Homebrew Revolution

Posted on Thursday 19 April 2007 at 08:24

Can biodiesel work? Is it hard to make? Will it wreck your injectors? Will it encrust your engine and fry your system when the weather gets cold? Isn't it expensive to set up?

Yes, it does work. We've gone biofuel for the summer already. Dave has been dragging home oil and processing it in the barn, and our truck has been flying along the highways smelling like a week-old deep-fryer. Which is far better than the acrid, carcinogenic sting of petro-fuel.

The best place to start your biodiesel journey? Well, we think it's Journey to Forever. That's where Dave learned how to build a processor out of an old hot water tank, some excess plumbing materials and a bit of garden hose. That's also where he learned how to perform such arcane operations as titration and the mixing of chemicals needed to convert waste oil to biofuel.

We had heard the dire warnings about injectors and biofuel, and Dave hesitated over them initially. What he's since learned is that the warning applies to running unconverted waste vegetable oil (WVO), because it must be heated adequately in order to burn properly. Otherwise it will coat the injectors. Biodiesel doesn't have this issue.

The issue we have found with biodiesel is that it needs to be "washed." Some folks don't, but we had problems with it not being separated enough into fuel and waste product. "Washing" is what it sounds like - a light spray with warm water which causes any excess lye to precipitate out of the reaction. The fuel is then left to separate into layers of glycerin/methanol waste, water and fuel. Washing results in a cleaner, better fuel.

As to temperature, we feel safe running B-100 (100% biodiesel) down to freezing. Below that, we've found it can begin to cloud. Dave's next conversion is to set up a heated slip-tank, the way WVO users do, that will allow us to extend our season. Biodiesel has two transition points well-known to its users - cloud-point, when it begins to develop fine crystals, and gel-point, when it begins to turn into butter. These temps depend on what type of fats are used in making the bio-D. Lard and tallow cloud at higher temps than canola.

Dave didn't take any fancy courses, buy any special equipment or books. He learned what he needed to know off the internet, went to the dump and put some old materials into re-use. The total cost of his processor was $50-$60.

A couple of biofuel resources, for starters:

www.journeytoforever.org
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Biodiesel/