The B100-WH Reactor

	Not yet fully functional (photo op), this is the lay out of the reactor wash tank combo. All the components are visible. The pre-heat tank at the right. The reactor (water heater). The center shelving for the methoxide. The wash tank (I have since changed this to a metal drum). Also a pretty good view of the storage underneath. It's also got lights :-)

	This is a close up after I insulated the reactor. The methoxide poly drum is in the foreground. It is a 22 liter (6USgal) poly drum. In this photo though you can now see the electrical control box, and the aquarium air pump sitting on top of the reactor.

	This is a better view of the 40 liter preheat tank. It is set on a pedestal (on top of the fold out table) so to make it gravity feed the WVO to the pump's intake port. This negates the need to prime the pump. Nice collection of 19 liter (5USgal) poly drums eh ? Notice the thermometer ? I have since left that one in place but added another at the sight tube "T".

	This is the new thermometer I recently installed made for BBQ's. They are threaded to 1/2" NPT and so will screw into any standard 1/2inch fitting. Website here. It's the second one down. I removed the 90* angle from the the top of the sight tube and installed a "T" instead. As the oil passes the stem inside the "T" it registers true temp.

	The electrical control box. On the bottom we can see there are 4 seperate entries. The one on the far left is a standard 110V outlet. The others are all twist-lock plugs. he twist-locks are a safety feature, they are spark-free. Each one is controlled by a breaker switch. These breaker switches also act as on/off switches to the various outlets. Another safety feature is the emergency kill switch (red button at the top). This stops all electricity from reaching any of the switches/outlets.

The concept here is one of space saving. It had to be compact in order to fit in the available space, yet still be functional enough to supply our needs. I believe that this unit accomplishes that goal. Not shown here, as it was added on later, is the seperate settling tank (it can be seen on the main page). This has allowed the effective doubling of volume by producing two 80 liter batches and settling them together. It means a bit (ok, quite a bit) of extra work, but keeps the integrity of the compact design should it need to be moved to a more restrictive space. Also added was a water tank used for washing the settled biodiesel. It is equiped with an aquarium heater so that the water may be heated and not be icy cold as it comes from a faux well.

This is but one example of what can be done, even by someone with absolutely no experience whatsoever with any of the components, once properly motivated and with the generous help of the on-line biodiesel community, without which this would not have become a reality. A true collaborative effort, thanks to all who have freely shared their ideas and plans as well as advice on pitfalls and successes, it has made a big difference to the building of this unit.