BIODIESEL, Try it youll like it.

A thought occurs right off the top of my head - what about the cold-weather gelling or waxing of the blend? I could be off base here, but it seems to me that might present a problem.

Yepper. Thats why Ive gotta get the stoichiometry right. I need enough of the methyl alcohol and Soda ash or lye mixture to get the reaction complete. One of the by produts is glycerine and we dont want Mr Glycerine in our mix.
I know a farmer whose been making his own using a total "guesstimate" He mixes his hot cooking oil (130 C) with about a gallon of "Janitor in a DRum" Im sure hes got left over water and some unreacted fatty acid.

Im thinking of titrating a small batch at a time after the whole thing of cooking oil and potato chip oil (we have a number of potato chip companies within 20 miles) The titration will be to make sure I get the methoxide" right and then multiplying the amount of alky and lye times the entire batch size. .
Im alreadt using a heater tape for my engines for starting in the teens and 20s that its been the last few days. Without the block heater it would cause a problem with gelling a bit. Some people add a bit of gasoline. Im not so sure I want to chance the mix because the compressibility, not the volatility is what makes diesel kick off.

Heard an interview on CBC with a joker who goes down to the local Burger King to get their used fry grease, and uses that for the biodeisel--swears by it.

The wife complains that the car smells like burnt french fries . . .

hes not puttin enough poutin in his mix.

Them curds would clog up the injectors, though, eh?

yeh, this is a serious thread, I dont wanna F*** it up too early.
The janitor in a drum guy says that his diesel cost about 50 cent a gallon , and thats mostly labor to collect the spent cooking oils. He does nothing accurately and still winds up with a fair mix. He uses it in all his diesel farm equipment.
I dont plan to do more than run a few test batches now and then set up a pilot esterifification unit in the late winter and see how trainable this tech is.

Here's the transcript for the CBC biodiesel program.

By the way, that CBC article has been "enhanced" with a comparison chart. It also states that Hydro uses biodiesel, so it might be worthwhile finding out if you can contact Hydro about their use of biodiesel.

Hmmm... There is a guy that is local to me that sells a complete kit for setting up in your garage. As I recall it was under $1K for everything. You just pour the veggie oil in one end and some supplemental stuffs and wait. Somethinhg like 48 hours later you have biodiesel ready for use.

The Greasecar guys are local too but that requires a conversion kit in the vehicle and is a slightly more expensive option.

I'll see if I can find some links.

The problem is, as timber mentioned, if the reaction isnt complete , youll be left with unreacted crap and the stuff can lard up. Thats hwy you react to get the glycerine out.

I dont wanna do the "Janitor in a drum" thing, because there is a decane rating .
Usually you get the reaction going at about 100C and with the right amount of methyl alcohol and a strong base, you should have the proper mix.
One still has to decant the middle fraction from the crud on the bottom and the glycerine on top.

Thanks for the linjs in advance guys. Im gonna read that CBC thing.
I know in UK some hysterical people are campaigning against bioidesel because of the methyl alcohol being toxic. It is toxic but its biodegradable and is less toxic than the contents of gasoline (like benzene)

This is a general site with a bunch of links to everything bio-diesel:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_supply.html

This one is to one kit vendor:
http://www.diyfuel.com/

This one has tons of papers/research reports:
http://www.biodieselgear.com/documentation/index.htm


Most of the kits I've seen come with the necessary equipment so that you can test each batch and figure out exactly how much catalyst to add base don the specifics of the oil you are starting with.

Personally, if I had a diesel (and I'm considering converting my truck to one..) I think I'd go the SVO route instead of home-brewing but...

fm - there are coimmercial anti-gelling agents, which apart from helping with viscosity have some effect on ease of cold-weather starting. Here in the Northwoods, around about September the #2 at the pumps becomes "Winter Deisel", already incorporating the anti-gel. "Course, some folks use #2 furnace oil, which is ditto to deisel except for dye ... gasoline or kerosene work OK as anti-gels, but at the cost of increased mechanical wear. If you'r gonna go the anti-gel route, I'd suggest kerosene (Jet A is splendid for the purpose - it just plain don't get any more refined than that), or an actual commercial anti-gel. Don't ask me about the dye and the Jet A, OK? I don't know nuttin'

me neither, as I pull into the ag diesel pump to fill up my Ford.
Thanks for the gel info. Also the links fishin, That "journey to forever" is like a chem course for making methyl and ethyl, esters. cool.

I will probably need something ultimately to react a few thousand gal at a time because we go through about 200-400 gal a day for all the vehicles in a normal field season. The drill rig alone will burn almost 150 gal is its working for 10 hours.

Gasoline is like 8:1 or 9:1 while diesel is like 12:1 or 14:1 ratio.

Anyone use it to supplement home heating oil? We've been thinking about giving it a try, but are concerned we might mess up our system with a bad batch. We know we can only use a mix, but what can go wrong?

I imagine that it could work except that heating oil is predominantly kerosene, whereas diesel is an ester , and its ignitability is based upon its compressibility, not volatility.
Im only guessing here, but I think that , unless the diesel were thinned down a lot more , it could foul up the nozzles in a home heater.

If it could work , WOW, we have a world floating in waste oils that can be re-refined

FM,
This is a link to some local folks here in NC that are doing all sorts of cool things with biodiesel.
http://www.biofuels.coop/coop.shtml
Nice buncha folks, I'm sure they would be glad to help you.

Waste-oil-fired heating systems are common in the engine service and repair sub-industries; many dealership and independent repair facillities employ them, burning primarily used crankcase oil. Not only is there a cost savings related to fuel acquisition, but also additional savings are realized through eliminating the need to provide for disposal of the retired lubricants.

Actually we know it works. Mr. Witch and I went to a NOFA workshop on BioD. a few years ago and it was discussed extensively. We weren't interested in oil heat at that time, so we didn't take notes.

edited to add:
I just did a little poking around and found these sites:
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2005/11/using_biodiesel.php
http://www.albina.com/HomeHeating/biodieselRes.htm