Bio-Diesel Manufacturing....

[Tough Guy]

Go here: Bio-Diesel

I saw this on TV show TRUCKS! today.

The host said the cost per gallon was somewhere around $.70 per gallon....

The machine to "brew" it is $3000 but would pay for itself rather quickly with Diesel at $2.20 per gallon here..

Cheers

[dslpwr]

I seen that also. It looks like it would not be to hard to build one.

I wonder if you can mix diesel fuel with biodiesel.

[javadog]

You can mix biodiesel with petroleum diesel in any
proportion. I do it every day in my tractor and Kubota RTV.

[garre1tt]

That was a great show. I just finished a research paper on the production of biodiesel for an Ag class. Biodiesel has no problems mixing with petro diesel. This is a good site for more information on biodiesel. http://www.biodiesel.org/
Before I would spend several thousand on the processor make sure you will have a good supply of waste oil. There are parts of the country where you have to compete with other home brewers. I have heard of some co-ops in California that pay up to two dollars a gallon just to get the waste oil to run an environmentally friendly fuel.
Michael D.

[arveetek]

My dad watched that show, and an hour later, had already tracked down a source of used cooking oil and a methanol supplier in a nearby town!

He's going to call tomorrow to find out how much the methanol is going to cost, but he's already been given permission to take the used oil from one of the local restaurants...about 20 gallons every week to week and a half.

He's not going to buy the machine, but do it by hand first to see how well it works.

He's pretty excited about it....he's hoping to use it in his '95 Power Stroke (especially since he gets half the fuel mileage of my Chevy! )

Casey

[ZZ]

I saw the show too. I was afraid the cost of the kit would be cost prohibitive for me, and sure enough at $3000 it is.

It seems like it would be too much to try to do it by hand. There is 2 hours of cycling time with the electric pump.

[Turbo Al]

I saw the show as well, My drive to work is about 25 mins and I use about $100 a month in fuel (except Sept to Dec when I go hunting) so it would take about 3 years to break even. Still it is worth considering -- I don't think the price of Diesel will be going down only up.
Does anyone know how stable bio diesel is -- in respect to long term storage?
Al

[Ratau]

Go to lots off info
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html#ME

[Craig M]

The show on making bio-diesel was interesting. The machine a bit expensive. Straight vegetable oil also runs fine in our diesels. Only requires a second fuel tank and filtering. Start the vehicle on diesel, then switch to vegetable oil once warmed up. Switch back to diesel before shutting off the vehicle for any extended time. All that is required of the schrounged vegetable oil is to filter any stuff. Web sites give suggestions on filtering. A good Racor (or equivalent) filter is used from the vegitable oil supply in the vehicle also.

[markrinker]

Don't plan on getting any 'warranty sympathy' when the GM mechanic pulls an injector pump, only to find it clogged with 'french fry' residue!!!

http://www.greasel.com/Oil.html

I'd like to experiment with one of my old 6.5's -burning dino-diesel and switching to filtered SVO sounds the most interesting to me. (The idea of handling lye, methanol, storing/disposing of by-products in my garage isn't too appealling at any cost...)

[StrangeLuv]

Here's the kit for the seperate fuel tank. Not too expensive. There weren't any complaints on their forum.

www.greasecar.com

Cheers

[RT]

Biodiesel is fairly easy to make but the by product, Glycerine can be difficult to get rid of. The other issue is storing/handling methanol and lye and the resultant fumes from production. If I lived in a warm place where year-round outside production was feasible I would do it. Thats not the case though. I use 45-55 gallons of fuel a week between my truck and cars so thats a lot of biodiesel brewing, storage, space, etc. For me a WVO two-tank system is the way to go. Just collect and filter the WVO and use it. Simple compared to biodiesel. I have burned 10%-15% WVO blended with diesel straight in the tank in the summer and it worked great. The key is filter, filter, filter! that WVO. Biodiesel blends very well with petro diesel, no issues. WVO blends pretty well but really should be heated to combust correctly. Check out this site for a really nice WVO conversion system. www.frybrid.com I can get 90 gallons of WVO a week if I need it I just haven't had the time to work on the two-tank conversion. Too many other projects so I am still paying the Arabs for my fuel. What a shame. RT

[sk8rdi16]

Hey guys! Glad to see the petro alternatives are getting some recognition on the board! The 6.5s really like SVO!! I have been running it since Jan. about 6,000+ miles. I have the greasecar kit and I got them to build me a custom tank to mount underneath my Suburban. I really like the feeling of using a renewable fuel, and not polluting....Then again I'm a bit of an environmentalist college kid! Check out the conversion at
Install Pics

Or Just go check out my entire site.
My WebSite

My family and I just went to Austin, TX (~600 miles) on straight Veg. I pulled a small trailer with a 275 gal. chemical tote with filtered veg. It was a great time. Check the Adventures section for pics!
If you are thinking of doing the Veg, let me know I would love to talk to people about it, and help out in anyway I can!
Enjoy!
Pat

[Basshopper]

I just installed a grease car system. www.greasecar.com and have been running for 5 weeks and 3000 miles. I had a custom 120 gal tank that mounts behind the 2nd seat back of my burb, I get the WVO from a couple of restarants weekly. I know have a range of 3000 miles between WVO and Diesel tank. Its been a fun project and my payback is 10K miles, Total investment for vehicle and filtration was $1800. I have over 1200 miles on half a tank of diesel(20 gal) since last diesel fill up. Know I pass everyting including the gas station.

[sk8rdi16]

Basshopper, could you send me some pics of that tank!? That sounds like a great thing... all of that veggy!!
heidingsfelderp at bellsouth.net

Thanks!

[arveetek]

My dad made his first batch of bio-diesel in the garage this week! He made about 10 gallons in a trial-run, for a cost of about 55 cents a gallon. He didn't buy any special tools or tanks, just used a couple of 5 gallon buckets and a mixer chucked into a drill. He bought some lye and methanol, and purchased a little scale to measure in grams. He didn't spend much money at all.

He's running it in his '95 Power Stroke, and it's running great and smells like a bar-b-que pit! Now we're looking into buying larger mixing tanks. You can buy the cone-shaped tanks like in that expensive kit for around $500. The rest of the stuff, like valves and pumps, can be had pretty cheap. I'm sure we're going to start producing enough bio-diesel to run the three diesels we have between us.

Casey

[ees]

Basshopper so you are running 160 gallons of fuel when full? Wow that is some range!

Has anyone ever looked at putting saddle tanks on their Suburban for this sort of thing? The filler neck would be tricky, but there is tons of room under there.

[Cowracer]

If you want to brew Bio at home,

appleseed reactor

Tons of good stuff here

tim

[Kennedy]

I bought 240 gallons of factory "brewed" biodiesel from some guys in the TC area. Brought it back in a 275 gallon tote. Probably should have filled it full, but I needed it to be under 2,000# or so for forklift weight and had limited availability of pump off containers. I've been running 20% and more in my tractors, and recently started running it in my 2005.

I'm currently looking at a transfer tank for the trip to MT.

From ethere, I'd like to blend in large batches as dumping in a couple of gallons here and there sux plus I'd like to filter it on the way to the tank.

[Moses]

i ve been running B99 for a while now with bad no side effects EXCEPT that that fuel EATS standard rubber fuel line.
I replaced much of my line already, but used the wrong stuff. i've heard that the best hose to use is something called Vitron.
So now i am at the point of ordering the expensive Vitron to replace every inch of old rubber in the entire fuel system.
i can figure out the return line but i can't measure most of the uptake until i remove it.

Does any one know how many inches of line i will need? i have a two tank rig.

Are there rubber o-rings in the fuel pump or in the injector pump?

A local diesel mech tells me that bio is hell on fuel pumps, but that's the first i've heard that. Any one have a take on that?

thanks in advance,
moses