1784 Mind Blowing Easy Method For Making A Cheap 'Biodiesel' 

Took me a few minutes to discover that in the UK, 'paraffin' is what we in the States call 'kerosene' :) When I hear paraffin, I usually think of wax

A little tip for filtering oil for pretty much any purpose: They make 1 micron "filter bags" but they aren't the fastest method, but very effective. So what I do is allow the oil to settle for a day, this allows the particulate contaminates and water to go to the bottom, I then pump out the top 80% or so to leave all that on bottom. Then I put the filter bag in a section of PVC with a collar, fill with the oil, then I have a shop vac with the appropriate sized adapter to fit on the bottom of the PVC the filter is in. What happens is the shop vac actively pulls the oil through the 1 micron filter quite quickly- basically a large poor man's Buchner funnel, filter and flask all in one.

these gent's make youtube worth watching again.

For those of us who don't speak the King's English (i.e., Americans), what the Britsh call paraffin is kerosene. I have no idea what they call paraffin wax.

The cost of used frying oils WVO varies around the UK from having to pay for it to being paid to take it away - the difference can be huge. I ran Diesel Engined Road vehicles on pure WVO for years, and it was sensible to have a heat exchanger to heat it up before it got into the injection pump as it as fairly viscose, and had a separate filter, as at some temperatures or with any sediment a filter could clog up - this obviously infers the need for a second fuel tank and a switchover system from one fuel to the other: We used Diesel to start and stop the engine to make it easy to start. It worked really well for years but effectiveness does vary from engine to engine - my Ford Transit was happy enough with it, as a Direct Injection Diesel (DI) engine, but my Citroen (Peugeot Diesel as standard) worked really well as it is an Indirect Injection Engine (IDI): Indeed with that Peugeot engone I got around 10-20% better economy PLUS some 20% more power, plus the engine was almost silent, even on a motorway - one heard the wind rushing over the car rather than hearing the engine. The only disadvantage to using WVO was the filtering effort, time and mess - and the need to heat it to filter, it except in summer. One thing to note was the additives we experimented with to get rid of/dissolve some floating 'other fats' on top of the bulk of the WVO - natural turpentine was best for this (not the chemical variant known as white spirit, though they look similar). We also had good results with paraffin, but I don't recall the exact results of the various experiments with it, (sorry to say) as we generally used some 97% pure WVO with a little paraffin and a very little Turpentine - we were limited in road use applications by regulations on the amount additives, by HMRC who were hot on it as the first people started to use it in numbers - I always felt this stymied research in typically 'British government' style. One is allowed to make a certain amount for private use these days - unless laws have changed from 15 years ago, this allows one to make one ton a year without registering with HMRC as a fuels producer as I was, so don't go off selling it openly ;) I really look forward to trying this new mix and at different temperatures to see if it is now practical for use ('filtering') as far north as we are now in Scandinavia. Please note that certain injector pumps such as Bosch were fine with WVO with its lubricity, but other injector pumps don't like it (Lucas and others) and failed totally after a thousand miles or less: It will be interesting to hear how this 'new' fuel fares in that respect. For the record, pure WVO (even in the less efficient Ford Transit ID engine) showed zero particulate emissions at an MOT testing station at any revs - they thought their machine was broken until I swapped back onto Diesel: Technically, it also reduces several other harmful emissions, but raises one slightly - I have no idea how that would compare with a WVO/Paraffin mixture at 50%. Interestingly, when used in a wick lamp, paraffin burns very cleanly, but *cannot* be replaced by Diesel which soots them up very quickly and heavily - inferring that perhaps we ought to not be banning/extra taxing Diesel cars but instead using them on paraffin, perhaps with a little modification of fuel and/or vehicle, such as this one - could it really be this simple?! Thanks for the video :)

My 206 estate i run for 3 years on kebab shop oil, strained through nylon tights, in cold times i would add a drop of diesel 50/50, run like a dream neat or mixed and the smell was amazing. 🙂 ,, and all my Diesel cars since have never failed emissions , 50/50 a day before the MOT JD.

Just a little disclaimer for Robert here, some modern cars have a really hard time on veg oil biofuel. Things like fuel pump/injector seals and rubber hoses can eventually react with it and cause a BIG repair bill. So do your own homework before deciding if you want to risk putting any alternative fuels in a car. Heaters and stoves on the other hand, the worst case scenario is you'll bug*er up a 5 to 20 quid wick, so with paraffin now at 2+ quid a litre, the risk is still well worth the potential savings.

I used to clean my used vegetable oil, with a homemade centrifuge. In winter I used to mix it with Kerosene (28 second heating oil), and put it straight in my diesel Audi A4 convertible. The centrifuge cleaning system was fully automated, and turned itself off, after filtering 25 L.

This is a great way to re use my old vegetable oil. I use in my deep fryer. I normally filter it and store it for such things as this. I am ready for a hard freeze and power outage of 5 days to a week. As always very informative video. You never disappoint Rob.

That is so much easier than other methods to refine cooking oil into biodiesel. You could wash out even more impurities but it looks like it burns pretty clean. Now to put this with your DIY marine stove and some of your strange engines and we have come full circle. Love it! Thanks Rob!

Nice one Robert!! Been watching the prices of veg oil for a number of years in supermarkets and its interesting to note that veg oil matches the rise and fall of diesel. I wonder why!!!

Excellent. We used to collect the waste oil and let it settle in the tank. Had a drip feed into a gas bottle burner to heat an old cottage that we grew plants in. Place stank of chips though! Wish I'd known this then. We had 1000's of liters dirty oil. I'd be bloody minted! Great video as always!

Nice. Old method of purifying wine was to use egg whites. That's why wine making regions of France have lots of recipes that just call for egg yolks.

protect this man at all costs

I love your videos, they all have a practical application. I made a K stove according to your design, and it makes an incredible amount of heat. it gobbles up fuel so fast, I had to restrict the air inlet so that it didn't melt the pipes.

I have a few years experience of driving with homemade biodiesel. I still find the best mixer was 1/3 kerosene and 2/3 clean dewatered WVO. There is no danger to you motor to run on WVO but just one thing to bear in mind is that the homemade biodiesel does not have the same lubrication qualities as the nor mal road diesel so it will in time damage your engine, but by them you will have saved the price of a new car! Best to use on a cheap old car/van

Be interesting to see how it performs per ratio of paraffin in one of the chinese diesel heaters.

Here in Belgium, used cooking oil has outdoor collection bins. Many are overflowing with plastic bottles of used oils. I just have a square plastic bin in the back of my car and put them in. Today i picked up 20 liters. Mostly clear light colour. I will do what you do here and feed it to my "diesel parking heater". One liter lasts many hours for me in my work cabin.

Such a lovely gent you are! I am sending this vid from the USA back to my friends in the UK, struggling through winter. Thank you!

My dad did 200k miles fishing up and down the UK collecting and filtering oil from chip shops along the way to power his Citroen ZX with his own custom fuel line heaters to aid its use in winter additive free. Everywhere he went he was advertising for all the chips shops with the smell of his car exhaust 😂

I love that you use science to come up with simpler ways of doing complex things. Great video.

Careful with biofuels and cold temps. if the engine and fuel delivery system isn't properly set up for biodiesel you can really gel up your engine in the winter.

Wow......many thanks. Spent many pounds and many hours making my bio diesel . (Heating, filtering, mixing etc etc. )Can't wait to try this method. Run 2 Chinese heaters but always used Red marine diesel, so now I'll try this. Gladly subscibed and liked . Mikep.

I'm going to try this filtering method for soap making as I use a bit to make soap for my "supplier" (also a restaurant). I can attest to the handling headache. Since I burn it straight in a mass heater I only need to remove the "big" chunks. I run it through a filter made from an old sock, by gravity. Pretty simple and the leftover food bits in the oil burn just fine! When I was prepping for engine combustion (got rid of the vehicle some time ago) I picked up a centrifuge. For volume filtering, you can't beat it!

I had a snigger in one of your recent films where you mentioned making biodiesel in 1784 ……..seeing as a lot of people on the internet loose all common sense I instantly started sniggering thinking of someone getting it wrong and thinking you meant the year 1784 😂😂😂

Had a 1985 Ford F-250 with dual tanks. It was an indirect injection naturally aspirated engine IDK about the newer engines, but actually used just strained oil in rear tank as long as you start with diesel on front tank to get it up to temperature then switch tanks and 15 min or so before turning off, switch back to diesel tank to clear lines.

Thank You, for all of your shared knowledge, and your time spent doing all of those marvelous things you do.

Nice to see your enthusiasm and good mood, keep up the good work

This is brilliant!! Thank you for sharing!!

Think I've just found a cheaper fuel than red diesel for my old Case International and nasty Chinese diesel heater 🙂 Thankyou 👍

It’s your enthusiasm from the start that keeps us coming back

Great work! Keep it up. We're a international NGO working to make the world waste free. We will give this method a try ASAP. We will need all the help we can get. Thanks in advance!

The inventor Rudolf Diesel, used Peanut Oil in his first engine.

Clever use of gelatin. Here in US, refined soy /canola oil is used...and we just use some sodium hydroxide and methanol. Works well in any engine with purely mechanical injection systems...ie..pre-1994 typically in cars. Only caveat is its not cold tolerant....👍

Hello Robert , 21 degrees in Kingsford Michigan , another fantastic day , no complaints !

Thanks in general for all your interesting videos but in particular for using the word toot. I haven't heard it for decades and it reminds me of my youth and long gone grandparents. Good luck further tinkering and a Merry Christmas.

For those in a hurry, put large batches inside of a spinning barrel [say if you get one of those old used washing machines which happens to have an amazingly small number of drain holes, so you can more easily plug them off, or perhaps line the tub with a thin sheet of polyester fiber and resin (I would never use fiberGLASS for this because it can break off and contaminate the product with abrasive glass if all goes badly, but polyester blanket is super soft and flexible, so it won't ever break off into your product] just to close off the gaps, remove the central agitator [unless you use it AS an agitator to do the heavy mixing for you], modify the switch to your new centrifuge so as to either alter or eliminate the little clock since it will remove your ability to put the unit on any cycle for more than a short period of time, and you probably want a longer period of time to spin or agitate, and then, disable the lid safety stop switch [its only going to be a problem for this anyhow] finally, set up a siphon tube to be lowered directly into the spinning vat so you can siphon off the skimmed oil at speed. The reason for such a device is that you can do 20 or 30 gallons at a time with a decent sized washer [vertical axis only here, won't work on a horizontal one, for the most obvious of reasons], and, with a few additional considerations, can even be used in a continuous flow process much like an old cream separator. That said, if you can just GET a cream separator, you have it made, because they are already continuous flow centrifuges. I have looked at cross sections of cream separators, and, while they are indeed a great idea, would be pretty tough to just make at home, because they require a lot of very closely set, matching, balanced parts, and might not be cheap or easy to build from recycled bits, unless you just happen to come across some place which throws out copious amounts of uniform metal stampings of the right sizes and shapes. But the general idea is that with centrifical forces, one could set up a constant flow-through process to pull off the waste and do so much more quickly than waiting for it to separate out by normal gravity, and one could avoid small batches which mean more work, or large static batches which mean much more of a wait time. This would allow one to mix really large batches, and while one is staging, one can be separating out. I have some 275 gallon HDPE tanks I got for various processes at my shop, and you can often get these used, either in food grade or petroleum grade [one I have came conveniently with 10 gallons of 5W-30 weight oil already in it, lucky me!] and with a decent opening at the top, and a valved opening at the bottom, it is easy to fill and drain them as long as you have them set to a workable height for the process, and you can stir them with a drop-in motor [they make such, of various types] or use a paint stirrer on the end of a hand drill. If you go about setting up a whole bunch of oil to separate out, then you can slowly feed from the base of each tank into the separator device, so that it is always feeding in and always draining out at a fairly steady rate. If one were really careful, one could build up the rim of a washer tub to have a spin-lip which would automatically allow spill-over of clean oil, and the dirty waste as 2 separate streams, but it would be a lot of work, and might require heavily modifying the washer body, and making some internal parts to place inside the barrel. I admit, that the washing machine idea is sort of inferior to a normal cream separator [because of how much work and materials would be involved], but its larger, so it might be better for one who is looking to make a lot of fuel fast, over a very long period of time.

Thanks for the shortcut to making Biodiesel! Good job 👍

Great video Rob. Thank you.

Pretty cool! Easiest way I found to do my own Bio diesel after sick of messing about filtering etc I made a centrifuge from couple of old pans and a blender motor! Dead easy n very quick! Separates the contaminants & water content... Used on several vehicles over the last 8 yrs some neat and some diluted with some diesel. I meet tempted to experiment with the gelatin 💪👍

Thanks for the gelatin trick, just so you know, in North America, we call paraffin oil, "kerosene", it's pretty expensive here lately, about $7 per gallon (3.89L).

I know of a similar mixture that they call “Black Diesel”. It’s basically filtered used motor oil mixed with gasoline/petrol. I think it can only be used in older “dumb diesels” tractors older trucks and such. Some newer “smart diesels” have an optical fuel sensor to shut down the engine if the fuel is not clear enough.

RMS is totally Amazing ! If anyone wants the definition of "Stamina" or "Determination", he is It. RMS truly is.

Make a mantle from your previous video and put it on the same stove, the top of the mantle I used a cat food can. Cut side out of a popcorn tin as heat reflector. Never tried the biodiesel except for the 1:1 diesel/cornola oil. Cornola oil has more fats so I will try this method so it's not so rough on the wicks. Your videos are well appreciated, thank you

Well maybe agar agar might just do the same thing . I did have a mate years ago who filter his used veg oil through a bucket of sawdust with a hole at the bottom and he just used 30% diesel and would put it in his old Toyota van . He never had a problem and said it come out of the filter good enough to do that so maybe only modern engines need extra treatment .

I’d love to see you do a video about biogas made with a biogas digester. Super cool gas from waste products.

Nice Robert .Thanks 😁

Brilliant video Rob!

This is a kick ass oil cleaning Idea. Though I think the paraffin/Oil thing could be good in a bind it is kinda expensive in comparison to biodiesels.

do you think the gelatin idea could be used to get stuff to drop out of Used Motor Oil?

Best Video for how to heat anything for Cheapest Thanks!

This is so cool! I am going to try to make it!!!

Does it ever separate? There's a big difference between a burner and an engine. I'd like to see this tested in a generator.

you should try isopropanol + vegoil, thats what i mix up as BBQ lighter when oil goes off. maybe that will work as well as kerosene? tiny bit cheaper.

Brilliant! Thank you!

EVERYONE NEEDS TO SAVE THIS VIDEO.

If you make an oil jet heater, you really just need to run it through a screen to take out the biggest chunks so they don’t clog the jet. And that collection of chunks can be thrown into the fire separately. No loss at all.

Will it work in a diesel heater?

WOW, YOU JUST SAVED ME A TON !!! THANK YOU 🙏

I ran my diesel car on 10 to 50%, summer to winter, new cooking oil for ages until the price went through the roof, no processing straight into the tank. Kept the cost down run a treat.

That's fantastic! I looked into making biodiesel several years ago but was slightly put off by the method of making it (Ethanol and caustic soda was the original "recipe"), but this seems much simpler. (And seemingly less risk of damage to fuel pipes that the ethanol could do (Like the trouble people are having with E10 petrol at the moment)) It makes me wonder how a Toyota diesel engine would run with it? I've been adding a touch of SVA (Straight Vegetable Oil) to the fuel tank in my truck and the engine seems to perform better with it.

That's an interesting process Rob. I imagine the gelatine acts as a flocculant to remove the impurities from the waste oil? I'm betting polyacrylamide gel will also work and would also react well with the glycerine - possibly without the need to add paraffin. Let me know if you want me to send you some polyacrylamide gel for testing purposes.

Great stuff just exactly what my greenhouse needs.

fantastic way to re use something that is becoming more expensive. thankyou.

Good interesting video. Some points: it's not biodiesel, which is fatty acid methyl ester, whereas veg oil is triglyceride. Both biodiesel and especially the paraffin thinned oil will clog almost all diesel particulate filters. Many people who run on biodiesel have their DPF's (illegally) removed. As for the Peugeot 206, the Pug/Citroen DPF FAP system is more tolerant of biodiesel. If it's an old 206 it might not have a dpf, but there's a danger of ring gumming. Personally, if I were running on thinned veg oil I'd add petrol, not paraffin.

A fun experiment might be to try a capillary action filtration. Dirty oil up higher, a wick in that container over the side to a lower container to catch the clean oil.

It is useful. Thank you very much.

Thanks 👍. I've been collecting pur wate oil for a while. Now I can put it to goos use!

I think that stove could benefit from a mesh mantel.

Up next: How to make your own paraffin in the bath using old sweet wrappers and bin juice! Excellent stuff!

Very cool, thank you

I got myself a crank hot oil press from Vevor this Xmas which I've yet to use. I'm planning on pressing from peanuts and the like, maybe even trying from freely foraged seeds in the spring and summer. This is a great method to quickly purify oil to make biodiesel, great stuff. Love your channel ☺️

ROB IVE GOT ONE AND WAS GOING TO TELL YOU ABOUT IT THEY ARE BRILLIANT BUT I FIND THE WICKS BURN OUT EASY SO I LOOKED UP ROPE SUPPLYS AND GOT SOME BRAIDED 6MM COTTON ROPE AND FOUND IT TO LAST A LOT LONGER BUT THAT PATENT WITH THE GELATINE IS EASY DONT KNOW HOW YOU COME UP WITH ALL THESE THINGS I THINK YOU ARE AMAZING AND WATCH AND LIKE ALL YOUR VIDEOS

How about showing people how to save money on electricity use like using cold outside air as a refrigerator or dryer exhaust to heat your home instead of exhausting it.

Thank you yet another winner.

cool approach, thank you

Great tip robert nice work that's crazy and easy to make

Thank you!

my fav mad scientist, I will still remember you wence your vaporized for revealing so many secrets. Thank you sir!

Always amazing, Merry Christmas, Sir!

Excellent stuff

Ah 1793 video shows the Diesel heater thanks Rob 👍👍

Thanks Robert 👍👍👍

I KNEW IT I always can count on my nose on what smells exactly what Some vehicles here had the smell of candle when they exhaust their fumes, and that's what the paraffin is for like in this video It seems they are making a hack biodiesel but in exchange for making their vehicle have 'smoke belching' now I can confirm my sense of smell is actually great

Great video 👍 I'd like to see you do more with that paper stix thing you did a while ago

I have been making my own biodiesel from free WVO for the past 14 years and used it 100% in a Rover 75, Ford 2.0tdci Galaxy and now a Toyota Rav4, 2.2 Diesel. No problems, except a little smoke from exhaust on a cold frosty morning (I live in Nottingham). The biodiesel will start to gell up at minus 7 deg.C. which has only occurred once in the 14 years I have been using this. The Ford Galaxy I used it in for 3 years has been sold on and is still on the road using ordinary diesel, now with 170,000 miles on the clock . My MOT tester says my exhausts have been as clean as new cars.

Now that is super cool, thanks!

I had Fun , Thanks , Quality

I use industrial coffee filters, cheap by the hundred. warm the oil and let filter. Then just mix 50/50 with regular diesel. works for me, and in 20 years never had a problem.

Thanks mate… very interesting as all your videos are…. Although your other method takes more effort, having tried both I think the other method makes a far better brew. It’s cleaner, feels and looks like a closer viscosity to regular pump diesel. Great to see other ways that work tho. Cheers

amazing. with car fuel the viscosity of the fuel is important.. if the oil is too gloopy it will stick in the fuel pipes on a cold day (over time) and be hard to start. I'm guessing the parrafin mixture with help thin it out.

Thanks!

you and these mind blowing videos. I love you so much :)

That's pretty cool! I wonder if you could do it to used motor oil to "clean" it

great content thanks

Great! Can you also test de cleaned oil without the Parrafin?

Nice video thanks. Can you use any oil or dose it have to be vegetableoil

Amazing!!

Love it!

Great video. Could this be burnt in a diesel heater without damaging it long term ?