Biodiesel class for farmers and sunflower oilseed project links

[girlmark]

I'm teaching a biodiesel workshop in Lee, New Hampshire- somewhat near Dover and Portsmouth, NH.

The workshop site is Tuckaway Farm, which has been hosting a biodiesel co-op for three years, and our host Dorn Cox and students from University of New Hampshire have built some impressive small-farm biodiesel production equipment there- inspired by Argentinian farm-scale biodiesel processors (theirs are somewhat of a hybrid of Appleseed systems and larger-scale techniques involving methanol recovery). They have also grown oilseed in conjunction with nearby UNH as experimentation in oil yields for farmers making their own fuel. There's a lot of information about Dorn and his projects in the articles linked at the end of this post.


The class will cover homebrewing basics but will also have a good tour of the farm-scale biodiesel equipment and will address the special issues that that scale brings up.


Lee, NH

Sept 22-23

10-4 each day

$120

For more information and to register, see http://www.girlmark.com/tour

Topics covered in the homebrew production side of the class:

-biodiesel/SVO/solvent thinning options and history, biodiesel chemistry, testing oil (titration and water testing), making test batches, an overview of equipment, a chance to build your own reactor at the end of Sunday's class, quality control factors that influence conversion quality, quality testing, mistwashing and other water washing options, breaking emulsion, two-stage base biodiesel, waste water and glycerine disposal, irrigating with waste wash water, neutralizing wash water, water reuse, common pitfalls, hands-on experience recovering from failed batches and emulsion, safety, dewatering oil, spill prevention, burning glycerine for energy, hydronic heating or solar heating of your biodiesel system


Info about our host, Dorn Cox, and his recent sunflower trials:

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/art...rticle_id=1432
http://extension.unh.edu/News/SunDiesl.htm
http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/p...0353/1012/NEWS
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/Pub...05-15-2007.pdf