Looks like I found a good source of methanol for my fuel production. Last Thursday I drove out to the Roxboro Motorsports Dragway and procured a 55-gallon drum of this critical ingredient for biodiesel. Racetracks have methanol supplies because they use it as a racing fuel – “racing alky.”

So this German guy and this African guy show up at this drag strip way out in the country in a Volkswagen Jetta, load a drum of “racing alky” on their trailer and talk about making diesel fuel out of used fryer grease. I bet that was the cross-cultural experience of the month for the guy who sold us the methanol. However he did mention that they do use quite a bit of fryer oil at their concessions, and that we could have it if we wanted it. Next time I go there, maybe I’ll drop off a plastic drum for them to collect the fryer oil.

One thing that worked great for transporting the 55-gallon drum was laying down a crate upside-down, and then dropping the drum sideways into one of the two openings at the bottom of the crate. Secured with a couple of straps, this was a great way to transport the methanol.

So that night I worked from 8 to 11 to start a new batch of biodiesel, which I am washing right now.
Praise the lard!

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 7th, 2006 at 8:28 pm and is filed under Biodiesel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.