| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/27/2008 5:17:58 PM | I overheard some guys discussing how they'd stumbled onto a way of making bio diesel at home. When asked, they explained that they were able to make a batch of bio diesel, about 40 gallons, in about 45 minutes. All of the equipment needed could be bought locally, for less than $200.
They explained that the method they used involved mixing a given amount of kerosene, a given amount of gasoline, and a given amount of some secret diesel additive, to the used cooking oil to make bio diesel. I was told that they can make a gallon of this bio diesel for about 80 cents a gallon.
The web site they gave me is: Dieselsecretenergy.com
The guys I spoke with said they've been running two diesel pick up trucks, a Ford, and a Dodge, and a diesel Mercedes Benz, off of what they make at home, for nearly six months, with no troubles at all. No modifications had to be made to any of the three vehicles mentioned.
Everything on the web site sounds legitimate. However, being the skeptic that I am, I'm curious what those who are much more familiar with these things than I am, have to say about making your own bio diesel at home, and this alternative process for doing so.
I will be driving a new Chevrolet 2500 HD, with a Duramax diesel engine, in the not too distant future. My other half has told me that this is the only new truck I am ever going to have. With the price of diesel over $4 a gallon, 80 cents a gallon sure sounds good.
But, if it sounds too good to be true . . . Which is why I seek the thoughts of those more knowledgeable on this subject. | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/27/2008 5:52:14 PM | It sounds great and it is, but the one thing you have to be conscious of is you have to get the right official paperwork. If the government finds out that you are making biodiesel and using it on their roads, they will charge you with evading gas taxes. Look a the pump, I know they used to put how many cents of tax are a part of the per gallon price. Last I remember is .32 cents. If they catch you doing it without the proper permits you have to pay the fine and then pay the back taxes. It may still be cheaper but there is a lot of set up to do it ... legally.
However, a lot of hillbilles are no longer making moonshine. They are now brewing biodiesel and trying to evade the Revenue man. | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/27/2008 10:00:22 PM | I have a friend who does this, and fuels two vehicles plus heats his house with the product. I'm pretty sure he paid a bit more for the initial equipment, but after doing it for a couple of years he cited a price per gallon similar to what you said.
He didn't have to do anything to the vehicles, since they're newer models, but if you try to run anything older than ten years or so you may need to replace some fuel fittings. And if you switch a vehicle over that has previously run on pure diesel expect to go through a lot of fuel filters until all the diesel crud gets flushed out by the much cleaner bio-diesel. My friend did have to do some modifications to his fuel oil furnace, but I don't know what they were.
His way of dealing with the road tax is to file all the paperwork but only confess to a fraction of the production that he actually does. In the winter he has to mix regular diesel with the biodiesel so it won't gel in the fuel lines, so he just fudges the ratios on the paperwork.
Not that I'm condoning tax evasion, but that's his strategy. He's got arrangements with local restaurants to pick up their used fryer oil, and even has preferences for certain eateries over others, but I can't remember the particulars. You do get to decide whether your exhaust will smell like french fries or chinese or fish, depending on your source.
Dave | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/27/2008 11:10:33 PM | ...i've come across ppple who are using 'used' vegatable oils outta fast food restaurants but who have had to make some modifications in the diesel engines.........they've also had to put a heating coil around the tank and fuel line to prevent freezing in the colder months.
....unless you are mechanicaaly inclined, i think it will cost more than $200. | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/28/2008 3:18:24 AM | I've looked into bio-diesel before, but don't have the cash or friends to pool money together to purchase a real bio-diesel unit. Those idiots you talked to with the mixture of kerosene, gasoline, and "mystery juice" are gonna catch themselves on fire one day and die... or blow their house up and kill their family. Also... be careful with crap like that, you could violate the warrenty on your new vehicle and the maker won't be responsible for ANY repairs to the engine, exhaust, or fuel system. 40 gallons in 45 minutes??? Those guys are full of it. It takes a few hours to make quality diesel fuel in large amounts. There's a lot of chemistry involved too. You've got to make a test-batch every time you get new oil, then you've got to use ratios to figure out how much of each necessary chemical the big batch will need. Say you make a 2 quart test batch, and you're going to make a 50 gallon run. Gotta figure out how much more you need for 50 gallons... and it takes time to make 50 gallons correctly. You screw it up and your fuel's quality will suck.
My best advice? Purchase a real unit and train yourself with it... It costs a few thousand dollars, but when you are good you can sell your excess diesel to friends or build up a customer-base of local companies that would rather purchase their fuel from you instead of the Mid-East; and it's safe fuel unlike whatever those guys you talked to are making. Get used cooking-oil from local rastaurants and turn it into your fuel. Restaurants get a tax write off for recycling their used cooking oil in this way... just make sure you've got all the required permits to make diesel and sell it to your friends. Encourage your customers to eat at those restaurants, eat at those restaurants yourself. This will build a nice economic cycle where your customers are saving money on fuel, the restaurants are enjoying a bit more business, you are getting plenty of free oil to turn into fuel, and you are making money too. Charge a membership fee in order for your friends (or whoever else) to purchase from you, and have them place orders so you can make fuel on your time... not theirs.
As a less expensive alternative, for just a few hundred dollars you can purchase all the equipment you need and a permit from the ATF to produce moonshine to fuel your car with. Just make sure you car can run off of 'shine, and if you can't don't bother.
Those guys you were talking to are fools though, don't follow in their footsteps.
--Brandon | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/28/2008 7:17:25 AM | There used to be a show on Spike TV called Truck (or something like that). I think the host was Stacy David (surname was David anyway). On that show, they once made bio-diesel. The process they used is nothing like what you have outlined. There is a chemical reaction which takes place, which results in the production of glycerine (which is soluble in water). I believe the reagent is either caustic soda, or has caustic soda as an ingredient. I believe the process involved is called esterification, but this was quite a while ago. Once the reaction is complete, you can use the biodiesel as is, or you can wash it with water to extract the glycerine (and residual caustic soda?), and use the cleaned bio-diesel.
Your process sounds like adding 2 cheap solvents to oil to adjust its viscosity, and that is it. The product isn't diesel, or probably even a good approximation to diesel. It doesn't sound like something I would want to run in a diesel, but I have not done any research into it.
Anyway there was some commercial product that a person could buy for making bio-diesel from that Spike TV show. | |
|
| Making Bio Diesel At Home
Posted: 8/28/2008 7:25:20 AM | Okay the process you are talking about is used, but it doesn't make biodiesel. It is strictly what I thought, the solvent(s) is there to modify the viscosity.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vegetable_oil_used_as_fuel
Biodiesel is a vegetable oil that has undergone transesterification. As noted in the wikipedia article, if you want to store this for a long time, you probably want to add a little bit (1%) of real diesel, to keep mold from growing in it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel | |
|
|
Home
login 
