Thanks everyone. Unfortunately it dodn't work out very well. The building owner was my business partner and all the equipment is mine (paid for by me). For reasons I don't care to discuss, I thought it was in my best interest to part ways.
I still have most of the smaller equipment like the stainless mixing tanks but the large filtration system and big tanks all ended up being hauled away as scrap metal. I couldn't even sell them.
To be blunt, my life is in a certain amount of chaos right now. I have thousands of dollars worth of equipment crammed into a small garage I'm renting. The garage has little electricity, little access to running water and no heat. I've moved the bar-soap drying racks, molds and cutter into the basement of my apartment along with my stock of essential oils and other bar-soap making supplies. I have the equipment and knowledge to make huge quantities of soap, biodiesel or both but no place to do it. At this point I'm also a little skeptical that I have the business or organizational skills to do it alone.
I don't really know what else to do so I'm back in community college working on getting accepted into a university chemical engineering program. Hopefully by the time I graduate I can figure out what I'm going to do with my life (for the second time)... in the mean time I'm looking for a job, trying to make some soap with the space I have and doing my best to get good grades.
Meanwhile I'm still doing what I consider to be very sophisticated experiments. I've gotten very good at separating oil into glycerin and fatty acids, purifying raw biodiesel glycerin... and of course making both bar and liquid soaps for a variety of applications. I'm even in the process of experimenting with a centrifuge to quickly sequester liquid soaps, purify raw glycerin and separate different fatty acids. I've even succeeded in producing nickel metal catalyst for hydrogenating oils. All these experiments have been on my own, by myself but I'm hopeful that if I can continue my work that either a university or industry will find me and want to encourage my work.
Also very importantly is my girlfriend (who I live with) who is beginning to grow impatient with my lack of income, long hours in the garage and occassonal depression. It's been a very tough past year, I'm not sure where I'm going but I'm still hopeful it's a good direction.
If you have any advice (or encouragement), I could use it.
Thank you.