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

1. Calvin College From Left: Joshua Harbert, Christian Ocier, Mitch Kenyon, Fred Thielke, Adebo Alao

2. Outline • Introduction • What – Project Overview • Why – Underlying Reasons • How – Description of Project • Chemical Process • Mechanical Apparatus • Conclusion • Acknowledgements • Questions

3. Our Project • Design and construct a process to convert waste vegetable oil into biodiesel • Cost-effective • Saves energy • Reduces pollution

4. Why Are We Doing This? • We believe that: • There is a shortage of fossil fuel energy • There is no single answer to this problem • We also believe that the solutions will be dependent on: • Life style changes • Cultural and regional resource use • Sustainable/renewable energy • Education and good examples • will be very important • in solving this problem

5. 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

6. 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

7. The Biodiesel Production Process

8. 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

9. 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

10. 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

11. Reactor Vessel • Basic Components • Reaction vessel • Filter • Polisher • Pump • Agitator • Vacuum Pump • Methanol Condenser

12. 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

13. Methanol Removal System • Vacuum 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

14. 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”

15. Thanks and Acknowledgements • Energy Office of Michigan • Calvin College • The University of Waterloo • Mary Jo Pulte

16. Questions?