Bus runnnn

First the people from the Fulton county department of school buses came. Mr Ham gave a speech while the other faculty members drained the buses diesel engine of the fuel. Than we started to insert the bio-diesel made from vegetable oil that the kids had prepared. The bus choked a little at first than started up. Than an intruder alert drill ran because of the bank robbery and we did not get to see the bus roll off :(. The bus made it all the way back to the Fulton county transportation head quarters only on the students of miss Rioux's class bio-diesel. The experiment was a success.

Blog post 8

Today we removed all the gliserane from the oil by slowly tipping the bottle upside down and getting all the slug out. Than after we let all the fat settle to the bottom. We slowly poured the biodiesel into the flask making sure that the sludge does not enter the flask. Than after everybody filled up a flask we poured it into two bottles. Now we need to make 6 more bottles. The due date is next friday. It will be al ong and complicated task but we shall complete it.

blog post 7

Today during class my class completed the process of making the biodiesel ready to be inserted into the bus diesel engine. We only made 2 bottles of bio-diesel when all together we need 8 bottles for our class so we need to stay after on tuesday to complete the rest of the process.

The whole class was divided into 3 groups. First group poured exactly 1L of oil into each bottle. Second group measured 12 grams of sodium hydroxide. The third group handled methanol. Once the oil was poured in every bottle, everyone got a jar of methanol. We each added sodium hydroxide into the jar and mixed them together. The jar soon turned warm from the chemical reaction. We had to shake the jar until all the sodium hydroxide dissolved. This process created methoxide. After that, the methoxide was poured into each bottle. The bottle was flipped upside down 8 times and placed upside down in its own beaker. I learned that sodium hydroxide and methanol can be very deadly and that we must be careful at all times. I thought about how the liquid in the bottle would look tomorrow and if we succesfully accomplished the task.

Diesel engine

This is a diesel engine diagram. The engine is internal combustion  engine designated to convert the chemical energy available in fuel into mechanical energy. This mechanical energy moves pistons up and down inside cylinders. The pistons are connected to a crankshaft, and the up-and-down motion of the pistons, known as linear motion, creates the rotary motion needed to turn the wheels of a car forward. The exhaust camshaft and intake shaft move back and forth in a mechanical motion. The valves are connecting those two camshaft to the water coolant jacket. That is where the chemical flow produces energy to the piston. The piston rotates the crankshaft which is connected by the connecting rod. Than the wheels are turned.

5/5/11 cinco de mayo

Today in class we repeated the process of purifying the liquid. First we put on all of our safety lab equipment such as goggles, a lab apron, and gloves. We used flask, buckets, and vegetable oil today. We where going to boil the liquid in the water ,but that would cut off all the power to the room because the hotplates would use to much energy. After we where all done purifying the oil a student tried to pull off the pump pipe and vegetable oil splatted all over him. After we where done purifying the oil we left  a huge mess. We had to clean up the mess by using downy soap. It is very efficient and easy to use to get out vegetable oil and to clean surfaces.

purification process in affect

Today in class we started the purification process. We used many materials during this process we used a strainer net, cheese cloth, flask, and a bucket. First we have to purify the oil before we start the process of making the oil. We use two buckets. Clean one bucket and put the strainer net over, than cheese cloth than another strainer net. This well help separate the food particles from the vegetable oil. The vegetable oil is used from our school cafeteria. After we pour the vegetable oil in the bucket we will than again repeat the process. Than we will pour it into flask.We did not get to this step today but than Fill 1/25 of the flask with water and pour the rest in with the pre-filtered vegetable oil. This well help the particles to dissolve or rise to the top. Than we will repeat the process in separating the particles with the buckets. After we will than begin the process of mixing the right chemicals so it will run on a diesel engine.

hypothesis

My hypothesis for a way of making cleaning burning fuel in a complete step by step order is...

1. Poor the used vegetable oil into a gallon jug. Than put the gallon jug on top of a pan and heat it on 100 degrees. Do not incress the temperature or can cause a deffect in the process. Than funnel that vegetable oil into a jug with water and let sit for an hour.

2. With the methanol make sure the pump transfer is made out of nylon or else it will break and the harmful liquids could turn to gasses and fill the air with toxic amounts that are deadly, but befor that wipe all the equipment down with alchol thoroughly.

3. Mix the lye and methanol in  a coffee can than let sit for thiry minutes.

4. After, poor that mixture in with the purified vegetable oil.

5. First wash engine out witth diesel than it is ready to go.

Purification

The next step in creating the bio-diseil is the purification process. The purification process may very from a few hours to a few days. It depends on how cooperative your classmates are. In my purification process the tools and additives you need are : Cheese cloth, Stove, Gallon jug, and tube

1st. Put the vegetable oil into the gallon jug.

2nd. Put the gallon jug ontop of the bottom of a pot. The pot should be facing upside down.

3rd. After it is heated at 100 degrees for thirty minutes funnel it into a glass container  with a cheese clothe equipmentand let stand for an hour

Blog post 1

The project that my science class is attempting right now is trying to convert vegetable oil to bio-fuel for a dieseil engine. This will creat a cleaner burning fuel which is healthier for our enviroment, but making this fuel is vey complicated you have to remove all the food chunks and particles from the vegetable oil. There is a machine to purify used vegetable oil but it cost large sums of money. My science class is trying to come up with an efficent way to remove the particles that is cost efficent. After we purify the vegetable oil we can combine lye and methanol in order to make this alternate fuel for a diesel engine to run on. Our task is to hope to make a bus run only off of our creation. If the bus should run, we will all get a passing grade four our final test. If the bus should not run, we will all get a failing grade. Like real life you either suceed in your expierment or you fail. My opinion is that if we all contribute and do our part we will be sucessful in this expierment. We will interview lots of professionals on automotives and the right fuel to work in the engine because diesel engines are very delicate and complex.
http://www.viofuel.com/ (gives you an insite on how vegetable oil is very complex but useful for a diesel engine)