiesel.html to save some time from typing a bunch of pages.
These are the steps:

1

Filter your oil to remove particulates such as bits of burned French fries. Use a series of filter screens. You can buy clean, unused oil if you wish to skip this part of the process.

2

Remove water from the oil by warming it to 60 degrees C and hold it there for 15 minutes. Pour the oil into a settling tank and let it separate for 24 hours. Then drain the water from below or drain the oil from above.

3

Measure your oil precisely, and heat it until all the solids have melted. It is imperative that you know how much oil you are using so that your proportions will be correct with all of the other ingredients.

4

Add 99 or higher percent pure methanol to the oil. Use a ratio of 8 percent methanol to the total amount of oil.

5

Blend the methanol into the oil for at least 5 minutes. The oil/methanol mixture will become cloudy at this stage.

6

Add 1 ml of concentrated (95 percent pure) sulphuric acid for every liter of oil. Sulphuric acid is extremely powerful and dangerous, so take every safety precaution when handling it.

7

Stir the mixture gently for an hour at 35 degrees C. The remove the heat source and continue stirring gently for another 2 hours. Allow it to sit for at least 8 hours or longer.

8

Lightly reheat the mixture if any of it has solidified while it rested. Pour half of a 12 percent volume prepared methoxide mixture into the oil and mix for 5 minutes.

Second Stage to Make Biodiesel

1

Warm the oil mixture to 55 degrees C and keep it at that temperature for this entire stage.

2

Add the remainder of the prepared methoxide and stir it gently.

3

Drain off glycerin, from the bottom of the vessel if possible. Start draining 20 to 25 minutes after the beginning of this reaction.

4

Take samples every few minutes to gauge the progress. When the mixture becomes yellow, which generally happens between 1 ½ and 2 ½ hours, stop mixing and turn off the heat. Settle the mixture for an hour.

Third Stage to Make Biodiesel

1

Prepare your washing water in another vessel. Add 10 percent pure phosphoric acid to the water in the amount of 2 to 3 ml/L. The volume of water should be 33 percent the volume of biodiesel.

2

Add your biodiesel to the washing vessel. Be certain the temperatures of both the water and the oil are similar.

3 Insert an air bubbler, such as an aquarium stone. Allow it to operate for at least 24 hours.

4

Turn off the aerator and allow the mixture to settle and separate for half an hour. The water will settle to the bottom of the vessel and appear white.

5

Drain off the water. Repeat this washing procedure two more times.

6

Remove the biodiesel from the washing vessel. Do not allow it to contact the now separated water, or you will need to allow the fuel and the washing water to separate again.

7

Allow the biodiesel to stand until it clarifies, a process which takes up to three weeks.

8

Place the biodiesel into an appropriate holding tank. Prevent any deposits that accumulate from getting into your vehicle's fuel tank.

9

You have just made biodiesel! Use it in your car, and know that you are doing a good thing for the environment. Enjoy the smell of French fries coming from your tailpipe.
My class is using used vegetable oil that mt friends are getting from the cafeteria kitchen at the end of the day.  There is good news and bad news.  Good news is that the oil is free!....Bad news is that the oil has food particles in them.....My next post will tell how to take these food particles out of the oil.

Nevermind.  My teacher told me I can just edit my blog instead of putting up a new one.

Getting the food particles out of the oil can be very simple if you have the right materials.  You will need a funnel, 2 liter bottle (or anything that can hold at least a liter of oil), and 3 different types of strainers ( a large, medium, and a fine), bucket, friend, and you cant forget the oil.  First yu put the oil into the 2 liter bottle.  Then you have a friend hold the large strainer up over a clean bucket.  Carefully, you then pour the oil onto the the large strainer.  When done discard the food particles.  Then poor the oil into the funnel that is attached to the 2liter bottel.  Then do the same using the meidium strainer.  Then poor the oill into the funnel that is over the 2 liter bottel.  Repeat using the finest strainer that you have.
After you are done look throught you bottle to see if there is any more particles...if there is then you dont have a good enouph strainer.  If the oil is clear then you just cleaned your oil!