Has anyone here tried making their own Biodiesel?

[GumboYaYa]

It is time for me to get a new car. The old one is literally falling apart. I never drive much and have considered a hybrid, Realisticallly I could use a truck b/c I do a lot of work in the garden.

So, I'm considering going with a diesel truck and making my own biodiesel. I've talked to a few restaurant owners I know and they have said that they would gladly give me their old vegetable oil. It seems like the investment in the pump and the system to clean the oil is not that big.

For anyone who has tried, how much work is it to prepare the oil for use as fuel? I use about a tank of gas every two months. Would it require a tremendous effort to prepare that much fuel for myself?

Also how does biodiesel perform? It gets cold here in the winter. Would I need to plan on using regular fuel or a mix in cold weather?

[ursacorwin]

1. PM me

a friend is doing his own supply and everything is going fine. it's not as easy as you may have heard if you don't own your own lab though.

[GumboYaYa]

5. Thanks.

[mr_hat]

2. I burp biodiesel sometimes. Not often enough to commute, tho'.

[rumguy]

3. check out the website

www.biodieselsolutions.com

[GumboYaYa]

6. Cool website. I wonder if there is a cheaper

solution than buying one of those systems?

[BlueEyedSon]

4. I have lots of links here:

http://www.doomsdayreport.com/links.html

Depending on where you live, you might be able to find someone making biodiesel or join a co-op which shares equipment and space.

http://www.tacomabiodiesel.org/info.html

Plus if you live in a relatively warm area, you can run on straight vegetable oil (SVO).

http://www.greasecar.com/

Use Google, more & more resources are showing up on the web.

[GumboYaYa]

7. Thanks for the websites.

There are lots of resources on this topic, but I'm really interested to hear someone's actual experience with making it on their own.

[EST]

8. I hear

the oil from hemp seed makes the very best diesel fuel.

[kayell]

9. Yes, but peanut oil make your vehicle smell like a PB sandwich

[GumboYaYa]

11. Hmmm, I just may know where to find some of those.

I wonder how many it takes to make a gallon of gas?

[ProfessorGAC]

10. It's Not Super Hard

The biggest problem is making sure the glycerin is removed, since burning that (incompletely) can result in acrolein, which is a poisonous aldehyde.

The company i'm working for makes about 60 million pounds of it per year, all from soya.

Almost all the customers of this product use it as a mix with diesel, not alone. (Busses, trucks, generators, and the like.) I'm not sure of the ratio of ester to oil.

The process is pretty simple, but doing it at home doesn't sound too practical to me. Mix methanol with the oil (about 1 part methanol to 6 parts oil.) Add a simple alkali catalyst (like crystal Drano) and heat to about 200 degrees F. The oil will convert to a methyl ester and the glycerin will fall out of solution. You drain off the glycerin layer, and then pull a vacuum on the kettle to get the methanol off. Once that's done, you wash with water twice. (About 10% water by weight, mix it, let it settle and drain the water from the bottom.)

Now, comes the tricky part. To get the quality that's certified for use in biodiesel, the ester itself is boiled off under vacuum (no column, just a condensor, like a still) and condensed using a water cooled heat exchanger. The resultant product will be over 99.5% methyl ester from C12 to C18, with both saturates and unsaturates.

Then that's mixed with regular diesel fuel. It's freeze point is actually a little lower than diesel, so it works in cold weather. Almost all of it sold here is used in Illinois, so we know cold weather!

Like i said, it's a simple process, in a few steps, but i would think it a pain to do it yourself. I'd also be worried about the environmental permitting regulations in your area. Fugitive emissions of methanol are tightly regulated.
The Professor

[cprise]

12. Journey To Forever site is pretty impressive

Lots of practical info about biofuels:

http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html