Week 6: Burning Biodiesel

Burning the biodiesel has become a very problematic issue. The rate of the combustion reaction appears too slow and a very small amount of the biodiesel is burned. While observing the flame, we have seen that smoke builds up within the container. We believed it was possible that the smoke was hindering the flame. To combat this issue, we created a metallic covering to fit on top of the container. This purpose of this piece is to hold up the wick and block any smoke from going into the container.

This spirit burner design is ineffective due to the small burn rate.

As illustrated by the above picture, the flame is still small. Thus, we concluded that the smoke entering the container is not an issue.

Another test conducted today involved attempting to burn biodiesel directly. Though all our research indicated this was not possible, we attempted it anyway. We found that the research held true, eliminating our design for a cheap version of a "bomb calorimeter" discussed in earlier posts.