The BUS RAN!!

Today we had to go outside during connection's and a bus came up. The bus was almost empty on fuel so they emptied out the rest. Then they put the biodiesel into the bus. After that they said "are you guy's ready"? Then it took a second to start and then the bus ran!! Everybody was screaming and this was just amazing!! I was so excited and so was everybody else! We made the biodiesel right!

Monday and Tuesday oil cleaning

Today in class we cleaned everything in the class and got the rest of the glicuren out of our bottles. The day before we did the same thing but we had to get more glicuren out of the bottle's. Once we have gotten all of the glicuren out of the bottle, we are going to put water and try to filter out the rest of the material's. Once we are done with that we should almost be done with cleaning the oil!

Thursday and Friday cleaning oil

Thursday in class we started by taking our flipped bottles with methanol and sodium hydroxide and we opened the cap slowly. After that we started to squeeze the bottle very slowly and this gunk would start to come out. We are trying to separate some fat and other thing's from the oil. After we were finished with that we needed to clean the bottle's on the outside. So we washed the bottle's with soap. Once we were done with that we put our bottle's back on our spot right side up. We waited over night to do anything else. On Friday we got the oil and tried separating some more gunk fom the bottle's. Once we were done with that we poured the oil into beaker's. We tried to keep as much fat and other thing's out of the beaker. So we poured the oil very slowly. Once we were done putting the oil into a couple of beaker's we took two bottle's and poured the oil into the bottle using a funnel. After that we just put the cap back on then we just let it sit. After we are done with that have to put water in the bottle. This will get more oil out repeate this process a couple of times. This is the final product. It's real biodiesel!

Cleaning Oil!

Today in class we mixed 250mL of methanol, and 12 grams of sodium hydroxide. We put the methanol in some jar's. After that we mixed the sodium hydroxide with the methanol. We put them both in the jar. Then we closed the jar. Then we had to shake the jam can virgirously until the sodium hydroxide was completly dissloved into the methanol. Then we had to take the jar and put it into our bottle of oil which had 1L used cooking oil in it. After we put it in we had to slowly move the bottle back and forth six time's. After that we had to lay the bottle upside down, and let it sit there for a day.

Energy flow in a diesel engine.

The flow of energy in a diesel engine is very fast.There are multiple parts on a diesel engine. To start the spark plug starts the engine by sending a spark or flame to a part in the engine that start's the engine. In the intake shaft this sends gas to the engine to keep the engine going. The water jacket for coolant flow keeps the engine at a moderate temperature if the engine over heats it could explode. The valves connect the exhaust canshaft and the intake can shaft. The exhaust can shaft take's the exhaust and keep's most of the exhaust out of the engine. The gear wheel spin's around in circles very fast this is what the engine is meant for it turns the wheel's on cars and many other thing's. The connecting rod connects the gear wheel and the cranks shaft. The crank shaft is connected to the gear wheel so the crank shaft is the part that connect's to the wheel.

Class Oil Filtering!

Today in class we had to filter oil twice in a row to make sure that all of the food particles were out of it. We also had to wash some buckets. Everything worked fine but it would be better if we filter the oil faster. Cleaning the oil was one of the easy parts but making sure everything stayed clean wasn't. I would also make it easier to clean the buckets and have a mop to mop up the floor because it was slippery. Overall I really would'nt change that much.

Cleaning Some Oil!

Today we we're trying to clean oil with many option's on how to get the oil clean. We could use cheese cloth or a paint filter. I learned that a paint filter worked the best because it stretched around the bucket which was very helpful. It also got most of the food out of the oil. I learned that cleaning oil can take a very long time and a lot of effort is needed to put into it, I would'nt really change anything about what we did today. We put a paint filter on a empty bucket, then we took a bucket full of the oil and started by taking styrofoam cups and pouring oil into the paint filter. You could tell that the filter was cleaning most of the oil.

Hypothesis On Oil Cleaning

If the oil is completly clean then the vegetable oil will run perfectly in the bus.
Some option's for the materials we might need are.
1. Cheese - cloth
2. Funnel
3. Buckets
4. Rubber Bands
5. Paint Filter.

The steps to purifying oil are:

 1. Gather all your waste vegetable oil and pour it through an oil filter this could be any type of filter.

 2. Get 15 liter's of the oil into a 5 gallon bucket. Heat the oil to 100 degrees by placing the jugs in a steel pot and heat with a camp stove. If you have more than that, repeat these steps. Do not change the amount of oil you're going to processs 

3. Make sure you have methanol for this part. Make sure that the pump to transfer it is made of nylon; otherwise the alcohol will destroy the pump and maybe even cause a fire.

4. Mix the lye and the methanol in a can maybe a coffe can. The result will be sodium methoxide. 

5. Clean the bucket, and pour in the oil. Pour half of the mix of sodium methoxide into the bucket. Wait two minutes and then add the rest of the sodium methoxide. 

6. Stir the mix with a drill for mixing paint. Do this for 30 minutes. Place a lid on the bucket and let it rest for 12 hours. Open the lid, stir a bit more and then reclose it and allow the bucket to rest for a few days. 

7. Filter the biodiesel again with a restaurant filter bag. The biodiesel is ready to be used as fuel.

The website I got this information from is: How to Purify Waste Vegetable Oil | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5948902_purify-waste-vegetable-oil.html#ixzz1LKlkgZ8Q

Oil Cleaning

I want to find out how to clean oil perfectly so it run's nicely in the school bus. I'm also going to research on how to make biodiesel faster and easier. Making biodiesel faster can help you go longer distance's. Also it can maybe be fast enough to make while your on a running bus and you could keep filling up the bus. This can help also by running a bus faster. If we can make biodiesel fast enough you can make a lot of biodiesel for multiple cars in just one day!