Sorry about this article's font issues; I can't get them uniform... and the large font is because I've overdone it reading essays and research papers...maybe it's the natural process of aging as well.
We make a 6:30 am-ish weekly trip to our local restaurants, picking up their used oil and dropping off clean, empty containers for the next week's supply. In the upcoming pictures, a RS Central senior has come to our shop to do an internship for his graduation project. He arrived early enough to make our oil run and then helped with a batch of bio. After several trips, he accumulated 15 hours and felt confident enough to give a presentation on his alternative energy research paper and his biodiesel experience. His mother told us he made a 94 on his project. Good lad!
Get ready: there's no glamor shots coming up. Cody wasn't quite prepared. His shoes used to looked pretty new.
Sunday 7:00 am oil run, then filtering, then loading the processor. This is usually my--or my husband's--weekly duty. Nice break to boss around an anxious teenager.
Cody titrates the oil, looking for the magic number that will be "crunched" to give us the lye amount needed to make biodiesel.
Can't let the senior leave without paying his dues...washing and washing buckets and lids. All the cleaning drove me to ditch the dish detergent and make my own soap. There's about a full day's work each week collecting the oil, making a batch of bio, and washing all the buckets, preparing for the next go around. Add in the supply runs to Spartanburg or Asheville for alcohol, syringes, lye, ball valves, o-rings, micron filters, chocolate. You can see this bio and soap thing has become a part of our work routine, a lifestyle choice. Remember that oil rig? Couldn't happen without him.
Where does the chocolate fit in to the process? :)
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