From Left: Joshua Harbert, Christian Ocier, Mitch Kenyon, Fred Thielke, Adebo Alao

Calvin College

Outline

•Introduction•What – Project Overview•Why – Underlying Reasons

•How – Description of Project•Chemical Process•Mechanical Apparatus

•Conclusion•Acknowledgements•Questions

Our Project

Design and construct a process to convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel

•Cost-effective•Saves energy•Reduces pollution

Why Are We Doing This?1. We believe that: •There is a shortage of fossil fuel energy•There is no single answer to this problem

2. We also believe that the solutions will be dependent on:•Life style changes•Cultural and regional resource use•Sustainable/renewable energy

3. Education and good examples will be very importantin solving this problem

The Future of our Project

Tentative plans for reactor•Donate to Calvin College•Campus Student Organization will operate reactor to fuel a campus commuter van•Provide the machine to a company considering investing in this sort of equipment

Long Term Potential

This process can be used to make high quality automotive fuel from a commercial waste product

Possibilities for reactor•Donate to Calvin College for use in vehicles•Use it for feasibility tests with another company to improve current production methods

The Biodiesel Production Process

Chemical Overview

• Two Reactions– The first reaction converts free fatty acids to

biodiesel– The second reaction converts the rest of the oil to

biodiesel– Both use an alcohol as a reactant

Mechanical Overview

• Four Subsystems– The filter cleans the waste vegetable oil (WVO)– The reaction vessel holds the reactions– The methanol recovery system helps keep costs

and energy use low by helping reuse ingredients– The polisher helps to produce a very pure fuel by

removing contaminants at the end

Filter

Waste vegetable oil is classified as garbage – and it starts out looking like garbage

To make it work in our system, we have to clean it up:•Remove Water•Remove food remains

Reactor Vessel

Basic Components•Reaction vessel•Filter•Polisher•Pump•Agitator•Vacuum Pump•Methanol Condenser

Purification

After the reaction, there is some extra undesirable byproducts or unreacted chemicals that contaminate the biodiesel

This is done in two stages:•Water washing•Chemical contaminant removal

Methanol Removal SystemVacuum Distillation:•Puts a vacuum on reactor vessel to help boil the alcohol at lower temperature•Methanol is removed and collected for later re-use•Uses much less energy than other systems•Sealed system ensures no toxic fumes leak

Conclusion

• Costs– It costs us less than half the price of diesel at the

pump

• Pollution– Biodiesel releases far less toxic emissions than

regular “petro-diesel”

Thanks and Acknowledgements

•Energy Office of Michigan •Calvin College•The University of Waterloo•Mary Jo Pulte

Questions?