My house has no garage and the lot is 1/4 of an acre... Part of that is downhill facing towards the woods.

At best, my diesel processor will be in a hastily built tool shed. At worst, it will only be protected from the elements with a tarp.

I do have a patio, but I don't feel terribly comfortable keeping flammable liquids close to my home.

Is there a hazzard in running a reactor close to the house? Anyone ever have any "mishaps"?

 

My processor is inside my shop right now, but soon will be in a small building of its own. The only thing you need to worry about is keeping the water out of everything. Water is death to the biodiesel process.........

 

Yeah. I think I'll move it closer to my house or to the shed.

The only thing I'll have outside will be the preheating and pre filtration apparatus, which consists only of a 55 gallon drum with the bottom cut out, turned bottom up, with pipes and valves screwed into the bungs.

Support it with bricks over a fire pit where I'll burn trash or waste oil in a blast furnace of sorts till I can boil all of the water out of the raw product and strain it through a collander, window screen, and pillow case...

 

Mine's not in existence as of yet, but it'll be about 50-60 feet away from my house, in a 90 or 95 Sq foot shed (I would like it a little bigger, but I don't want to have to get a permit to put the feggin' shed up) I am as of yet undecided how to heat the shed itself, I have 2 tank haters for the WVO. Plan to make it "Off the grid" as well, with solar panels and a few battery banks.

Biodiesel Panther

 

The only thing you need to worry about is the methanol. Don't worry about "water being death" to the biodiesel process.

By far, the biggest hazard to making biodiesel is methanol and the vapors it produces. They are toxic to humans at levels well below your ability to sense them by smell. People have different reactions to it. Some people have adverse reactions with the slightest exposure, others can smell it all day and not be noticably affected by it.

Either way, it doesnt really matter. You must set up your system in a well ventilated place and make sure the system itself is vented to the outdoors.

Methanol is a fire hazard also. It is highly flammable and explosive when contained. I hope you are not using a plastic reactor tank because they are very dangerous.

If you get frequent visitors, make sure you put the proper safety systems in place to prevent someone from using an open flame in the area of the methanol.

Don't let all of this alarm you. properly installed, home-brew biodiesel systems can be very safe.

Rule #1: Do not put it in any structure attached to your dwelling.

Water is the least of your worries.

 

I don't have a Bio system set up but based a lifetime of working on, and around, vehicles of various persuations, and on the link below, my suggestion would be that you never process flamables in a burnable structure of limited space or ventilation, especially attached to the house that you and your family sleep in.

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/june242006/biodiesel_fire_62406.php

Your call, choose wisely.

Best.