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OT : Does homemade biodiesel fuel actually work?

J. Elliott

Hot Rolled
Joined
May 18, 2002
Location
Boonville, NC 27011
Fellas,

I drive about 500-600 miles a week, sometimes more. I'm dying over fuel costs. My tightwad employer has increased my fuel compensation by a lousy nickel since gas went up two years ago.

Last night, while cruising the web, I stumbled across some really intriguing stuff. Seems you can take used vegetable oil, like the kind restaurants throw out, and turn it into a suitable fuel for diesel engines?

Supposedly, you can get a usable product for about 50 cents a gallon. Anything under $1.50 a gallon would save me some big money.

So - is this BS or does it work? Anybody know anything?
 
I don't know anything about the cost but yes it works. The Discovery channel has had shows dedicated to the subject.

You should be able to find considerable information on the web about it now.

Bernard
 
NC Dept of Revenue ain't letting anybody off that easy. The NC DOR gas tax nazis told me you had to put up a $2000 bond to make your own, so I didn't ask about the outrageous fuel tax per gallon that you'd likely still have to pay.
 
Yes, it does work and it works well.

Check out:
www.biodieselwarehouse.com

My friend sells the equipment to do it yourself. His cost if 70 cents per gallon (and you DON'T have to tell your boss!).

Do the math: $699 for the system, save $2.30 per gallon. Figure out how fast you'll pay for it.

He runs his Jetta TDi on it, and his car does not smell like french fries.

Thought it would be good for running live steam engines instead of diesel or kerosene.

Disclaimer:
Owner is close friend of mine.
I receive no compensation and have no business arrangements with them, with the exception that I provided some design advice for a future product for which IO received no compensation.

Steve
 
Does it work? Of course it does. Pretty simple chemistry in reality. I believe the yeild for 100 gallons of used cooking oil(after filtration) is 80 gallons of diesel, 20 gallons of glycerin.
The trick is you need to get the used oil for free. Then you can make it for under a buck a gallon.
You can run straight vegitabble oil but engine modifications are needed and from what I understand. Biodiesel requires no mods what so ever and people report better performance with it.
Lots to read on the web about it.
 
There are several schools of thought on Veggie Bio-Diesel. Some people are just adding filtered Fry oil to the tank, mixing it with fuel. Most are treating it with lye, to get the glycerine out.. I would be hesitant to try it, considering how expensive injection pump & injectors are. A few hundred saved in fuel might cost several thousand in repairs.....
 
Here is a good forum to start with if you want to make your own. Look for the appleseed processor

http://forums.biodieselnow.com/

You want to not skip steps and pay attention to the quality of the used vegetable oil that you pick up. I have ran B100 ( 100% Biodiesel ) in a 94 Dodge truck for several years without problems. You need to cut down the percentage with colder weather.

You can run into problems with the new high pressure pumps and poor quality fuel. Also, if you have crud in your tank, high percentages of BD will clean it out only to clog your filter. I didn't have a problem, but did keep a new fuel filter handy.

btw, b100 makes a decent cleaner and paint remover
 
Sure you can IF you can get free grease/oil. Taking if from a resturant without permission or from a container provided by a third party is theft. Now, do you want to. You instantly void all warranties because you used fuel which doesn't meet ASTM standards. You are still liable for the road taxes. Making it requires the use of methanol in substantial quantities, one of the more explosive solvents around and not benign from a physical stand point. What are you going to do to dispose of the glycerin and wash water other than pour it down the sewer. Both will contain hazardous quanties of methanol. My advice, pay up your insurance, don't make it with kids or grandkids around, and run it in a 10 year old diesel. You can't sell it or give it away without EPA registration. Figure $3 million for that.
 
Jay:

For the sake of quick figures, 550 miles for 52 weeks is 27,500 miles a year.

Your problem is not only fuel cost, but maint, tires and oil changes. and probably an increase in insurance.

The solution to yur problem isn't bio Diesel fuel, it is a company owned vehicle.

I don't know your situation other than what you mentioned above, but on face value it looks like rape to me.
 
A buddy of mine got set up to do make biodiesel from used fry oil. He waded into it slow and made many small batches so he could figure out how robust the process and recipe is. Once he got it figured out, he ran a couple tank fulls through his 2004 VW Jetta TDi with no ill effect. His problem is finding waste oil, as apparently most restaraunts around him are under contract now with pick-up services that actually pay them for the oil, so he cant get it for free very easy. It is certainly doable though.
As far as road taxes, if some of you guys are honestly going to pass at the ONE chance you have of sticking it to THE MAN, you are crazy. The man has taken his big bite from everything else, so why bother telling him what you are up to so he can smack his 50 cents/gal on there (more for diesel?) for you to have the privelige of serving him. I say make all you can and dont tell anyone. Unless you start producing big batches and selling the excess to friends, I wouldnt put up a dime of road tax. Big Oil and Big Govt have made untold trillions off of this oil scare, they have enough money right now thanks.
 
farmers love it. I was talking to a farmer who made 10,000 gallons of it last year, he says it runs much better than the off road deisel he was getting, smells better too, He thinks the oil co's push the high sulfer oil on the off road users to advoid the regulations. I have often wondered where all the gylcerin goes, although I don't think it is toxic.
 
http://www.greasel.com/index.html


There are two ways that you can run this higher viscosity fuel in your diesel engine, both ways have to do with reducing the viscosity of the veggie oil.
One way to do it would be to make Biodiesel, a chemical process called transesterfication, where you mix methanol and lye with veggie oil to separate out the glycerin. This “thins” out the oil to a viscosity similar to diesel.
The other way to do it, and the one that makes most sense to us, is to thin out the oil with a parallel auxiliary fuel system, using the waste heat the engine is already producing.
Every one has put a pot of oil on the stove to cook something, and what happens when the oil is heated? It gets runny, thin, or in other words the viscosity is lowered.
This is the approach that we use.
The benefits of Straight Veggie oil, SVO, over biodiesel is that once the conversion is done there is no reoccurring cost, besides regular maintenance. Just put in filtered waste veggie oil that is free from restaurants.
With Biodiesel, every gallon you make costs money. Even the most conservative estimates are about $.75 per gallon. There is also the issue of the disposal of the by-product which is about 20 to 25% volume of the batch of biodiesel.
I am not saying that biodiesel is bad, it just doesn’t make sense for most people
 
Some late model diesels are rated for only 10 -20% Bio.
Montana is considering synthetic fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch process.
 
I have this vision of driving miles and miles out of my way in search of some used FF grease. It would be kinda like having a BETA vcr player. Great idea but where can I feed it?
 
They're using a Fish oil mix in the city busses here. They vary the mix during the year as it gets too thick in winter. It's also becoming available for home heating.


I also saw on TV a VW golf diesel that was modified to run on vegetable oil. It uses normal diesel to start, and then the ratio can be adjusted. When the engine was warm it could run on pure vegetable oil. So part of the trunk space is taken up by a second tank to hold the oil. I think he said he only fills up twice a year.
 
In NY state, diesel fuel for vehicles is colored and it is checked by the State Police very regularly. This proves you are not evading the fuel tax by using #1 or # 2 fuel oil that has a different color. Home brew does not have these colors and the violation can be very costly and is a felony in NYS to evade the fuel tax.
 
Let's assume the worst and find that there are no sources of used, free veggie oil in your town.

How much does it cost to buy suitable vegie oil in bulk containers, like a drum? I'm not having much luck finding an answer to this question on the web tonight.

If ya used new, clean oil you'd have less trouble all 'round. Can you get it at $1.25 a gallon? Anybody here ever run a restuarant and remember how much bulk frying oil cost?
 
I saw a show on TV where they were making bio-diesel, and as was stated above after they were finished they had a lot of nasty looking waste oil left over with lye and other stuff in it, but of course they didn't mention what you could do with that toxic mess, if someone is cheap enough to want to make bio-diesel then I'm sure they aren't going to pay the fee to have that stuff properly disposed of and it's going to end up in the ground somewhere.
 
Well, it's always a risk to run off-road diesel in a road truck, but I've done it. I grew up in NY state. My reasoning always was that 1. the hiway patrol probably wouldn't know that my 1979 Scout II was a diesel anyway and 2. you can't see into the tank thru the filler on most passenger trucks like you can on most tractor trailers.
It's true, though, if you get caught I think the fine is 10 grand or something.
Don't know the legality of running straight grease, though- do the same rules apply?
Andy
 








 
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