biodiesel advocates guide newbies through the brewing process
By Nicole Gluckstern
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=2552

Cars suck. I have stickers that say so and a venerable beater of a
bicycle that underscores the point. But for every one of the
approximately 40,000 bicycle commuters in San Francisco, there are more
than 10 registered car owners, and just wishing they didn't exist won't
make it so. But I'm no hater. I'm sure glad my plumber drives a van, for
instance, and my gardener roommate wouldn't get very far without a
pickup truck to haul all that gravel and mulch. Still, the
environmental, economic, and just plain moral implications of using
anything that relies on petroleum for fuel have become increasingly
difficult to justify — especially since interest in and access to
alternative fuels are on the uptick. Last year's mayoral biodiesel
directive, when implemented, will make San Francisco the national leader
in biodiesel use for municipal vehicles. In fact, the demand for
biodiesel in the Bay Area could soon outstrip the current supply, and as
far as getting in on the ground floor goes, the time has never been
better to be involved with biofuels.

Of course, a lot of people get into biodiesel not as a career move but
as a form of activist self-sufficiency that hearkens back to the '70s
return-to-the-land movement. The notion that one can power a vehicle on
homemade fuel made from recycled cooking oil and a few bucks worth of
drain cleaner is nigh-irresistible to penny-pinchers and political
progressives alike, and the accessibility of the technology is such that
even the least mechanically minded can pick it up with minimum
instruction. /Some/ instruction could be beneficial, though. Considering
that two of the three major ingredients of biodiesel are highly toxic
and flammable (methanol and lye), it may well behoove nascent home
brewers to hone their skills in a structured environment, which local
biofuel advocates are conveniently providing.


BIODIESEL 101

Jennifer Radtke knows her biofuels. Despite an incongruous educational
background in Slavic languages and poli-sci, she has become one of the
Bay Area's premiere authorities on brewing biodiesel and running a
biodiesel station, and she has offered courses and internships in both
since 2003. As one of the cofounders of the women-owned Berkeley
cooperative BioFuel Oasis (which serves as a station for more than 1,600
regular customers) and an instructor for the Real Goods Solar Living
Institute and the Berkeley Biodiesel Collective, Radtke is committed to
the biodiesel community*. *She teaches five different classes covering
almost every aspect of the biofuel biz for beginners and advanced users
alike. Though many of her classes are held in Berkeley, you can
occasionally find her holding forth in Golden Gate Park's SF County Fair
Building.

For tyros to the technology, Radtke teaches a one-day introductory class
covering biodiesel usage, sustainability, and home brewing. At a typical
class, she opens with a presentation on biodiesel basics, listing the
benefits and drawbacks of using biodiesel. Even to a nondriver like
myself, the benefits appear to outweigh the disadvantages by a hefty margin.

Lower emissions and a higher rate of biodegradability are things I take
for granted when thinking about biodiesel, but I certainly didn't
realize it's less toxic to the human body than table salt when ingested
and less irritating to the skin than a 4 percent soap-and-water
solution. Biodiesel's flashpoint (the temperature at which it ignites
when exposed to flames) is over 300 degrees Fahrenheit — the flashpoint
of petroleum-based diesel is about 125 degrees. Most interesting to me
and my low-to-no-maintenance requirements is finding out biodiesel is a
natural solvent that cleans out the fuel tank and filters. (Can I get it
to do my /dishes/ too?) With bennies like these, who can fault biodiesel
for its unfortunate tendency to burst through rubber fuel lines
(discontinued since 1994) or eat through your slick new paint job? Such
inconveniences seem minor in comparison to those created by toxic,
flammable petroleum-based fuels.

After a comparison discussion of biodiesel to petroleum diesel and SVO
(straight veggie oil), Radtke demonstrates home brewing and discusses
the chemistry involved. After a lunch break, the students brew their own
one-to-two-liter batch. Starting out with a quantity of recycled cooking
oil, the class tests for water and free fatty acids, a process known as
titration. (When water is present in the oil, the home brewer runs the
risk of making soap instead of fuel.) Titration determines whether the
used oil is too rancid or has been broken down too much by high fryer
heat. If the oil is deemed usable, students concoct a test brew, mixing
the heated oil with methanol (wood alcohol) and sodium hydroxide (lye).
Here especially is where the presence of an instructor comes in handy.

Unlike the finished product, the chemical components of biodiesel have a
very low flashpoint, and their toxicity is much higher. Methanol in
particular can be harmful, even deadly, if improperly handled, and for
this reason alone, many biodiesel advocates are still skittish about
taking the last step toward home production. After walking beginners
through a safe mixing procedure, Radtke discusses washing and filtering
the biofuel and assessing its quality. She also discusses how to dispose
of byproducts and offers additional educational resources. For people
who want to practice brewing bigger batches (20 to 40 gallons) and a get
a more in-depth overview of the small production industry, a three-day
advanced course is occasionally offered, often on an on-demand basis.


ORGANIC MECHANICS

It doesn't take long for the would-be home brewer to want to start
tinkering with processors. For the mechanically unsavvy, Radtke offers
an equipment-building workshop for five participants at a time (often in
conjunction with co-instructor Alan Pryor of the Berkeley and Alameda
Biodiesel co-ops or alternatively through Real Goods). Hoarding industry
secrets doesn't seem to be an issue for biofuel distributors teaching
people how to make their product. In fact, a common denominator among
backyard biodiesel advocates seems to be their genuine desire to spread
the knowledge of their chosen vocation far and wide. Plus, as Radtke
points out, most of her processor-builder students actually come from
outside the Bay Area, some from as far away as Southern California,
where stations like BioFuel Oasis and the SF Biofuel Cooperative have
yet to materialize.

This is a paradox that Radtke and Melissa Hardy, also of BioFuel Oasis,
hope to address in their upcoming five-day intensive class, How to Start
Your Own Biodiesel Station (Feb. 18–23), walking students through the
process, from procuring fuel and testing it to applying for the required
permits and necessary funding. Other topics of interest to the budding
entrepreneur include zoning and taxation laws, equipment building and
maintenance, and even market development. By the end of the course,
participants should have a clear vision and a working business plan to
get them started in the distribution biz.

In addition to that course, BioFuel Oasis holds monthly fuel
filter–changing workshops on-site (next scheduled for Jan. 21). Since
biofuel has such a solvent effect, cars that have just recently switched
over from regular diesel run the risk of clogging from the leftover
residue dredged out by the introduced biofuel. For a $10 to $20 sliding
scale fee and about 30 minutes of time, attendees learn to replace
their* *filters, a much preferable option to waiting until they clog on
the freeway. Registration and information for any of these classes can
be found on the following Web sites: www.backyardbiodiesel.org,
www.biofueloasis.com, and (for classes connected with the Solar Living
Institute) www.solarliving.org.


MASTERS OF THE BREW

Of course, even the acknowledged masters of their craft were once
beginners too. For Jennifer Radtke and dozens of other home brew
aficionados in the Bay Area and around the country, the force behind
their fascination is one Maria "girl Mark" Alovert. With a background in
grassroots activism, girl Mark is one of the nation's most vocal
proponents of home-brewed biofuels and the inventor of the ubiquitous
appleseed processor, which can be made cheaply from an old hot-water
heater and a handful of hardware store components. Her self-published
/Biodiesel Homebrew Guide/ is considered the definitive guide to home
brewing, and her two- to four-day seminars for beginners and advanced
students alike fill up months in advance. In addition to teaching and
touring, girl Mark is a member and sometime moderator of several
biodiesel forums and the instigator of a peer-reviewed home-brewing and
equipment-building Web site known as the Collaborative Biodiesel
Tutorial (www.biodieselcommunity.org). A schedule of her classes and
tour dates can be found online at www.girlmark.com and www.localb100.com.

For San Franciscans who'd like their introduction to biofuel to be a
little closer to home, the San Francisco Biofuels Cooperative
(www.sfbiofuels.org) offers once-a-month orientation meetings where
interested parties can get practical advice on everything from where to
buy a diesel car to how to advance the biofuel community's agenda. More
than 200 members strong, the co-op's pumping station shares a location
with Incredible Adventures (www.incadventures.com), a local adventure
tour company that runs its biofueled fleet all the way to Baja. Co-op
members can pay the premium price for biodiesel at the pump (currently
$3.65 per gallon) or volunteer a couple hours per month to purchase
their biofuel for less. Hailing from the old People's Food System,
former Rainbow Grocery cofounder and SF Biofuels Cooperative Board of
Directors member Bill Crolius is also a driving force (with Ben Jordan
and Trevitt Schultz) behind the People's Fuel Cooperative
(www.peoplesfuel.org), a biodiesel delivery operation. Taking the long
view on energy sustainability, Crolius envisions a future in which even
biodiesel will be obsolete, but for the interim, he and his co-op
compatriots believe it serves an essential role in weaning people off
fossil fuels.

David Dias, advanced transportation and technology project coordinator
at City College, organizes workshops on a variety of alternative fueling
technologies, including biodiesel, natural gas, and SVO. He also heads
the Biodiesel Conversion Club, an extracurricular group dedicated to
converting muscle cars such as El Caminos into biodiesel road warriors.
Most of the workshops cost money but are open to the general public.
Contact Dias for details at (415) 550-4455 or ddias@...
<mailto:ddias@...>.

For nondrivers this is something of a nonissue, but for people who
aren't quite ready to give up the family car or rely on their vehicle
the way contractors do, the siren song of home brewing is a seductive
one. It doesn't take much space either: a corner of your garage or the
back of a toolshed will do. In light of our national crude addiction and
the wars being waged on its behalf, biodiesel is a compelling product;
and while there is a San Francisco–based large-scale biodiesel
production company in the works (www.sfbiodiesel.com), the reality is
that low-cost biodiesel on demand is still a few years away — a reality
that makes home brewing an attractive solution and, in time, perhaps
even the ultimate answer. *