Hypothesis, Materials and Procedures

The following lists my hypothesis, materials and procedures I found for cleaning vegetable oil. My hypothesis is based off of all of my research on biodiesel and all of the materials and procedures were found from  http://www.ehow.com/how_5948902_purify-waste-vegetable-oil.html. This is a very good source on cleaning used vegetable oil.

Hypothesis: If the used vegetable oil (WVO) is first filtered, heated and left to settle then the WVO will be purified and ready to be made into biodiesel as a clean substance.

Materials:  The following materials are for cleaning 15 Liters of used vegetable oil. Here are the materials:

• 15 Liters of used vegetable oil
• Oil or paint filter
• 5 empty gallon jugs
• Stove of some sort
• Steel pot
• Sodium Hydroxide or Lye
• 2.6 Liters of methanol or HEET
• Coffee can
• 5 gallon plastic mixing bucket

 Procedures: These are the following procedures to clean the used vegetable oil:

• Gather all your waste vegetable oil and pour it through an oil filter.

• Get 15 liters of the oil into a 5 gallon jug. 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. Don't try to increase the amount of oil you're processing at one time.

•  Buy methanol. 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.

• Mix the lye and the methanol in a coffee can. The result will be sodium methoxide.

• 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.

• 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.

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