Considerable quantities of biodiesel can be produced in your home.
Did you know that homemade Biodiesel is more commonplace than you may have thought? People have found that engines run better, quieter cleaner, and the mileage per gallon is remarkably greater than their counterpart gasoline powered vehicles. And the exhaust smells better too. Actually, Rudolf Diesel’s intention was to use a biofuel to power his invention.The incentive to switch to a vegetable oil based fuel definitely attractive. Even better, you’ll have the satisfaction of thumbing your nose at commercial fuel stop prices. Okay, how much does this bio-diesel cost to make? Depending on the sophistication of your procssor, your production costs can be anywhere from 45¢ to $1.50 a gallon. As for road costs, petroleum based diesel is always higher, so biodiesel provides the greater savings. Moreover, compared to the cost of gasoline, diesel is 30 to 40% more efficient than a gasoline. In short, if at all possible: switch and save. You’ll need an oil source – oh yeah, check out the Jatropha Curcas plant. As for waste oil; if you acquire it from local businesses, be sure to initiate and maintain a good relationship with them. Besides restaurants, check hospitals and nursing homes. Don’t forget carnivals and county fairs, or churches, clubs and lodges. Use your imagination. A point of caution here, make sure the oil you get is not animal, but vegetable. You can use animal, but more work is required to break down the additional fat. Anyway, you've likely settled on one of the other; veggie or algae. Personally, I’d opt for vegetable and stay away from algae. You already know you’re the grower if you choose algae, and that you need quite a bit of the stuff which is a problem, because you’ll need a lot of space too. Actually, you’ll need a good supply of either, unless you never plan on making more than a few gallons at a time. Algae is grown, harvested and processed into oil by pressing it under extreme pressure to separate the oil from the plant. On the other hand, processing used cooking oil requires several processes. Dry washing to remove and methanol and then titrating the solution. Basically, titration is adding precisely measured chemicals to produce a neutral pH-7 reading. In the case of biodiesel production, sodium hydroxide (NaOH - lye) is added to methanol to make sodium methoxide. Then this is added to your oil. Basically, this concoction is what separates the glycerin from the vegetable oil. I’m not going to do a step by step how-to scenario because too much material is available. More would just add to the clutter. However, I’ll provide several links to quality sites from which you should be able to construct a decent processor. Some folks incorporate hot water tanks, some jury rig 55 gal drums. You decide... That's the fun part. I’ll provide good links to sites on how the biodiesel is made so you’ll have plenty of good reference stuff to lean on. As for going the algae route, you should know that DOE eliminated funding for algae research in the last decade within the Bio fuels Program. Robert Rapier, the man who wrote the book on algae biofuel, said the technology faces many uphill R&D hurdles before the technology can be practicable. Of the 3,000 strains of organisms, 300 species have been found that are workable, with most being green algae and the rest diatoms. However, this should not discourage an aggressive research effort into alternative fuels. But you should know, the cost of algae production is going to be high. However if you hanker for some pure R&D, take a look at the Lysing Extraction System. Alga-lysing bacteria have been paid much attention to in recent years for biodiesel production possibilities. "Robert Rapier bears only bad news for those who have visions of driving around in algae-fueled transportation." Ref. Links: Here's a great site for definitions: The Multi Functional Rural Fuel Platform Glossary Here's another site that will provide a bit of useful info: The Oil Drum Once you're in oil drum, search the Google box for fireangle, when you get there, enter algae for some eyeopening information. Be prepared for some down to earth observations on where Algae bio diesel research sits. One particular article was titled, "Has the Algae Cavalry Arrived?” Apparently not – read it. In short, I’d stay away from algae biodiesel, but if you’re determined, go to my resources store and Look for algae Biofuels. Here's a fascinating site with plenty of excellent information about Biodiesel. This is an excellent site for showing just about everything from A to Z on how to make bio diesel. Wanna know what’s going on in the biofuels industry. I'm gonna sneak this one in; become a distiller, brew up some ethyl alcohol, add it to your gasoline. I highly recommend this DIY site for Bio diesel Kits, Processors and Essential Equipment. Isn't Bio diesel cool stuff? Thanks for stopping by.  Custom Search
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