Engineering: Farmers can produce own biodiesel

A miniature chemical reactor that converts vegetable oil directly into biodiesel could help farmers create their own environmentally friendly fuel.

The invention could see farmers turning some of their crops into DIY fuel to run their agricultural equipment.
 
Goran Jovanovic, a chemical engineering professor at Oregon State University who developed the micro-reactor, told the Associated Press: “This is all about producing energy in such a way that liberates people.”
 
The tiny device is the size of a credit card and can pump vegetable oil and alcohol through its miniature parallel channel, converting the oil instantly into biodiesel.
 
The parallel channels are thinner than a strand of human hair.
 
Current technology takes over a day to produce biodiesel.
 
The common method of biodiesel production involves using a catalyst, such as sodium hydroxide, mixed into huge vats of vegetable oil over two hours.
 
The concoction sits for 12 to 24 hours while a chemical reaction slowly takes place forming biodiesel with glycerine as a by-product.
 
A micro-reactor is under development at the university and the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute that cuts the time of the homegrown biodiesel production by doing away with the mixing and standing time.
 
The new technology might even work without the need of a catalyst.
 
"If we're successful with this, nobody will ever make biodiesel any other way," Jovanovic commented.
 
The scientists plan for the device to be stacked in banks to increase production levels required for commercial use, despite its small size.
 
Homegrown biodiesel production could reduce distribution costs for farmers by eradicating the tanker truck fuel delivery.
 
Farmers would no longer have to rely on distant refineries and carbon emissions would be dramatically cut down.

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