ALKYLYST
[Alkil-ist]
1. n. a catalyst for alkylation reactions – that can change the world!
clean fuel for a cleaner campus
…
Better Biodiesel
- what is biodiesel?
- C2O2 cetane
Cleaner Catalysis
- what is glycerol?
- KGly2
Exceptional Educational Resources
resources
waste to wheels program
- small-batch biodiesel delivery!
- biodiesel workshops
- view our vehicle gallery
“Alkylyst has enabled a safer and more sustainable fuel for my farm.”
Ethan Hall
biodiesel home-brewer
The biodiesel blog!
June 18, 2024
First summer lab meeting! Alkylyst welcomes CMS Teachers Jorden White and Evelyn Metcalf to Queens. For 6 weeks this summer, Jorden and Evelyn will develop curricula related to chemistry and energy for their middle school courses, incorporating biodiesel to lesson plans and lab experiments.
June 13, 2024
Another satisfied customer! Summer intern Charlie Knust happily tops off his tank with some freshly prepared ethyl esters. His Nebraskan VW Passat never felt so new. This B20 blend is great for North Carolina, year-round.
May 20, 2024
We’re moving! A space on the 1st floor of Rogers Hall opened up, and we’re squatting it – biodiesel style! The move will enable smoother transport of liquids in (used oil) and out (biofuel!). The shelving was already in place, and students Charlie Knust, Jon Fuesy and Rahina Dabone are filling them up with reactors, pumps and separatory funnels. Photo courtesy of Kyle McGuff
April 18, 2024
Queens students Rahinatou Danone, Griffen Gonzalez, Kyle McGuff and Addy Hitt present their biodiesel research findings and reactor design at 1st Annual Carolinas Climate Summit.
April 5, 2024
The sun shines on another 5 gallon batch of biodiesel!
April 2, 2024. Alkylyst welcomes local high school students
Vishnu Narandranath and Dionisio Dimagno visited the biodiesel lab during the installation of a waste oil rendering tank, a 19 gallon, 1500 watt electric hot water heater that efficiently removes water from used cooking oil when applying a light vacuum. Below Kyle and Rahina use and hand drill pump to transfer used oil into newly installed rendering tank.
March 28, 2024. New parts and new protocols.
Top, Griffen Gonzalez wrenches down on a new 19 gallon hot water heater that will be used to render the used cooking oil and bottom Rahina Dabone demonstrates our ethanol drying protocl with a grounded pump to prevent the sparks from flying.
March 26, 2024. Bring on the mowers!
The Queens Groundscrew arrived at the Rogers Garage biodiesel drop zone today in full effect. The leftmost mower (enlarged, bottom) operates on diesel fuel and of course, Alkylyst’s biodiesel fuel.
-
March 7, 2024
We got the good stuff!
Welcome, Ethan Hall, to Rogers Hall. Tapping the Canadian Rockies, our new friends at ClearSolv shipped 99.9% pure (199.8 proof, non-denatured) ethanol, via Nashville, to Queens after a series of exhaustive tests of local suppliers and safety contemplations of whether to drum, or not to drum? That is truly the question when undertaking a project such as ours. A 55 gallon (208L) drum of the same ethanol from ClearSolv costs $385 USD and the 5 gal (19L) pails pictured above go for about $225 each. Neither prices include shipping. With safety as our prime concern, and a drum requiring a grounded pump for dispensing, special storage and transport protocols, as well as empty drum requirements due to inherent residual flammability of ethanol vapors, we opted to purchase the pails. They are now be stored in flammable safely cabinets in a locked laboratory as we develop methods for removing the 0.1% water claimed on the SDS.
Oct. 27, 2023
Does it really work?
The plan: make 5 gallons of biodiesel. Pour said biodiesel in car. Drive said car to Mt. Mitchell (the highest mountain east of South Dakota) to witness first hand any engine problems, lack of power during the climb, leaks! With dog as our witness, we prevailed! Note – this trip was planned as a team-building kick off to the EPA grant project which was slated to start Nov 1. Though the announcement of the funding was delayed until Jan 2024, the trip went as planned, and the Chemistry Cultural Exchange Expedition was born!
Jan. 3, 2024
A plan begins to take shape!
For a while, several of the students and I have had the idea to retrofit a beer brewing vessel as a biodiesel reactor due to its ideal conical drain, insulated SS walls and low cost relative to glass or other chemical reactors of similar volumes and designs. Enter The Grainfather (and the Grainfather’s father Jess the owner of Alternative Beverage in Belmont, NC…). The first purchase of the project was a 7 gallon brew/reactor, a similarly sized separator funnel and accompanying hardware. See the full parts list and some images here. If you haven’t yet visited Alternative Beverage, and you’re into beer, I recommend taking the trip. It’s quietly located on the Catawba river and has a massive inventory of beer brewing booty.
Jan 19, 2024
We started building the reactor today with a trip to the hardware store!
Blackhawk Ace Hardware in Charlotte, NC to be exact. Before leaving campus, we knew we needed a few barbed pieces of pipe and 4-5’ feet of 3/4” tubing compatible with biodiesel and alkali (neoprene, Viton…). The place was STOCKED with all the valves, Ts and elbows we needed, so we did a mock up of the pump input and output lines on the floor of the plumbing aisle.
Here is the full parts list for today’s haul, FREE POPCORN and all!
Feb 18-28, 2024
Stage 1 Reactor is up and running and producing some fine biodiesel ethyl esters! After a series of setbacks using denatured ethanol, it seems we’ve settled on a supplier and our glycerol is settling to the bottom of the separatory funnel! Acid neutralization and water washing of our first 4L batch worked, and a suite of analytical tests can be found on the Real Time Analysis page. Look out Exxon Mobile, here comes Alkylyst!
Monthly Newsletter
Coming soon.