Open Source Biodiesel Tutorial
Here we show the complete documentation of a biodiesel production run. The video shows the process from oil settling to fueling the car – with titration and addition of reactants in between. We used 5 parts of waste vegetable oil to one part methanol,...
Steam Dreams
I’m in the process of designing a simple 3kW steam engine for both a combined heat-and-power gasifier system and our solar power generator system. I can’t help but think about the future possibility of small-scale steam power for both stationary...
Biodiesel
After rain and more rain, a sunny day was warmly welcomed by all. Yama (our dog)Â sunbathed. The chickens ate an extra helping of weed seed. And we made biodiesel. Actually, I continued diligently on soldering, caulking, and trimming the solar panels....
Bab Lab
The spirits run high as Bob’s Bab Lab produces a roaring Babington burner flame at Factor e Farm: Our next steps are to put a shroud around the flame for flame continuity, and installing a water heat exchange coil in the shroud for hydronic heating,...
LifeTrac Alive!
Yesterday, LifeTrac rolled out of the shop under the power of its own engine. It purred like a cat, turning smoothly over the ground with its articulated steering. Brittany, Jessica, and I celebrated with elderberry champagne. Farm-fresh organic, of course....
Personal Fuel Makers – Biomass to Fuel
Based on a personal gasifier, care of Dr. Yuyi Lin , Mike Koch, et al: which generates gas from any cellulosic biomass: we can take the process further to make liquid fuels – such as diesel. Utilizing Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, a process proven...
On Biofuels
Today I had an interesting conversation with Fabio Barone, a Master’s of Science student in Holistic Science at Schumacher College. We discussed bioproducts – biofuels, bioplastics, and others – which are one of the keys to localization...
Bio-Butter
The cold weather blew in to join us at the harvest Thanksgiving dinner. We had our first snow of the season and our first bio-butter: biodiesel which solidified due to the cold. No, we did not spread it on the dinner rolls. And fortunately, we did not...
