Promoting the biodiesel and vegoil community in Alaska.
Unfortunately we have to cancel our 4-days of biodiesel courses in Palmer this weekend. Participants should contact Girl Mark directly for refunds.
We WILL be offering a 1-day biodiesel basics class this Thursday June 11th in Peters Creek, including titration, test batches and full batch processing.
$50 donation, no one turned away for lack of funds.
Call 688-5288 to register or for more information.
Veg On!
Girl Mark is scheduled to teach a two-day biodiesel crash course, followed by a two-day biodiesel advance-topics course June 11-14th at Alaska Pacific University’s Spring Creek Farm in Palmer.
Although the classes are hosted by Arctic Vegwerks, we are promoting these opportunities as a community service. All registrations and fees are collected directly by Maria “girl Mark” Alovert.
For more information or to register, please see http://www.girlmark.com/#alaska.
Wow, we’re stoked to invite Girl Mark to Spring Creek Farm for a series of biodiesel courses this June.
Girl Mark, by the way, is the inventor of the water-heater based appleseed processor, the author of the highly recommended Biodiesel Homebrew Guide, and perhaps the country’s best backyard biodiesel educator.
She will offer a beginner/intermediate crash course on Sat-Sun June 6-7th and will repeat it on Thu-Fri June 11-12th. On Sat-Sun June 13-14th she will offer an amazing advanced topics course.
We’ve worked hard to make these classes Alaska-specific, we’ll focus on small-scale backyard techniques to increase yield, while decreasing costs and waste.
Sign up EARLY (before Feb 15th) and save $90 on the full four days! Sign up before April and you can still get a substantial discount.
Folks who have already taken a full 2 or 3-day weekend course, and those who are currently making full-scale batches may be able to skip the crash course and take just the advanced topics class, but I recommend the full 4 days.
Don’t miss this opportunity! Attend either 2 weekends in a row (if you sign up for both sessions) or squeeze it all in Thursday-Sunday.
Sign up now at http://www.girlmark.com/tour/#alaska. (Class details at the TOP of the page.)
Veg On!
Biodiesel Homebrew Guide by Maria “Girl Mark” Alovert: everything you need to know to make quality alternative diesel fuel out of waste restaurant fryer oil.
This is the book that I used years ago to learn how to brew biodiesel and build my reactor. It’s currently up to edition 10.5, revised in 2007. There’s no fluff here, no personal stories or politics, just the information you need to make your own biodiesel.
Girl Mark is one of the best known and well respected activists in the homebrew biodiesel community. She is famous for traversing the country leading workshops for the masses. She is the inventor of the water-heater based weldless-fumeless Appleseed processor and is a DIY expert on many internet forums.
Her book was written as a companion to her classes and it reads in a very comfortable, conversational tone. After a quick overview of biodiesel versus other veg-fuels; she jumps right into what to expect when using biodiesel, the good and the bad – in a friendly, but honest way.
With an eye for keeping it cheap and accessible to DIY folks, she emphasizes alternatives to expensive scales and chemicals, while still being safe. Biodiesel Homebrew Guide then leads you through test batches, titration, dewatering techniques, brewing fuel and quality testing.
The coolest thing about this book is its focus on chemistry for non-chemists. Yes, there’s a quick explanation of what’s going on in your reaction, but where the Biodiesel Homebrew Guide really shines is explaining what the reaction should look like, what it shouldn’t look like, and how to test and fix substandard reactions. She explains and describes emulsions – ways to break them, and ways NOT to break them. The book tells you which popular DIY tests work, which ones aren’t worth doing – and explains WHY. The book even goes into detail about the little white clumps that occasionally show up, and the creamy middle layer that we sometimes see.
Biodiesel Homebrew guide covers water-washing options, goes into depth about the pros and cons of each technique, and gives recommendations about which mist nozzles work best. It also includes a really cool section on acidulating and purifying glycerol, as what comes out of the processor is only about 40% glycerine – in a cocktail of methanol, soap and catalyst.
Finally Girl Mark provides a number of plans for building a basic or a bell-and-whistles Appleseed processor and stand-pipe wash tank.
Like other homebrew books it does not go into methanol recovery or acid-base reactions, but it does point you in the right direction – if that’s where you are headed.
Biodiesel Homebrew Guide is definitely a work in progress, perhaps more like a ‘zine than a book. It came as a stapled together pile of photocopies and contains a number of spelling and grammatical errors. There are also a few places where it seems that some paragraphs had been updated, but others referred to older editions of the book.
It’s not a slick shiny book, but it is the DEFINITIVE guide for the thrifty do-it-yourself crowd. If you want to understand what’s going on in your processor, and how to make quality fuel, then this is the book for you.
It’s the perfect complement to b100supply’s Home Brew Biodiesel – which has clearer plans and recipes, but doesn’t go into as much depth about what you’re seeing happen during the reaction.
You can buy Biodiesel Homebrew Guide for $18 (including shipping to Alaska) directly from Girl Mark at localb100.com/book.html
Veg On!
UPDATE SUMMER 2009: Girl Mark has been out of touch for a while, so it looks like the book is currently “out-of-print.” Try B100Supply’s Home Brew Biodiesel book instead.
