I am interested not only in homebrewing, but also developing automation for the systems. I have 22 years background in electronics, controls, and instrumentation: it's fairly straight forward for me to design a system. The hard part is designing one that is easy on the pocketbook, reliable, industrial duty, and can be put together by anyone else wanting to homebrew bioDiesel.
I live on the SW side in Alief, so perhaps we should have an informal get together some time just to meet everyone.
I am currently building a pilot system to use for the automation development. It will be able to process up to 1 liter at a time, but it should be enough to validate the system. End result will take WVO at one end and spit out BD on the other end automagically.
Auto titration, auto methoxide proportioning, auto methanol recapture, auto glycerine refining, auto everything (eventually). But, each part should be modular. If John Doe only wants a wash controller, no prob. Each part can work by itself or when connected to each other automatically team up and work together.
If this isn't a coop project, I don't know what is!
Im going to give Chris at Houston BioD a visit myself and take a look at the setup there.
-Big Jim in Houston-
"6 drops of ye essence of Terra, 5 drops of sin ester sauce"... (bring back memories?) http://www.geocities.com/makenamicro