Expain to me why you bother to make bio diesel

[Randybee1]

I'm just curious but why go through all the effort to take veggie oil and convert it to bio diesel? Why not just take veggie oil and add a small amount of gasoline so the specific gravity is that of diesel? What am I missing?

[dieselspanner]

I don't..

The guy that does fish and chips down in the valley is really particular about his oil and changes it frequently. I pick it up in clear plastic containers and it looks like new,I run it through a filter, made of a couple of layers of old cotton sheet and that's it.

If there's some around I add a bit of sump oil when I pour it into the tractor, a 60's Mccormick, and that's it.

It takes a bit of cranking into life when it's cold, the battery is not the best, other than that it runs well and smells great when it's hauling a 4 ton trailer load up the steeper forest tracks.

I intend to run the Lister on it eventually, to which end I'm half way through building a crude mechanical power meter and a dummy load cell. If I discover anything meaningful I'll post up.

Cheers Stef

[dieselgman]

There is a fellow I know of who does mix the raw oils (specifically raw sunflower oil) with unleaded gasoline to a very specific viscosity and has good results running in his Listers and also his other tractors and farm equipment. No need for biodiesel conversion... His methods do conflict with some the "ivory tower" experimenters, but I trust his practical experience and his word.  "Your results may vary."

dieselgman

[LowGear]

I'm getting ready to clean away my biodiesel making equipment.  I'm just over the mess.  Best wishes to you pioneer types.

[Tom]

Depending on the oil, even when thinned with RUG, during cold temps fats can settle out and plug the system. It's very difficult to get those fats back into solution.

[Randybee1]

Interesting. I had assumed that the first thing most people did when they got some veggie was to turn it in to biodiesel. Never quite understood why. My 86 Diesel Jetta owners manual says to just add gas in the winter to prevent jelling. I just use a hydrometer. A little more gas in the winter than in the summer works for me.

[dieselspanner]

A few years back I was working with hovercraft (AP188's for those with a little more curiosity) in  the south of England.

We had one returned from Brazil, it was flown down Southampton Water to Hythe, around 4 miles, as it arrived 3 of the 4 engines packed up, leaving only one lift motor running as we dragged it up the slip.

It turned out that the tropical diesel was waxing at plus 10 degrees, I got it out of the bulk tanks by dropping a 2 kw immersion heater in each one, draining off the original diesel and blow torching the fuel lines as we flushed it through with UK red diesel.

The green tropical stuff dropped the fuel bill in the shared car for 4 months!

Cheers Stef

[guest23837]

In Ireland the revenue have customs men that "dip" your tank to see if it has AGRI, green diesel (Ireland) or red diesel (UK). If you have any of these your car is confiscated  and you have to go to court pay a huge fine and impound fees etc. If you have bio diesel and the guy dipping you is a cnut you better have a receipt because bio diesel, veg oil and wmo is liable for duty when used in a road vehicle. Many years ago when I was poor I got 5 gallons of green diesel and mixed it with a pint of burnt oil that gave me 5 gallons of black diesel. I was stopped by revenue and dipped. I explained that I had ran out of diesel and had to borrow an old can from a farmer to go to the garage. I wasn't believed fine was £1500.00 I didn't try to get the car back. Lesson learned!

[ajaffa1]

Hey Johndoh, I used to go to a lot of agricultural shows when I lived in the UK. Inspectors at every gate dipping diesel tanks.
Penalties for tax evasion have always been higher than for true criminality, can`t have the sheeple giving the government the bird.
Funnily enough I did some building work for a tax inspector once, cheeky bugger asked me if I would give a discount for cash! I declined.

Bob

[guest23837]

Hey Johndoh, I used to go to a lot of agricultural shows when I lived in the UK. Inspectors at every gate dipping diesel tanks.
Penalties for tax evasion have always been higher than for true criminality, can`t have the sheeple giving the government the bird.
Funnily enough I did some building work for a tax inspector once, cheeky bugger asked me if I would give a discount for cash! I declined.

Bob

All those guys dipping for the government are descended from batchelors

[listeroil]

My reason for making biodiesel is that I have 1000s of litres of whites.  I collect wvo from local restaurants I leave it to stand for a couple of weeks then decant the nice runny oil off the top.  That whats I run the 8/1 startomatic with.  Over the 10+ years I have been using the Lister I've acquired a mountain of dirty wet rancid whites which is no good for fuel as its nearly solid.  So I make biodiesel out of the whites. it turn thick horrible gunge into nice runny clean fuel that I can use in my td5 engined landrover.  I am allowed to use up to 2500 litres of tax free biodiesel a year.  So thats my reason for making biodiesel and the engine runs better as well.
Mick

[veggie]

I too recently dissmatled and scrapped my biodiesel processor.
Far too much work and mess in my opinion.
If I were running a more modern diesel vehicle with direct injection I may be more inclined to burn biodiesel.
But for my Lister and Changfa engines a blend of WVO and RUG is a much simpler way.
I was always concerned about handling/storing the biodiesel chemicals, disposing of the waste glycerin, and having to do a test titration to determine the fatty acid content of the oil in order to calculate the amount of catalyst to add.
Then there's mixing the caustic catalyst and introducing to the hot oil...
All to end up with a fuel for my stationary engines that is not much better than properly cleaned WVO.

[Brad Silwood]

If ones end goal is to run a stationary engine, especially one installed in a power shed out of the elements, then good filtered WVO is perfect. It is relatively easy to heat up a small tank of VO and keep it flowing. If it does gel up because of the cold, 5 minutes and a torch will free things up. And yes, indirect injection loves WVO. The extra lubricity of the veg oil seems to be very healthy for injectors and pumps.

Once you decide that you will be using your own fuel for daily driver, visiting family hundreds of miles from home, and vacations, using a vehicle with a modern direct injection power plant - you will want to run washed biodiesel. When you have a 46 gallon tank, 10 foot fuel lines exposed underneath, wife and dogs onboard - fuel problems are not good - especially when avoidable.

It was an easier task for me to convert the oil, than to add a heated WVO tank, and a solenoid switch to switch tanks back to diesel in the fuel lines, for ease of starting the next morning. And then not remembering to flip the switch.............

[veggie]

Yes, for diesel vehicles (expensive engines and a major job to rebuild), the best biofuel is Biodiesel.
For stationary engines (especially IDI) WVO or WVO blend is very convenient.