Biodiesel in Huntsville, TX

Biodiesel Classes

Jonesey — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:32:12 GMT

We have some more upcoming events- biodiesel classes! This is your opportunity to see the process for yourself if you're still on the fence about biodiesel.

During these classes we will be discussing:

    Reasons to use biodiesel
    Oil collection
    Safety and handling of methanol and catalyst
    Preheating the oil
    The chemical process of making biodiesel
    Proper titration of your waste vegetable oil
    Water Washing
    Drying
    Dealing with glycerin

We have three dates open for sign-up: Oct 25 and November 1 & 8. Classes will be held at our shop location: 7 Lake Falls Lane, Huntsville, Texas 77320.

There is a fee of $50 per person and payment is due by October 15 in the form of check or cash. This payment is nonrefundable.

Please remit payment to Evolution Biodiesel, C/O Amy Brosi, PO BOX 883, Huntsville, Tx 77320.

It is advisable to wear comfortable clothes and shoes and to bring something to write on for note taking purposes.

To reserve your spot in one of these classes send an email to: amy@evolutionbiodieselkits.com with your name (and the names of anybody else attending), phone number, and the date you wish to attend. Or call 281-652-5716 ext 4.

We hope to see you there!

Fair on the Square

Jonesey — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:46:06 GMT

Hello again everybody. This past weekend was the 34th annual Fair on the Square in our home town of Huntsville. It was a much larger event than we expected (slightly bigger than the Renewable Energy Roundup). A lot of local vendors and small businesses were there selling their crafts and products.

We sent Amy, Brandon, Kevin and Katie there (with our demo processor) to advertise our free WVO pickup service and to spread the word of recycling in Huntsville. We passed out a lot of information and had quite a few people stop by with questions. It was wonderful to us that some of the attendees had not only heard about biodiesel, but also about us.

Kevin talking to some curious people about our processor.

Amy and Katie handing out all the wonderful information to help spread the green movement.

A little perspective- the entire Fair was this packed.

It wasn't all work, we had some fun coaxing people into smelling the jar of biodiesel we brought and looking at what the other booths had to offer.

Renewable Energy Round Up

Jonesey — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:16:29 GMT

Evo Bio is back from Fredericksburg!

Amy, Kevin and Steve made the journey to represent us at the Renewable Energy Roundup. We had a great time showcasing our new drywash system, spreading the biodiesel word and even seeing some of our customers. It was nice to hear about how their processors were working out for them and to know that our product is making a difference.

Steve with our processor at the Round Up

We even had the pleasure of meeting Malcolm Beck, who wrote "The Secret Life of Compost."

We managed to find time to make it to Wildseed Farms. They are one of the largest seed producers in the country. They have 200 acres of wildflowers that more than 350,000 people stop by to see each year. There is a small entry fee of $5 and we highly recommend stopping by if you ever have the chance.

Purple Passion Flower at Wildseed Farms

Blue Mist Flowers that were surrounded by butterflies.

More gorgeous flowers at Wildseed Farms.

It was nice to have a change of pace for a weekend, but of course it is back to work now, with our eyes on Fair on the Square.

Announcements

Jonesey — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 15:33:11 GMT

Greetings from Huntsville again!

We just wanted to spread the word of our whereabouts this weekend. Evolution Biodiesel will be at the 9th Annual Renewable Energy Roundup & Green Living Fair in Fredericksburg, Texas from September 26-28. There will be lectures, organic food, demonstrations, exhibits, and green products for sale. We'll be at booth 41 (the covered pavillion) showcasing our upgraded biodiesel processor and newly designed drywashing system.

9th Annual Renewable Energy Roundup & Green Living Fair website

And on a more local level, on October 4th we will be at Huntsville's Fair on the Square (booth 245) from 9am to 5pm. Feel free to stop by and drop off your waste vegetable oil!

34th Annual Fair on the Square

We'll post pictures after the events and let you all know how everything went.

Construction Zone

Jonesey — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 09:14:50 GMT

What was once just a humble concrete slab is now becoming the new home of Evolution Biodiesel. It has been quite hectic to keep up with the daily tasks of the business and the construction.

Our new shop!

What's more exciting than a new shop? Our biodiesel processors can now be manufactured off the grid. We have invested in two biodiesel powered generators, one for general electricity use (lighting, fans, etc.) and the other for the welder and back-up power.

One of our generators: single cylinder with 12 horse power

In addition to the green powered generators, we have installed a geothermal air conditioning system, and have made plans to integrate a grey water system for our garden, as well as composting toilets.

The beginnings of our geothermal air conditioning system

After some debate we have also decided to change our paint shed into our new office. Following some discussion on how to power our office equipment, and seriously considering pedaling stationary bicycles while sitting at the desk to produce energy (a good source of cardio AND power- too good to pass up), we decided on solar panels.

The office!

Now that all the major construction has been complete, it is only a matter of time until the official move-in can begin.... The idea of moving the equipment sounds even scarier than building the shop.

Urban Farm Day 2008

Raven — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:40:26 GMT

                                        http://blog.evolutionbiodieselkits.com/2008/07/08/urban-farm-day-2008flv.aspx


                                                                               711 Emile St
                                                              Emile St. Community Farm

A few Saturdays ago (June 14), Last Organic Outpost held an event at the Emile St. Community Farm in Houston, TX called Urban Farm Day. This was spearheaded by a wonderfully-spirited Joe Nelson Ice T who founded the Last Organic Outpost, a non-proft organization. Joe has taken countless strides to build community in Houston where, if just by looking you would think is lost in a sea of traffic and concrete. He achieves this through growing gardens and providing local, organic food to the nearby residents. Urban Farm Day was a celebration of this community and in agriculture, sustainability, love of the land and all that it can provide for us.

Two things were most profound to me that day: meeting Dan Phillips, one of the keynote speakers of the day, and taking part in the ceremonial blessing of the garden. After hearing so much of Dan Phillips, also a Huntsvillian, and all his wonderful contributions to humanity I officially met him there in the garden. Right there underneath a Chinese tallow tree, in front of the giant "FarmArt" sign that was recently added to the Silo by some biodiesel powered artists from the east coast, I became educated about how he recycles and reuses old stuff into new artistic, beautiful, low cost, efficient housing. Now, I knew that he was doing these types of housing projects in the great city of Huntsville, but I did not  realize how much he cared about the current state of the world and how much we, Westerners, waste in any given day. That is what struck me the most because I think about those things everyday and how so much useable material just gets thrown in the landfill. And that some products only have a single use and that single use may only be a few days but the life cycle of it can be thousands of years. Oh yes, reduce, reuse, recycle, has been my motto for so long. Only now has that phrase evolved into something much, much bigger and even more meaningful.
The second most profound thing was the ancient ceremonial dance to bless the land and garden was absolutely amazing and was something I have never done. Although we received a crash course in how to do the dance and we probably weren't the most graceful group, there was a common purpose. Without farms there would be no food, without quality soil and water we would not be here. It was a celebration of fundamentals of life that gets taken for granted in our culture. I do not know their names, the couple that did this dance, I would like to thank them for performing and teaching a powerful blessing. It meant quite a lot to me to be a part of it and the entire Urban Farm Day. I left there energized, elated even and so empowered by all the great people attending, it only spurred me to keep pushing for what is important in life: education, art, sustainable local communities and food. I think that is what Joe wanted and he has succeeded wonderfully. I hope Houston takes a hard listen to what he has to say.

I would also like to personally thank all that helped with preparing and providing the food for the event. Also thank you to those that spoke about their current projects regarding recycling, reusing, and sustainable building. What great things you all do.

Dan Phillip's website
www.phoenixcommotion.com

Last Organic Outpost
www.lastorganicoutpost.com

Houston's Radio for Peace 90.1 FM
www.kpft.org

It may not be the prettiest soap but...

Jonesey — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:53:57 GMT

Alright, so what to do with all that glycerin that you've been stockpiling in your garage... There are so many websites available on the net to make soap from biodiesel glycerin, but, as I discovered a weekend or so ago, quite a few of them are... well, unbelievably inaccurate.

Between the horrible directions I found, and an actual soap making book, I managed to produce some very ugly, odd smelling soap that works wonderfully as liquid hand soap. It isn't very harsh on the hands, but it definitely does a great job at removing dirt and grease. We'll be tweaking the recipe over the next few weeks, so I'll keep you guys updated and let you know if I find new techniques or better methods.

First off, just like producing biodiesel, soap making involves some harmful chemicals and you need to protect yourself by wearing gloves and goggles. Heat the glycerin in a well ventilated area and do NOT have open flames near the glycerin (because it has methanol in it).

Also, this recipe is to make liquid soap with glycerin derived from Canola/vegetable oil biodiesel.

You will need:

    -A large stainless steel pot (anything else will be eaten away by the lye)
    -A large, long wooden spoon
    -Scale
    -Lye
    -Glycerin
    -Water
    -a container that can withstand large amounts of heat (we used heavy duty glass
     jars- this is for the lye and water reaction that gets VERY hot)
    -a strainer (restaurant grade is nice, but panty hose around a regular cone one
     works just as well)

and of course- gloves and goggles.

We'll keep the measurements simple for now: if you have 1 gallon of glycerin, you will need one quart of water (4:1 ratio glycerin to water), and 5.5 ounces of lye.

First you'll want to strain the glycerin to remove any junk that may still be in it. You can strain it directly into the pot that you will be heating it in.

Turn up the heat. You'll want to get the glycerin to over 150 degrees to evaporate the methanol. Do this for about 30 to 40 minutes to ensure all the methanol has been removed.

A little into the heating process (ten or fifteen minutes) you can begin mixing the lye and water. When you react the water and lye, it will heat to nearly 200 degrees, so we need to allow time for it to cool. Pour the 5.5 grams of lye into the jar then SLOWLY pour in the quart of water (you always add water to lye, never lye to water). Stir a few times with the spoon to help encourage the reaction then leave it alone.

After the temperature for the lye has come down (anywhere between 100 and 120 degrees F works) slowly, while stirring, pour the lye mixture into the glycerin. Turn off the heat for the glycerin. Stir until you are satisfied that the glycerin and lye are completely mixed (be careful-you can still get a lye burn here). The more your stir, the thicker your soap will be.

Carefully pour the mixture out into a plastic storage container. You will want the soap to sit for at least 24 hours before use to ensure that it will not burn the skin.

Biosurvey Results June 2008

Jonesey — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 10:48:14 GMT

Hello again! Yes, we are back on the blog. Evolution Biodiesel is doing great, which is why the blog has been somewhat neglected. We'll post another one soon to catch everybody up on what we've been doing since last September.

I was given the assignment about a week ago to ask some simple survey questions about biodiesel and get a feel for what the general public knows. The survey group was very random (anybody who would answer my questions in the grocery store or pick up the phone). The two areas I surveyed, Huntsville, Texas and a small town outside Houston, are very diverse. Huntsville is home for the college crowd, state employees (mostly Texas Department of Criminal Justice employees), and people involved in the agriculture industry. Surprisingly I ended up with 42 people that were more than willing to answer my questions. When one conversation started in the grocery store, another person would jump into the conversation. Gasoline is not only a great ice breaker, but a common interest/aggravation that many people have plenty to say about.

I didn't need to ask to know how everybody felt about the rising costs of gas. Some people looked at me like I was asking the stupid question in school. Nobody is happy filling up their gas tanks and seeing that $2 barely gets them half of a gallon. One rather humorous, young respondent said that he's rather "have his face chewed off by rabid hamsters" than buy more gasoline. You hear about it everywhere you go, people saying how much mpg their car gets, comparing how much it costs to fill up, and, even scarier, how much gas is costing them each week. A lot of the people I spoke with automatically spoke up about what they have had to give up, mostly just the little treats we allow ourselves here and there (that one is Starbucks for me). A few people I talked to gave up their locations- they moved closer to work because the drive to Houston was cutting in to their salary too much for their comfort. Some had begun carpooling to work, but most were doing simple things to cut corners- save all the errands for one trip to conserve fuel, and switch the big truck in for the small car we all used to cringe at. What was upsetting was the younger respondents (roughly 19-25) didn't seem to be changing their consumption habits at all.

Is the price of gas going to continue to rise? Only one respondent answered no. There was a general consensus that gas was going to continue to rise because of higher demand (with India and China developing), depleting supplies and Big Oil trying to get every last penny they can. The lone dissenter believed gas prices are eventually going to fall because, at some point, gas costs will be too high for the consumer and prices will have to fall.

When the subject of biodiesel was brought up, most questioned had at least heard about it, but didn't know anything beyond that. About six people had gotten the problems of ethanol mixed up with biodiesel, and three had thought that a diesel engine has to undergo major modifications in order to run on biodiesel. Although all but five of the people I talked to drove gas powered vehicles, every person was very curious about what biodiesel has to offer. Hopefully this will start some good conversation about renewable energy, and cause more people to get online and do a little research.

How much are we willing to give up to Big Oil? The Sea of SUV's is slowly drying up (this isn't such a bad occurrence), and people are finally beginning to consider life without petroleum. If some of the scientists are right and we've already hit our peak production, we are running out of time to fix this problem. We've all been taught that petroleum is a non-renewable resource since grade school, why is it so shocking now to hear that supplies are dwindling? In the 1970's our government took measures to slow our consumption of petroleum (close the gas stations on Sunday for one). Since then we have the Ipod, Blu-Ray discs, lap top computers, internet accessible cell phones, and are still somehow using cars that still run on gas... only now those vehicles have auto start, GPS navigation systems, and respond to verbal commands.

Car maintenance with biodiesel

Raven — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 17:36:57 GMT

Hi everyone! We had a great time at the Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair. We hope to return next year for more New Belgium beer and great music and vendors. We were happy to meet the guys from Blue Sun Biodiesel, the gals from the Clean Cities Coalition, and Mark from Solix Biofuels. Thanks for the bio!!

After leaving Colorado, we headed to Kennewick, WA. Kevin and I are now in Salt Lake City, Utah with our broke down 2006 F250 with a 6 liter diesel engine. This is the second time the fuel injectors have worn out pulling a load. We were so upset that we traded it in for a 2008 F250 6.4L diesel. We'll be back on the road hopefully tomorrow.

Since the first 50 miles our broke down truck has run on mostly biodiesel. We have searched for information on how well these trucks perform and found staggering problems with the fuel injectors. The 6.0L are notorious for having fuel system problems around 40,000-60,000 miles especially when towing. If anyone wants to comment or help out with this subject feel free to add some information. The 6.0L is a disaster if you plan on using it for what its meant to do...WORK!!

Okay enough lamenting about us being stranded in Utah. There are more interesting things going on in Fayetteville, AR and here is an addition written by Dave about buying his first diesel Mercedes. He also has one of our processors in Fayetteville that he uses and sells for us. Here he offers a little technical advice for biodiesel users.

"On June 18th 2007 I bought my first diesel vehicle, a 1983 Mercedes Benz 300 Turbodiesel with 232,000 miles on the clock. My plan for the car was to run it off B100 from day 1 and get a first hand idea what happens when you switch a high mileage vehicle to pure biodiesel. Currently, I have racked up 2,2000
B100 miles on the car. I've noticed the motor runs slightly quieter and the car only smokes on cold start up for 15 seconds or so, much less than when I test drove the car before buying. The first thing I did when I bought the car is change the fuel filters. The Benzes have 2 filters a primary and a secondary (pictures attached). I installed the primary filter 1 the day I bought the car. You can see the biodiesel has acted as a solvent by releasing deposits from the fuel tank and lines into the filter. Primary filter number 2 was installed after 1,000 B100 miles. You can see the filter is much cleaner. The next picture shows the 3rd and current filter installed and it seems to be very clean with just a few specs of debris inside. My advice to folks with the high mileage diesels wanting to run biodiesel would be to change the filters out frequently the first few thousand miles."

Dave, Fayetteville, AR sales and techsupport guru for Evolution Biodiesel

Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair

Raven — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 19:41:43 GMT

Evolution Biodiesel will be attending and exhibiting at the 8th annual Rocky Mountain Sustainable Living Fair in Fort Collins, Colorado. This event is being held September 15 & 16 at the New Belgium Brewing Company, 500 Linden Street, Fort Collins, Colorado. The focus of this fair is environmental and social responsibility, renewable energy, natural health, and organics. We are extremely excited to be a part of this event. This is a must see event if you are interested in great solutions to a wasteful and energy in-efficient lifestyle. Learn solutions, from people that are doing it, to living in harmony with the environment by conscious consumerism and "green" business and living practices.

There will be 150 exhibitors, 35 workshops, music, food, beer, and keynote speakers including Amy Goodman from Democracy Now, Josh Tickell, author and filmmaker, and Michael Shuman, economist and author, and Peggy O'Mara, publisher of Mothering Magazine. Music entertainment includes Groupo Azatlan, Muskateer Gripweed, Caleb Riley Funk Orchestra, and, Atomic Pablo Swings, 8-trac, and Dubskin.

Hopefully, we will see alot of Coloradoans there because this will be the coolest and greenest event in Colorado. Come check it out! www.sustainablelivingfair.org

If you can't attend in Colorado come see us in Fredericksburg, TX at the Renewable Energy Round Up and Green Living Fair, Sept. 28-30. This will also be a great event showing off the newest technology in renewable energy and green living. Check out their website at www.roundup.org.

Welcome!

Raven — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:58:48 GMT

Welcome to the launch of our new blog. Hosted by the cats that began a small company called Evolution Biodiesel. We strive and advocate for environmental consciousness through the use of renewable energy. Yes, we are on the biodiesel wagon and those that are looking to jump on or are already on we invite you to read along. All of us at Evolution Biodiesel are providing this blog to help our clients making biodiesel and for those interested and maybe even thinking of making their own biodiesel.