Biodiesel Follies

So Zac found this guy Matt who apparently is the nephew of oil moguls.
This guy Matt claims he read a bunch of public domain government funded concepts for creating biodiesel, then patented the idea. He also trademarked "biofuel". Now, he says, he's waiting for this one company to check on his formula for beef tallow biodiesel, and if the company likes it, they're going to buy his filtration plant for half a million dollars.
Meanwhile, Zac spent $3000 on some fuel-fibrilator out of the back of a Real Goods catalog; the same catalog that sells recycling toilets, where the picture depicts a guy with a big shit-eating grin on his face as he sticks his hand in the manured waste--mere inches beneath the toilet.
Zac somehow talked Rivers into setting up this biodiesel cooking operation in Rivers' driveway. "Just so long as you don't get grease all over my driveway," Rivers warned. " I don't want to smell a bunch of cooking oil all over my driveway."
Zac's machine is apparently rather clap-trap. A conglomeration of pipes barely tightened, and put together with teflon tape. As they were cooking the first batch, with lye and methanol, the lye was a bad mixture, and one of the hoses popped due to pressure. Matt got oil blown all over his head and shoulders (a commercial?), and Rivers pointed out there was a kink in the hose. "A kink?" they asked. "What's a kink?"
The next batch went much smoother, with a better mixture of lye, and after they spliced one of the hoses from a different part of the fuel-fibrilator, which "wasn't really doing anything."
Matt also recently claimed he wanted to run for mayor of Santa Barbara.
My question is if this guy has venture capitalists behind him to help him build his filtration plant, and is in the running to get half a million dollars from this as yet unnamed company, why didn't he know how to work the fuel-fibrilator? Shouldn't someone in the running for half a million dollars be able to avoid the calamity of having biofuel explode in your face?
Zac came over last night, apparently needing a truck to move his fibrilator, which still has 17 gallons of liquid fuel sloshing around in it. I told him my truck wasn't going to be the answer. I also couldn't figure out why he needed to manually extract his finished fuel out of the $3000 fibrilator with mason jars, rather than having some clever spigot dispense the "liquid gold" as easily as maple syrup.
With all due respect to Zac, who's definitely on the right track with this alternative fuel thing, the process of getting to the finished fuel is downright calamitous.
1. Obtain vegetable oil. In this case, Santa Barbara City College cooking oil from the culinary department.
2. Procure enough space to cook your fuel. This requires:
A. A fifty gallon drum for the oil, which must be boiled at 120 degrees to purify the leftover coagulants.
B. A fire pit big enough to rig a fifty gallon drum over, preferably with enough wood to cook the oil for several hours.
C. A fuel-fibrilator. Which, ironically, will need a generator or an electrical outlet to run. (This might cut into your "alternative, off-the-grid" status.)
3. Get some methanol. In Zac's case, a fifty gallon drum's worth, and hope to store it somewhere relatively close to your operation.
4. A batch of lye.
5. A big, hearty dose of unbridled enthusiasm.

Good luck.