I've been wondering all day if a tsunami is going to hit Arizona. Remember all those elephants that headed for the hills during the one in December 2004? If anyone had noticed, they would have followed the elephants, and they would have been safe. Well, while I was driving around getting my '82 Volkswagen truck checked for emissions, a squirrel ran across Scottsdale Road, headed for the McDowell mountains. Not significant, you say? Maybe. But in my decades of driving here, I've never seen a squirrel before in Scottsdale, let alone one intent on getting to high grond. Sure, there are plenty of bunnies, snakes, and even an occasional roadrunner. But no squirrels ever. So I thought something might be up.

Fortunately, nothing has happened so far, so let's get back to the more mundane subject of terrestrial human transportation. To get my VW truck registered in Maricopa county, I had to get it emission tested. I was a little worried when the Arizona Department of Motor Vehicles clerk told me about this, because this is a 1982 vehicle with 240,000 miles on it. So I went to the nearest test station. When I rolled the pickup into the stall and stopped with the front wheels on the dynamometer, the technician kept waving me forward. I yelled out "It's a front wheel drive pickup". That drew the attention of the other techs, and they all had to come over to look, including the manager. I guess they don't see many of these cars.

The tech revved up the motor and took the readings. When they were done, the manager came over and said "I'd like to talk to you. I've never seen a diesel get that low a reading, even on a new truck". It turns out that the only test parameter is "Opacity in %". The limit is 20, and my truck was at 0.7. So I told the manager the basics of biodiesel, and told him to visit A42.com. Biodiesel evangelism scores another convert - he wants to plop a diesel into his truck.

I'm still buying biodiesel from the local distributor in Phoenix, Western States Petroleum (450 South 15th Avenue, Phoenix AZ 85007 +1-602-252-4011). It's $2.85 a gallon, which is now cheaper than the petroleum version. But, I'd like to make my own, as at some point (the way things are going) it may be difficult to get fuel. Hurricanes George, Katrina, and now Rita have done their deeds, and who knows what will happen next? So we're going to chronicle the process of building and running a Backyard Biodiesel Refinery. I've already taken the first steps.

Gadgetarius already has his refinery going in Flagstaff, and produces enough fuel for his family by firing it up every other weekend. I decided that I'd like to start by copying something that already works. First, I had to find a supply of WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil). That wasn't hard: the first place I tried, Chop & Wok at Scottsdale and Shea, is happy to give me all the goop I can carry away. They have to pay to get it hauled off, so it's no big deal for them. I also need to get a few things like containers, an electric fry pan, and an aquarium pump. I already found an electric fry pan at Saver's for $1.07. They hadn't seen an aquarium pump for years, so I'm probably going to have to buy a new one of those. This will also probably be the biggest expense. I also have to get the necessary chemicals for the esterification reaction, which are lye (NaOH) and Methanol (CH₃OH). I can get the methanol at Speedway Race Fuels (2300 W Broadway Rd, Phoenix, AZ 85041 +1-602-276-9250). The lye is available at grocery stores, and since you don't need very much it's probably not worth the hassle of buying it from a chemical supplier.

We're on our way to making a refinery. In the spirit of hitchhiking, I'm going to spend as little money as possible and make the project with as many scavenged materials as possible. So keep coming back if you're interested in following our progress...