Biodiesel looking better!

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BTRANCH

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I did a quick search and did not find where this had been discussed in several months. Looked into making biodiesel last year but my husband talked me out of it. I told him when diesel hits $4.00 he was going to have to park his beloved F350 because I cannot afford $150 to fill that bad boy up. Well, we paid $4.12 on Sunday and it does not look like there will be any relief soon.

Anybody making biodiesel on a regular basis? I am about to get started for real. :banana:
 
No yet but there are a couple of places here in Houston that not only sell the "still" but also have classes on how to do it. If you would like I can send you the link or look it up yourself at Houston Biodiesel. In the grand scheme of things it don't cost all that much to get set up. Then all you have to do is find a source of used veggie oil and a ready supply of fuel filters for your equipment.
 
the sad thing is the oil boys are getting rich off of something they use to throw away.no wonder we cant live with them getting rich off of something that was throw away fuel.at those prices itll cost $400 to fill my 100 gal diesel tank up.
 
There is a company in wisconsin , Walder mfg . that makes a machine to extract oil from soybeans , they say it takes about a bushel of beans to get 1 gallon of oil , you also get meal , I don't know what the value of the meal is but at 13.00 beans it has to be over 9.00/50 lbs or the oil will cost more than diesel fuel does now.
 
As soon as biodeisel isn;t a niche market the restaurants will start selling their funky used cooking oil.
 
dun":ypz6btky said:
As soon as biodeisel isn;t a niche market the restaurants will start selling their funky used cooking oil.

A neighbor has been collecting used fry oil and putting it through an old Mercedes diesel. Doesn't seem to be working real well. I saw the car on the side of the road the other day. His half acre lot smells like french fries. And he's burning off a lot of scrap. That probably isn't real friendly to the environment.
 
OK, I ordered a book from Borders today. Found this website, http://www.biodieselnow.com which offers videos on how to, will be ordering those tomorrow. Also, can download plans to make a still from an electric hot water heater, which looks reasonable. The complete "kit stills" start at $3,000+. If I had that kind of money, I would not be making biodiesel.

They only thing I need to research more is the tax aspects. The first 400 gallons are tax free, but after that you are responsible for the fuel tax. I will contact the State Comptroller to see what I need to do.

If anyone has any positive suggestions, please PM me.
 
I drive on used cooking oil. I never make bio D. Try used cooking oil and U will never make bio d.
the are great forums like greasecar.com where you can get good information for free.
My cost is $200 per vehicle or tractor to add 2 electric fuel supply pumps and coolant into one of the fuel tanks.
I have 4 years the end of may with no problems.
 
rdbigfarmboy":3998vn2l said:
I drive on used cooking oil. I never make bio D. Try used cooking oil and U will never make bio d.
the are great forums like greasecar.com where you can get good information for free.
My cost is $200 per vehicle or tractor to add 2 electric fuel supply pumps and coolant into one of the fuel tanks.
I have 4 years the end of may with no problems.

What are you running it in?
 
I also wouldn't plan on running any biodiesel in the winter time. Seems the microbes in it produce water. The University of Kentucky uses it in tractors, etc. They had to pump out every tractor and fuel tank because of freeze up problems the first winter.
 
94 F350 with 3000 miles on oil, 89 F350 with 4 years on oil, Jeep cherokee with 6 cylinder volvo (vw transplant), Foton 704 oil since new, Foton 404 oil since new,
Just sold a C2500 with 60,000 miles on oil


Again biodiesel and Staight vegetable oil are very different.
 
dun":3sjs3l8v said:
As soon as biodeisel isn;t a niche market the restaurants will start selling their funky used cooking oil.

That's already happening here. We have a few people who started doing this with used cooking oil. Now they are bidding against one another for the waste oil.

So if you do it, keep quite about it otherwise your friends and neighbors will be competing for the same oil.
 
Jogeephus":3u1k456z said:
dun":3u1k456z said:
As soon as biodeisel isn;t a niche market the restaurants will start selling their funky used cooking oil.

That's already happening here. We have a few people who started doing this with used cooking oil. Now they are bidding against one another for the waste oil.

So if you do it, keep quite about it otherwise your friends and neighbors will be competing for the same oil.
=======
Is my understanding correct that you can only use the peanut cooking oil?..to make bio diesel.
Not vegetable oil or animal fat.
 
preston39":15kw9x8n said:
Jogeephus":15kw9x8n said:
dun":15kw9x8n said:
As soon as biodeisel isn;t a niche market the restaurants will start selling their funky used cooking oil.

That's already happening here. We have a few people who started doing this with used cooking oil. Now they are bidding against one another for the waste oil.

So if you do it, keep quite about it otherwise your friends and neighbors will be competing for the same oil.
=======
Is my understanding correct that you can only use the peanut cooking oil?..to make bio diesel.
Not vegetable oil or animal fat.
Your understanding is incorrect. I'm sure it depends what part of the country you live in but here bio diesel is blended using only animal fat and vegetable oil. We have no peanut oil refineries.
 
The way I understand it is if you run straight vegtable oil, you need a separate tank for the oil. You start the engine with the diesel and then switch tanks. You have to run a line from the radiator through the tank to keep it warm in the colder months. When you get ready to stop, you have to switch tanks back to the diesel to clear out the fuel lines. If you run biodiesel you don't need a separate tank.

That might be a simplified explaination, but I am simple minded.
 
Correct
I can only add this.
If your buying buy Biodiesel.
If your collecting used cooking oil and cleaning it yourself forget making biodiesel.
You must clean the oil for either process. Theres a reason so many processors are on the market.
Some Farmers coops in West TN sell SVO mixed with kerosene for a little over diesel prices.
 
Angus/Brangus":8ujuim3g said:
Earl Thigpen":8ujuim3g said:
No yet but there are a couple of places here in Houston that not only sell the "still" but also have classes on how to do it. If you would like I can send you the link or look it up yourself at Houston Biodiesel. In the grand scheme of things it don't cost all that much to get set up. Then all you have to do is find a source of used veggie oil and a ready supply of fuel filters for your equipment.


Earl, would you mind posting that link here on the thread? I'm in Houston also and would like to check out the "still". Sounds like a great idea.

Thanks in advance!

Sorry A/B for not getting back sooner. Here's the link to the biodiesel folks in Houston.

www.houstonbiodiesel.com
 
The most important consideration is WHAT R U PUTTIN IT IN? What engine or brand are you going to try to run on biodiesel or vegetable oil? Older trucks like older plain tractors with no electronics other than a kill switch are generally fine with one consideration. NOTE some injector pumps like cav or lucas rotary style pumps use the diesel as a lubricant for part of the pump. Trucks and some bigger tractors have seperate oil supplies from the oil sump or an individual sump. The importance is BIODIESEL or SVO being as much as 20 time thicker than diesel at 70 degrees F may not properly lubricate the injector pump. Remember the free used vegetable oil is typically a blend of what ever is cheapest. Most of what I get is imported. Soy oil is great, but because the oil price has more than doubled in the past 4 months, most is now a mixture of what ever is cheapest. Again some oils are thicker than others. Biodiesel is not thin diesel it is still fairly thick.

Check some boards where users are talking.
 
shorty":3s8otlbh said:
There is a company in wisconsin , Walder mfg . that makes a machine to extract oil from soybeans , they say it takes about a bushel of beans to get 1 gallon of oil , you also get meal , I don't know what the value of the meal is but at 13.00 beans it has to be over 9.00/50 lbs or the oil will cost more than diesel fuel does now.

There is a plant in Emporia KS that commercially makes Bio Desel from Beans. Back in the 80's we used to take a truck load of soybeans down, and haul a load of bean meal back. We used the bean meal to mix in with other grains to grind up hog feed. Bean meal is even better than distellers grain as far as feed value goes.

I still haul most my soybeans there, even though it's a little farther to travel, because they pay a few cents more a bushel than the elevators around here do. (since they are the end user)
 

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