anyone make biodiesel?

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if anyone else does. I have for the last 2 years, and who knows how much I have saved in fuel. Run it in the truck, the kubota, and my diesel fired burner for the pressure washer. I figured with all the tractors and trucks someone else must be

 

[novaman]

I don't have a source of oil or I would be doing it by now. Heard of guys filtering used motor oil but I haven't gotten the nerve to try it and take an engine out because there was still some crap in the oil that didn't get taken out with the filtering. What do you use for you oil source?

 

[Anonymous]

I have a few customers and friends that have restaraunts
I would not use waste motor oil if it were me fwiw

 

[jedstivers]

I have wanted to for several years but it doesn't look cost efective unless Diesle is over $3 a gallon. We burn around 25000 gallons a year an there is not a source of cooking oil around here to use that. The best thing I see now is pressing an burning veg. oil through the older motors but it is still a lot of expense in buying the press an all the related handling equipment.

 

[Anonymous]

I have my cost to make it down to .79/gallon
The presses are expensive but there are a few people with large tracs of land that grow soybean or similar and press their own oil make the bio then use it to fuel their large tractors ets. I don't have enough land to do that but wish I did. With virgin oil I could make it for about .60/ gallon

 

[jedstivers]

I have my cost to make it down to .79/gallon
The presses are expensive but there are a few people with large tracs of land that grow soybean or similar and press their own oil make the bio then use it to fuel their large tractors ets. I don't have enough land to do that but wish I did. With virgin oil I could make it for about .60/ gallon

I grow about 800 acrs. of soybeans a year an can also grow conolia in the winter. I haven't reasearched it real close but it always looks to expensive after I deduct the price of the beans if I sold them. However I am open to ideas on how to do it cheeper. I can also buy oil from about 50 miles away but when I have priced it it was to close to what we were paying for Diesle.

 

[Anonymous]

Here's how my fuel breaks down. With used oil the yield of fuel is lower than virgin oil. I put 65 gallons of oil in. Add 30$ of methanol and 5$ of lye. 5 $ of electric for heat and running the mixing pump. I get 47 to 58 gallons of fuel from thaty for a yield of 75 to 95 percent. I also recover the excess methanol. The methanol is the single largest cost of making bio, so that reduces my cost further. The ROI for owning enough land and initial cost of owning the presses would be in terms of years maybe but once you cross that threshold it would be gravy. There is a guy who goes by the name fuelfarmer on some of the biodiesel forums who could speak more on how long it takes to break even but from what I gather he is way ahead financially by growing his own oilseeds. If I remember he only has a portion of his large tract devoted to oilseeds stricly for fueling his main farm. May be worth looking into for some of you

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Talked to a guy once that was growing sunflowers to make fuel. Pressed the seeds and fed the sunflower meal to his cattle. Claimed to get better fuel mileage from his fuel than diesel. He posted on here a few times.

 

[Anonymous]

I know I get a hair wosre mileage and a bot less power. Buth savings are well worth it

 

[hayray]

I had a buddy that was making it, it took 3 days and a lot of work to make a batch of 40 gallons. He finally figured out that diesel is well worth the money you pay for it. Plus, we would need a heated fuel tank to use about half the year. The one big problem is that you by the fuel in order to produce work from the stored energy potential, but in this case you have to do alot of work to produce a fuel that will do work for you, I guess it depends on how busy you are. Myself, I would blow through 40 gallons of fuel in half a day during hay season.

 

[Anonymous]

It doesn't require that much time unless you baby sit the process. I got over the baby sitting real quick and now I spend about 1 hour total to make 60 gallons. Not counting time to get the oil itself. With the economy the way it is I have more time than I care to admit most days.

 

[hayray]

If you have the time, he had to go around trying to find used cooking oil from different locations loading 50 gallon drums of it, which was not easy. I remember the numbers but I thought he was up to around $1.75 per gallon or higher and that did not include any labor.

 

[pdfangus]

I have not done it but have been to a couple of field day demos on it.

It is one of those things the I think the moon has to be in the right phase for your situation.

I was interested in feeding the byproduct from the oil extraction as much as the use of the biodiesel.

however, I don't raise the oilseed crops and don't want to get into the waste oil hauling business and most of it is already locked up around here. and am not big enough to do it on an economical scale.

If I were to do it I would buy local grains and press my own oil and feed the mash.