supr

A friend of mine discussed buying a diesel generator and making his own fuel from canola or vegtable oil. He indicated there are formulas on the web.
My question is, how safe are these formulas? Cummins specs no more than 5%. No 2 diesel has a spec formula for a reason. Pure bio or some home blend, seems like asking for trouble.
Comments???

Lil Dog

I've run up to 80% Canola Bio with no ill effects. If you can make your own fuel for the generator, why not? If you brew it properly, wash and dry it well, its as good or better than the stuff at the pumps..

John Faughn

there is a alt./bio-diesel , section in the forms , lots of info , the only problem is finding it with out knowing how , it a subheading of [ other ]
There is a split in whats called bio , some are just filtering , and others are doing whats called a transesterfication process [ using lye & methonal alcohol ] to remove the gliserin , and thats where the split is , I on the side that it should be precessed out .
Heres some links .

http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
Welcome - Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial Website

http://www.missouri.edu/~pavt0689/leon.html
Leon Schumacher's Home Page

biododge1

i make and run 100% in my truck. as stated above in quote, i agree.

supr

So, if you make it, what is your formula & procedures?
Where do you buy materials?
What is your cost/gallon?

kawi600

Bio is pretty safe, but youll want to make sure its dry and properly reacted. There is a test you can do to make sure bio is completely reacted, and thats to re-react a liter or so of it and look for any bio being made. It should all turn to glycerin soaps and assorted yucky stuff.
If youre really worried, run the stuff on a motor warmed up with #2 only and do
oil analysis. Would help to get a baseline from an analysis before bio was used.

srt20

Ever thought about selling any??

biododge1

yes i did have an idea to mass produce. my biggest challenge was\is to secure enough oil.
supr. to answer your? i get my methanol from a racing shop by me, and the lye at the local hardware store. my avg price per gal is about 0.65cnt a gal to make. the procedures i can copy\ post. as for the formula, that changes with each batch, however, some amounts are always the same, min. 12% to 20%max alcohol per batch, and 530g of lye for 40gal, 265g for 20gal. this amount of lye is required no matter how new the oil is. the extra you add is to neutralize the free fatty acids.

infidel

What are you doing in the winter to prevent gelling?

usmarinetx

there is a guy in california selling equipment to make bio...is the equipment necessary? his link is http://homebiodiesel.com
i would like to get into it but dont have the space required.

John Faughn

Equipment is necessary , but if your handy at getting stuff , & building stuff , then with some research , you should be able to build it your self , $150 - 300 ,
There are many out there making & selling , $3,000-7,500 , for home production , then theres the big stuff .
Lot of talk about the plastic containers having issues .
Heres a link , to start .

http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
Welcome - Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial Website


http://www3.me.iastate.edu/biodiesel/
Biodiesel Home Page

AlpineRAM

If you want to run a genset for continuous power and heat it's perfectly possible to run it with straight canola or rapeseed oil. The problems with straight vegetable oil are mainly the inability to start a cold engine on it and the need to keep the tank and lines heated which is a massive problem in a vehicle but easily solved for a stationary installation. One of the main problems I see in the SVO gensets is that the oil change interval needs to be shortened massively because of the chemical breakdown that happens much quicker when using SVO,

HTH

AlpineRAM

kawi600

How much faster does the oil go bad on SVO versus #2? Can you see this with oil analysis? I havent run mine on vegoil yet since winter has set in, but Im debating doing this at all since oil contamination was a big concern.
I dont mind it taking out an injection pump, but the motor itself is another matter.

2500

is your costs .65cent per gal to make bio?
don't understand below... where do you get oil for .50cents gal?

cooking oil is aprox. $12 for 5gal at sam's or same as diesel.

edit: just talked to one of the bio diesel equip mfg. they informed me you have to collect waste oil to do this.

John Faughn

Hes using used deep fryer oil from his favorite restrant , I would guess .