I keep hearing, "You can make your own biodiesel at home for $1 a gallon!" and finally decided to get off my arse and look into it (metaphorically; reading about it on the interwub I was actually still on my arse). I knew the basic gist of the esterification reaction: TRIGLYCERIDE (a.k.a. lipid, a.k.a. fat or oil) + 3ALCOHOL ----> 3ESTERS (biodiesel) + GLYCERINE. But reading this how-to got me all excited. The basic reaction is an esterification, but it also uses a strong base (NaOH, found in lye) to catalyze the lipid breakdown. And how do you figure out how much NaOH to use? You do a titration! If I end up teaching chemistry I can SO use this as a lab. A lab that teaches a practical skill! How awesome is that? As an added bonus, the recipe linked above calls for solid NaOH, which gives me the opportunity to teach students that some salts, such as NaOH, are deliquescent, meaning it has such a high affinity for water that it will suck the moisture out of the air to dissolve itself, and as a result you never know the exact concentration of your NaOH solution until you've done--guess what?--ANOTHER titration! [The recipe leaves that step out, but in a lab setting will I? NO!] Two titrations and an esterification in ONE lab!! Wooooo!
So the recipe basically goes:
1. Dissolve & titrate sodium hydroxide to create known NaOH solution
2. Titrate NaOH with lipid/isopropanol mixture to determine reactant ratios
3. CH3OH (methanol) + NaOH ---> Na+CH3O- (sodium methoxide) + H2O
4. LIPID + 3Na+CH3O- ---> 3METHYL ESTERS (biodiesel) + GLYCERINE
5. Let sit to separate
6. Profit. (If I can figure out how to purify the waste glycerine I can use it in the lab as a glassware/rubber tubing lube, saving the school money. If the district can be convinced to run buses on biodiesel the reaction can be run on a large scale using donated restaurant grease--everybody loves donating shit to schools, and currently most restaurants pay to have their grease hauled away.)
I am SO. GEEKED. right now.
Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
Showing posts with label oil. Show all posts
6.03.2008
5.31.2008
A moment of selfishness
[Imported from somewhere less pseudonymous]
Yes, with the end of the Oil Age I'm desperately concerned about rising gas prices and the attendant rising food prices and rising everything else prices and especially about the fact that no oil means no plastic and fucking everything is made of plastic now (I have major mixed feelings about corn plastic. Yes, it's driving up the cost of food by using corn for non-nutritive purposes, but at least it's a renewable and biodegradable plastic-like thing). These problems are hitting some other countries worse than us, but it's a definite belt-tightener even here, and my heart weeps Virgin Mary tears for everyone affected by these problems.
But I need to have a moment of unalloyed selfish concern here, for which I hope you'll forgive me. During high school and in the couple summers thereafter, the International Travel Bug jabbed me with its spirochete-laden sting. I loved seeing other countries and desperately long for a time when I have the financial means to travel abroad again. Meanwhile, I've recently been thinking the airline industry isn't long for this world; airlines have been going bankrupt and merging for quite some time now, fuel prices are getting ready to go crazy, and I've heard ugly things about the aluminum industry. I saw a story on MSNBC or CNN or something about how buses and trains are doing record business and starting to see a need to scale up their services; I've even been dicking around on Amtrak.com and finding a few trips cheaper by train than plane. I'm starting to worry about whether airlines will continue to exist, at least for intercontinental travel. Or will we have to get used to a month-long boat ride across the Atlantic to see Europe? Maybe we can use zeppelins.
Yes, with the end of the Oil Age I'm desperately concerned about rising gas prices and the attendant rising food prices and rising everything else prices and especially about the fact that no oil means no plastic and fucking everything is made of plastic now (I have major mixed feelings about corn plastic. Yes, it's driving up the cost of food by using corn for non-nutritive purposes, but at least it's a renewable and biodegradable plastic-like thing). These problems are hitting some other countries worse than us, but it's a definite belt-tightener even here, and my heart weeps Virgin Mary tears for everyone affected by these problems.
But I need to have a moment of unalloyed selfish concern here, for which I hope you'll forgive me. During high school and in the couple summers thereafter, the International Travel Bug jabbed me with its spirochete-laden sting. I loved seeing other countries and desperately long for a time when I have the financial means to travel abroad again. Meanwhile, I've recently been thinking the airline industry isn't long for this world; airlines have been going bankrupt and merging for quite some time now, fuel prices are getting ready to go crazy, and I've heard ugly things about the aluminum industry. I saw a story on MSNBC or CNN or something about how buses and trains are doing record business and starting to see a need to scale up their services; I've even been dicking around on Amtrak.com and finding a few trips cheaper by train than plane. I'm starting to worry about whether airlines will continue to exist, at least for intercontinental travel. Or will we have to get used to a month-long boat ride across the Atlantic to see Europe? Maybe we can use zeppelins.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)