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Drum Heaters are

• Flexible

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• Easy to clean and store

• Resistant to many chemicals

• UL and CSA recognized

Biodiesel Reactor

A Morse drum heater was used in the development of a biodiesel reactor by University of Wisconsin engineering students.

"Students at the University of Wisconsin Madison in an introductory engineering course were told to construct a biodiesel reactor as their project.  Group members knew very little about biodiesel at the start, but the group ended up building a very solid final product. 

"Biodiesel is a diesel fuel as the name suggests, but it is made from organic plant oil such as soybean or sunflower oil as opposed to the petroleum product pumped from the ground.  The fuel produces less harmful byproducts while still retaining most of diesel's energy value. 

"The reactor consists of one 60 gallon reactor tank, one 100 gallon wash tank, several smaller tanks, as well as pumps to circulate the products around the reactor.  It is computer controlled and is powered by 120 volt current.  Morse Manufacturing supplied the team with an external drum heater that was integral in the testing and batch making phase in order to ensure successful operation.

"The Morse drum heaters are very marketable as a biodiesel product I believe, because a lot of home users would like to start making this as gas prices rise but they might not have the startup funds we did.  Our original design wanted a 55 gallon drum for the reactor tank.  The Morse heaters would be well suited for this because of their ease of use and low energy consumption."

Ben Pape
Student, UW-Madison

Last Updated: 04/09/08

Biodiesel Reactor - A Morse drum heater was used in the development of a biodiesel reactor by University of Wisconsin engineering students.