Liz & Matt’s Home Extension Blog

Much to everyone’s surprise (not least my own) I finally completed the construction of my long-awaited biodiesel processor one evening last week.  After spending about a year in the “research and dithering” phase, the actual construction phase took a little over 5 months, most of which time was spent on the “waiting for parts to arrive”, “avoiding making critical decisions” and “generally faffing about” steps.

So anyway - here it is in all its glory.  The photos were taken a couple of weeks ago so don’t show the finished article, but you’ll get the idea.  I’ll upload a proper publicity shot of it in it’s final pristine (not covering in oil) state soon.




In case you’re interested, this is based on the ”GL Eco-System” design.  This is an improved, safer and more environmentally-friendly version of the original American “Appleseed” design.

As you may know, there have been a number of well-publicised cases of people injuring themselves messing about with this stuff in recent years and there’s also a lot of misinformation about biodiesel and how to make it on the Web, plus a lot of poor-quality (and downright dangerous) systems available on ebay and even from commercial suppliers.  Just to set your minds at rest (thanks for your concern), this system includes a number of built-in safety features, all of which are described on the GL site.  More details than you will probably want to know and a guided tour are available on request.  Actually, come anywhere near the house and you’ll probably get those anyway so you may want to steer clear for a while.

I haven’t had time to actually put any oil in it yet but hopefully that will happen within the next couple of weeks, just as soon as I get a free weekend.  I’m aiming to have my first batch of fuel from it by the end of November.