Glossary of Biodiesel Terms

Anhydrous - "Without water" - transesterification of Biodiesel must be an anhydrous process or funny things happen. Water in the
vegetable oil causes either no reaction or cloudy Biodiesel, and water in lye or methanol renders it less useful or even useless,
depending on how much water is present. Either let your vegetable oil settle for 2-3 days before using and drain the water off the
bottom, or heat the oil and boil off the water. Store lye and methanol in separate, air-tight containers.
B5, B10, B20, etc. - This is the universally accepted method for indicating a blend of biodiesel and petrodiesel. The number in front of
the B is the ratio of biodiesel, thus B5 is 5% biodiesel, 95% petrodiesel. B20 is 20% biodiesiel and 80% petrodiesel, etc.
Biodiesel - Any fuel oil that is made from vegetable or animal fats using the process of transesterification. It is considered a fully
renewable fuel, and usually a green fuel because the carbon dioxide it creates is absorbed back by the plants that make the biodiesel,
so the net carbon dioxide that is left in the environment (theoretically) is zero. It is considered non-toxic (less toxic than table salt) and
non-flammable, as the flash point is typically around 300 degrees F, making is much safer to store and handle than regular diesel or
kerosene. Many gas stations are now offering blends of biodiesel and petrodiesel, or even pure biodiesel in warmer latitudes.
Blending vegetable oils with petro diesel - A number of methods exist to blend vegetable oil with petro diesel and create a low
viscosity fuel oil with similar properties to diesel. One such method results in a product called AGTANE and this is the result of
mixing recycled Yellow Grease with hydrogen in the presence of steam, later blended with heavy diesel oil.
Bubble Wash - A method of final washing of Biodiesel through air agitation. Biodiesel floats above a quantity of water. Bubbles from
an aquarium air pump and air stone can be sued to injected air into the water causing the bubbles to rise. At the water/Biodiesel
interface, the air bubbles carry water up through the Biodiesel by surface tension. Simple diffusion causes water soluble impurities in
the Biodiesel to be extracted into the water. As the bubble reaches the surface and breaks, the water is freed and percolates back down
through the Biodiesel again.
Cetane Number - Measure of fuel ignition characteristics. Like the octane number used for gasoline, the higher the value, the better
the fuel performance. A higher cetane number correlates with improved combustion, improved cold starting, reduced noise, white
smoke, HC, CO and particulate emissions particularly during early warm-up phase. The EPA uses this parameter as a measure of
aromatic content in fuel. Typical Cetane numbers around the world are as follows: Europe: 43 - 57, average 50 U.S. lower, minimum
40, average 43.
Cloud point - The temperature at which the first wax crystals appear and a standardized ASTM test protocol is used to determine this
temperature.
Colloid - A stable system of small particles dispersed in something else. A multi-phase system in which one dimension of a dispersed
phase is of colloidal size. Colloids are the liquid and solid forms of aerosols, foams, emulsions, and suspensions within the colloidal
size class. Milk and smoke are both colloids. Colloidal size is typically .001 micron to 1 micron in any dimension. Dispersions where
the particle size is in this range are referred to as colloidal aerosols, colloidal emulsions, colloidal foams, or colloidal suspensions.
Dispersion - A stable or unstable system of fine particles, larger than colloidal size, evenly distributed in a medium.
Emulsification - to emulsify or to form an emulsion.
Emulsion - A suspension of small drops of 1 liquid in a 2nd with which the 1st will not mix. Emulsions can be formed either by
mechanical agitation, or by chemical processes. Unstable emulsions will separate with time or temperature. Stable emulsions will not
separate.
Esters - Any of a large group of organic compounds formed when an acid and alcohol is mixed. CH3COOCH3 (Methyl acetate) is the
simplest ester. BioDiesel contains methyl stearate.
Ethanol - Ethyl alcohol - C2H5OH - CH3-CH2-OH. A good solvent.
Ethyl Alcohol (aka: corn liquor or grain alcohol) - Ethyl alcohol is the alcohol in adult beverages. It is mildly toxic. It is
sometimes mixed with methyl alcohol for the purpose of making in poisonous (thus undrinkable) for certain applications, in a
denaturant. It can be used to create biodiesel, although it requires more alcohol and is more expensive. The advantages of using ethyl
alcohol include the ability to make your own (assuming owning a small still is legal in your area) and the much lower toxicity of the
stored material.

Gel Point - This is the temperature that a given fuel oil (petrodiesel, biodiesel, kerosene) will begin to gel, thus making it harder for
the fuel to flow and be useful. One of the problems with biodiesel is the higher gel point, but this varies according to the oil used to
create the fuel. This is one reason it is blended in colder environments, to insure it will flow at reasonable temperatures.
Glycerin - The major byproduct of BioDiesel production. CH2-OH--CH-OH--CH2-OH - Each of the "OH" sites is one of the three
places where an ester is broken off of the triglyeride molecule (veg. oil).
Gum Number - The measure of the tendency of a fuel to form gums via oxidation.
Iodine # - Standard natural oil assay to measure the degree of unsaturation (or the number of double bonds present) in vegetable oils
and fats.
Kerosene (paraffin oil) - Another fuel oil that is used primarily as a heating fuel, for portable stoves, lanterns and other sources where
ventilation is adequate. It produces an unacceptable amount of carbon monoxide to use indoors for most applications. It is very similar
to diesel fuel and can be used in place of diesel in a limited fashion. It is also used as jet fuel, rocket fuel (when mixed with liquid
oxygen) . It has a very low flash point, which makes storing large quantities potentially dangerous. Kerosene is sometimes blended
into regular diesel to lower the gel point, primarily in northern states that experience colder winters.
KOH - Potassium Hydroxide, which is used to make Biodiesel from ethanol, a metalic base (acid)
Lye (credit to Wikipedia ) - Available commercially as Red Devil Lye and others, it is a caustic solution. There are two basic
kinds, sodium hydroxide (soda lye) and potassium hydroxide (less common potash lye). They have a tremendous number of
commercial uses, from farming to food preparation. Hominy is simply corn that is soaked in lye, for instance.
Lye is used as one of the catalysts (along with alcohol) for turning oil into biodiesel, although you must use the dry, undiluted mixes
for this purpose.
Methyl Alcohol (aka: wood alcohol or methanol) - This is the simplest alcohol and is used for a antifreeze (particularly in
windshield wiper fluids), solvent, fuel and the catalyst to create biodiesel. It is commonly used in pure form as a race car fuel, and is
sometimes blended with gasoline to oxygenate the fuel and reduce pollution (although ethyl alcohol is more commonly used for this
purpose due to the lower toxicity).
It is extremely poisonous and can not be made safe by dilution. If ingested in relatively small quantities, it causes blindness, liver
failure and other issues, including death. When burned it produces carbon dioxide and water. The flames from a methanol fire are
invisible, which causes problems for race car drivers involved in wrecks, however, it can be extinguished with simple water.
Methanol - Methyl Alcohol - CH3OH - Good solvent and a component of gasohol. Burned in top fuel eliminator dragsters and toy
airplane engines. Lethal if consumed. Used to make methoxide in Biodiesel production. Methanol absorbs water from the air and only
methanol which is known to be dry (anhydrous) or is 99.9% pure should be used in Biodiesel production.
Methoxide - Sodium Methoxide - Sodium Methylate - (CH3-O+ Na-). An organic salt, in pure form a white powder. In biodiesel
production, "methoxide" is a product of mixing methanol and sodium hydroxide, yielding a solution of sodium methoxide in
methanol, and a significant amount of heat. Sodium Methoxide in methanol is a liquid that kills nerve cells before you can feel the
pain. If you ever come into contact with it, rinse with water and seek medical attention immediately, it is also highly explosive and
making the sodium methoxide mix is the most dangerous step when making Biodiesel.
Micro Emulsion - Arthur Schwab and Everett Pryde filed a patent # 4,451,267 in 1984 that outlined quite a promising vegetable oil
refining method. This method claimed a Biodiesel like fuel could be made from refining vegetable oil with micro-emulsions. The fuel
is a micro-emulsion in which water and alcohol are dispersed in the oil by means of a trialkylamine in either a detergent or detergentless surfactant system.
NaOH - Sodium Hydroxide, lye, caustic soda (Red Devil Drain Cleaner). A metallic base. Strongly alkaline and extremely corrosive.
Mixing with fluids usually causes heat, and can create enough heat to ignite flammables (such as methanol), so add slowly.
"anhydrous sodium hydroxide" is one of the main reactants in the manufacturing process. Anhydrous means it's dry, and water turns
biodiesel into soap, so this product needs to be stored in an airtight container to prevent NaOH from absorbing water and CO2 from
the air.
Petrodiesel - Diesel fuel made from crude oil (regular diesel). Also simply called diesel, dino-diesel. It is a light fuel oil similar to
kerosene that is used as a motor fuel for large trucks, and to a lesser degree, passenger vehicles. This is the diesel you see for sale at
the gas station.

Pyrolysis - The Pyrolysis cracking vegetable oil method uses heat and pressure to change the nature of vegetable oil. The Pyrolysis
refining process does produce reduced viscosity oil and an acceptable diesel fuel replacement.
Pour point - The temperature at which the fuel is no longer pumpable.
pH - A measure of acidity and alkalinity of a solution on a scale with 7 representing neutrality. Lower numbers indicate increasing
acidity, and higher numbers increasing alkalinity. Each unit of change represents a tenfold change in acidity or alkalinity. pH is
mathematically found by taking the negative logarithm of the effective hydrogen-ion concentration or hydrogen-ion activity. The units
are gram equivalents per liter of the solution. The optimal pH for BioDiesel is 7 or neutral as distilled water and most tap water.
Rape Seed - Rape Seed Oil - Food grade oil produced from rape seed is called Canola oil. Canola is a name taken from "Canada oil"
due to the fact that much of the development of the oil was performed in Canada. Another early term for this oil is Colza and is a
good feedstock for BioDiesel.
SVO - Straight Vegetable Oil. Some vehicles can be modified to run this as primary fuel, although most still use petro or biodiesel to
start the vehicle, then switch over to the SVO tank for normal operation.
Saponification - The reaction of an ester with a metallic base and water, i.e. the making of soap.
Soy or Soy Oil, a vegetable oil pressed from soy beans that makes great Biodiesel.
Soy Diesel - A marketing term for BioDiesel made from Soy Beans, and is used to highlight the renewable nature of BioDiesel.
Thermal depolymerization - A company called Changing the World has come up with a process called Thermal depolymerization to
convert carbon based feed stocks into oil and other useful materials. This process super-hydrates material, so temperatures and
pressures need only be modest, because water helps to convey heat into the feedstock.
Titration - Applied to BioDiesel, titration is the act of determining the acidity of a sample of WVO by the dropwise addition of a
known base to the sample while testing with pH paper for the desired neutral pH=7 reading. The amount of base needed to neutralize
an amount of WVO determines how much base to add to the entire batch.
Transesterification - According to Wikipedia: In organic chemistry, transesterification is the process of exchanging the alkoxy group
of an ester compound by another alcohol. These reactions are often catalyzed by the addition of an acid or base.
In English: Certain chemicals, when mixed, will create two different chemicals. With the right chemicals, the process is called
transesterification, such as mixing oil, lye and methanol to make biodiesel and glycerol. An example is when your grandmother used
to make lye soap by boiling down lard (cow fat) with lye (from certain wood and ash) and alcohol from the still (ethyl alcohol, which
works but not as well as methyl). The result was lye soap (glycerol with some lye left over) and lamp oil (biodiesel). She was simply
doing the low tech version of what is still done today to make biodiesel. Of course, many people now make biodiesel in their own
homes using better technology, but it is still a simple process.
Viscosity - Is a measure of how a liquid is resistant to flow; "thickness" or "thinness". Methanol has a low viscosity, while vegetable
oil has a high viscosity.
WVO - Waste Vegetable Oil. Basically the same as SVO except it has been used, typically in restaurants to cool foods such as french
fries, fish, chicken or other frozen or fresh foods. Typically it must be filtered and/or washed before using. It is readily converted into
biodiesel through transesterification via methanol and lye, or can be used (after filtering) in a SVO vehicle.

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