Advanced biodiesel class, Berkeley, CA, Feb 24-25

(Note: I think BioLyle Rudensey from Seattle is coming down for this,
maybe there's a carpool possible if anyone from PDX is interested)

Advanced biodiesel homebrewing class

Feb 24-25, Berkeley, CA, $120

To register: www.girlmark.com/tour <http://www.girlmark.com/tour>
I'll be offering this class three times before July 2007- in Berkeley on
Feb 24-25, and in Pennsylvania in June or July and somewhere in the
Upper Midwest in late June or early July (dates not set yet)
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This two-day class presents advanced biodiesel production techniques for
those who are already proficient at basic transesterification, or those
who have already taken a one- or two-day hands-on class from me or
another teacher working from the http://biodieselcommunity.org
'curriculum' (such as Jennifer Radtke, John Bush, Steve Fugate,
"BioLyle" Rudensey, Piedmont Biofuels, Matt Steiman, Kalib Kersch, and
others).


In addition to presenting some of the more 'advanced' techniques, this
class focuses on teaching better quality control and safer practices,
with a focus on the scientific process that goes along with better
troubleshooting. We focus on better understanding the variables that
affect biodiesel quality, and how to design experiments and
troubleshooting protocols to isolate those variables when something goes
wrong with your production quality.

Topics covered:

quality control, two-stage acid-base and 80/20 base-base processes,
other processes for free fatty acid reduction and quality improvements,
advanced dewatering options, some discussion of methanol recovery and
flash evaporators, ethanol for biodiesel production, advanced equipment
topics such as solar heating, larger batches, 'balance of system'
equipment tricks to make your processing neater, magnesol, etc. There is
a hands-on lab component to this class which covers setting up careful
experiments, as well as covering advanced topics in testing- soap tests,
soap neutralisation, testing recovered methanol for purity and various
methods of increasing purity of methanol or ethanol, dealing with
unknown strengths of methoxide or other common mistakes, safer mixing of
KOH and methanol, fire safety, glycerine acidulation and purification,
glycerine burning for process heat, proper composting tricks, better
handling of wash water.

There will be some pre-requisite reading required for the class (about
50 pages).

The Biodiesel Homebrew Guide Version 11 should be available in January
and will include some of the material to be covered in the class. This
book will be available for sale at the class for $15 or online at
www.localb100.com/book.html <http://www.localb100.com/book.html>

Other advanced workshops offered by others:

My class is strictly about small-scale production and does not cover
activist topics (such as 'how to start a co-op') or business topics
(such as permitting). For activist biodiesel presentations, please
attend the July 2007 Biodiesel Co-ops Conference in Colorado
(http://b100.org should have information soon), and for permitting and
larger-scale production topics, please see the Iowa State University
course at http://www.me.iastate.edu/biodiesel .

This Berkeley class is also scheduled to follow an unrelated five-day
Intensive course taught by owners of the Biofuel Oasis fueling station,
called 'How to Start Your Own Biodiesel Station' . For more information
about the Oasis distribution class, please see
www.backyardbiodiesel.org/classes.html
<http://www.backyardbiodiesel.org/classes.html>. The Oasis Intensive is
a separate project, please apply to the two classes separately.

For info on my advanced production class, please see
www.girlmark.com/tour <http://www.girlmark.com/tour>

The following discussion forum thread is set up for comments about this
class:
http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/419605551/m/8671046871