Dorinda and her friend Abby are now officially in business! They are making and selling homemade glycerine soap from the by-product of making biodiesel from used cooking oil. So we are recycling 100% of this oil after it was used to fry food.
I met a local guy who helped us with the biodiesel process and him and his wife started making and selling the soap. They had too much on their plate so we bought the equipment and some soap they had made, we had bought some from them before and loved how well it worked and that it was a natural product from a recycled material.
The process works like this: We collect used fryer oil, let it settle and filter it for food particles and water. We then react it with a solution of methanol and caustic soda at 130F for 2 hours in a tank that is circulated with a pump and then allow it to settle overnight. It settles into 2 distinct layers- the top being biodiesel and the bottom layer is a vegetable glycerine. We drain off the glycerine and 'wash' the biodiesel before using it. Then it is necessary to recover residual methanol from the glycerine which is done by distillation up to 260F.
In the transesterification process described above much of the process of saponification has taken place. To finish the process we follow a recipe developed by a guy from Canada. We can make bar soap and liquid. Here are some photos of Dorinda and Abby making bar soap.
We're also working on making a gel type soap. The liquid works awesome as a degreaser, for laundry, washing pets, etc. For the bar soap we add only scents and shea butter or olive oil. None of the chemical additives found in commercial soaps. It not only works great at cleaning any type of organic stains but doesn't dry out your skin.
We are working on a new logo and updating the website http://www.washtyme.com/ , it has a fully functional shopping cart so please help support us and tell everyone you know!
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