MSDS Sheets for every chemical found in your production area should be printed and kept on a clipboard or booklet in an easy to reach location in or near your production area. If you ask a Fireman, he would recommend keeping the MSDS Sheets for everything on hand along with a map showing where and how much hazardous is located on the property. There are two types of labels that are found on chemicals, "Hazmat Placards" and "Health and Safety Labels". These labels should be left on the container showing what was originally in the container until it has been washed out and filled with another chemical. For instance if you use a methanol drum to store biodiesel, you need to change from methanol to biodiesel labeling when you fill the drum with biodiesel.

55 Gallon drums come in plastic and in steel. They come with and without removable lids. The drums that come without removable lids are called Closed Head Drums or Tight Head Drums. They have one 2″ opening and one 3/4″ opening in the top. Unmodified Closed Head Drums are not suitable for use as a biodiesel processor. They are not pressure vessels and will come apart at the seams if too much pressure is applied. The photos to the left show what is left of a closed head drum after being filled with compressed air to 75 psi. The drum launched into the air and landed 70 feet away after one bounce. The missing lid launched into the neighboring woods like a Frisbee and was never seen again. The same thing can happen to a drum with a removable lid if the lid is bolted to the drum.

GFCI stands for Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter. It's pretty much required by code any place water and electricity are in the same room. Kitchens and bathrooms often have GFCI outlets. You can spot them by the reset button. They are designed to shut down the power to the outlet if there is a grounding fault. They look to see that the hot wire and the neutral wire have the same current on them. An imbalance of current of more than 0.05 amps is an indication that a short to ground exists and the GFCI will trip. If the circuit is leaking less than 0.05 amps, it will not trip the GFCI and you can still receive a painful shock, just hopefully not a lethal one.

A Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) is a document that contains information on the potential health effects of exposure to chemicals, or other potentially dangerous substances, and on safe working procedures users should adhere to when handling chemical products. Before using any potentially dangerous substance, you should obtain, read, and understand it's MSDS. On purchasing a potentially dangerous substance, ask the supplier to provide you with the MSDS specific to that product. Keep all your MSDS sheets in a central location easily available. If the Fire Marshal pays you a visit, he will ask for the MSDS for all hazardous substances in your processing area.

Back in the bad old days we used drills and paint stirrers to mix biodiesel. It was a cheap easy way to mix both biodiesel and methoxide. The problem is that it's excessively dangerous. Methanol at any temperature and hot biodiesel being processed give off methanol fumes. When methanol vapor concentrations around the drill reach 6%, the sparks from the drill will ignite the methanol. It will form a fireball centered on the drill. Since your hands are holding onto the drill they receive 3rd degree burns as do your forearms. Your upper arms, chest, neck, and face receive second degree burns and any exposed chest or facial hair instantly become ash.  The next thing you know, your on your way to the hospital to get treatment for burns that cover a quarter of your body.

You see it all over the internet, in videos and websites, people making small batches of biodiesel in a food processing blender. The practice goes back to the beginning of homebrew biodiesel and it’s time for it to stop. Food processors and blenders were designed to process food. Methanol, lye, and biodiesel are very aggressive chemicals that attack rubber and seals in different ways. In fact we find that most of the seal material that is good for biodiesel, will not hold up to methanol. The reverse is also true. There are only a few seals that will hold up to biodiesel, methanol, and lye. So what happens is the seal in the bottom of the blender pitcher or container eventually starts to leak. When it does methanol drips onto the electric motor below. The electric motors used in food processors and blenders use brushes and spark heavily. It’s inevitable that if methanol or even methanol laced biodiesel is dripped into sparky central that a fire will occur.

Over the years there have been a number of biodiesel processing related accidents and fires, even some serious injuries and a couple of deaths. Making biodiesel is inherently dangerous, you are working with toxic flammable liquids and strong caustics to make fuel. While we can not eliminate all the dangers, here are 10 basic safety tips that can help reduce your exposure to accidents and fires.

by Dave Andreas
Crossposted from: The Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial

Dave has over 15 years as a firefighter-paramedic, HazMaz Specialist, and Fire Inspector.
This is his perspective on dealing with the local authorities.

Notes From the Firehouse

Fire departments are dynamic organizations that are currently under a barrage of competing tasks. Increasing emergency call volume, regulatory compliances, unfunded mandates from county, state and federal authorities coupled with budget cuts all result in limited time to handle inspections and more routine functions.

That said, most fire marshals are still acutely aware of the growing interest in progressive technologies and the effects on fire safety and protection. Believe me, no fire marshal wants to entertain a question from the mayor as to how it was allowed to have a 1000 gallon tank of (insert your favorite chemical here) in "plain view" of somebody's house. Worse is when an engine company responds to a fire in a garage that contains 1000 times the combustible load expected and people get killed or injured. The prevailing philosophy in those conditions would be to simply "forbid" the whole deal and make you prove otherwise in someone's appeals court. Yipes!