Cleaning the fuel

For the past few days we have been cleaning the fuel. Today in class i had to go into jars an collect all of the jello like stuff in the fuel. Most of the jars however didnt have much or any jelloy stuff in it. The stuff that was in it was like a thin coding on top.

Making the Fuel

Today in class we actually stared making the fuel for the bus. We go our method from the video we watched monday in class. In class today we also had 2 assistants. Mr. Miller and Steven. They helped us a good portion. The way we made the fuel was easy to me.
1st when we walked into class most of put on our long sleeves and jeans and safety equipment. 2nd we were split into groups of and sent to different stations. The station i was at was measuring the the 12 grams of sodium hydroxide. By the time our group finished everyone else was done. After we all went to the table in the middle and mixed the sodium hydroxide with the 250 ml of methanol. As we mixed it and waited for the sodium hydroxide to dissolve our containers got very warm. After it had dissolved we took it to be mixed with our 1 liter of oil. After that we cleaned up and left.

diesel engine

Filtering Oil: Day 2

Today in class i did not do the same thing i did yesterday. Yesterday all i did was filter. However today i filtered oil and cleaned buckets. To clean the buckets first we had to take them outside. Second we sprayed them down with a hose. Third after we filled the buckets with water we through the water out over the fence. Finally we brought the buckets inside to be filled with oil an d start the process again.

Filtering Oil

Today in class we filtered oil for the first time. We didnt do what I had said in my blog post, but it worked. In my last blog post i said that we needed to heat up the oil. Today we did almost everything from my last post except heat it up. We put a paint filter into one tub then used Styrofoam cups to get the oil then put it into the other tup to catch all of the bad particles.

Hypothesis

My hypothesis for creating the biodiesel is... If we heat heat up the vegetable oil with water then all of the bad particles will float up to the top so that the testers can go in and take them out.

Research Paragraph

I think the method we should use is the http://www.ehow.com/how_5948902_purify-waste-vegetable-oil.html way. I think we should use this way because it tells exactly what to do to purify oil. The  first thing to do is to put all the oil into a filter. Next put 15 liters of oil into a 5 gallon jug. Then boil the water at 100 degrees. After you boil the water let it cool for a little while. When its done cooling the water colects all of the impurities. Finally take all the impurities from the top of the water.