Weekly Progress Report: Week 4

This week, Louis, Jiaqi, and Dong made an initial batch of crude biodiesel. A procedure for this process can be found under "Experimental Processes: Step 2- Transesterification Reaction."

Blake and Esmail talked to the Physics Department about borrowing a power supply for the electrolysis rig. The power supply they will supply has a maximum voltage of 40 volts and a maximum current draw of 0.5 A. This is 10 volts lower than the 50 volt power supply used in the patent. Lower voltage means that the purification may take longer than specified in the patent. In addition, the power supply can only be borrowed for a few days at most, which is going to impact project scheduling.

Esmail has ordered a multimeter that can measure microamps. 

Blake and Esmail also drafted procedures for the electrolysis and washing experiments. These drafts can be found under "Experimental Process, Step 3 - Purification."


Next week, Blake and Esmail will attempt to do one test run of the electrolysis procedure, while Jiaqi, Louis, and Dong will make more crude biodiesel.