Team 11
Adebo Alao
Joshua Harbert
Mitch Kenyon
Christian Ocier
Fred Thielke
Project Brief
Objective
The objective is to design and prototype a batch reactor to convert waste vegetable oil from the Calvin
College dining halls into usable diesel fuel substitute.
 Design and Prototype
o We are not only designing the process, but actually building a working system.
 Waste Vegetable Oil
o We will not be using pure vegetable oil, which is costly and requires fuel to produce.
o WVO is readily available at Calvin (500 gal/month), and Calvin is currently paying to dispose
of it.
 Usable Diesel Substitute
o The fuel must be able to run in a diesel engine without harming it
o We are considering meeting standards such as those created by the American Society for
Testing and Materials or other such standards.
Design Overview
P-13
H/C
P-2
P-1
P-3
Compressor
P-4
Fine Filtration
WVO Pretreatment Vessel
P-6
Water Removal
Course Filtration
Vacuum Oil Catchment
P-8
P-10
Recirculation/ Mixing Pump
P-14
H/C
Waste Catchment
P-7
Reaction Vessel
P-11
P-9
P-12
Wash Vessel
P-15
Water Recycling
BD Storage
Agitator
Figure 1: Preliminary Block Diagram of System
Filtration System
 It must remove solid particles which may accumulate throughout the system, reducing
performance.
 It must remove water which drastically reduces product and can be a safety hazard when it
reacts with the acid.
Reactor
 This is where the conversion process actually takes place.
 We will be using a two step process. This is the best option from our research and it removes
fried food smell from bio-diesel.
 The first reaction will be acid catalyzed and the second reaction will be base catalyzed.
Washing Process
 In this step the reactants are separated from the biodiesel. The biodiesel will then be tested to
ensure it is of high quality.
Progress
 Michigan Energy Grant for $6000 has been awarded to our team for the development of our system.
 Two step process decided on
 Work begun on project deliverables
 Detailed design of the filtration system, reactor, washing process will come out of what is learned
through lab experiments.
 Lab Progress
o Researched various methods for converting Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) into biodiesel
o Researched Procedures for treating Free Fatty Acids (FFA) in WVO
o Researched base and acid catalysts
o Tested Pure Vegetable oil for biodiesel conversion with NaOH Catalyst
o Tested Waste Vegetable oil for biodiesel conversion with NaOH Catalyst
o Researched washing methods (bubble, mist and agitated)
o Researched methods of testing conversion
 Lab Findings
o Water removal from WVO is expedited with heat and moderate vacuum
o Methoxide recovery is expedited with heat and moderate vacuum
o Filtering the WVO feedstock for small particulates works well with filter paper and if heated
along with a combination of gravity and vacuum filtration
o Glycerin is very viscose, therefore the reactor that is to be built should have a conical
bottom. Also the ease with which it is separated depends on the angle of the conical
bottom
o For the procedure used in the testing sited above, the conversion was poor. It is
hypothesized that the amount of methoxide catalyst is inadequate. The nest round of test
will be a set of three samples of WVO under identical conditions. The control to be tested
will be different amount of methoxide catalyst. Additionally, the composition of the WVO
will be assumed to be approximately the same as pure vegetable oil and the catalyst
amounts will be based on this composition of a mixture of mono-,di-, and tri-glycerides.