Anyone here tried making actual BioDiesel?

[tonydca]

Just curious if anyone here has tried their hand at making real processed biodiesel instead of using WVO straight up.

Lots of neat howto vids on the Net, and might be fun if potentially a bit messy to try out just for giggles.

Curious if anyone else had tried this with lesser or greater degrees of success.

[Manitoba deli]

I think Noel at Enviro Imports sells the "cadillac" of the bio-diesel systems, I want to get one and try it, but with 4 girls aged 6 and under, I can't seem to find the extra time or money.(although I know a system would pay for itself quickly) I'm particulary interested in the Arctic bio-diesel, I think they use urea or something when making it and it won't gel in the cold. It sometimes gets a little cool out here in rural Manitoba, and this is always a concern.

Jason

[mararmeisto]

Just curious if anyone here has tried their hand at making real processed biodiesel instead of using WVO straight up.

I've always been detered by the waste product at the end of the process - glycerine. I'd rather have a process that has as few left over parts as possible.

That being said, I've only ever used WVO straight into the diesel fuel tank: usually little amounts at a time, although there was the one summer when I filled the tank, drove for a number of hours and then topped up with diesel. Never have gotten around to installing a veggie plant and now that I have a Pajero, space is at a premium.

[crushers]

I did not know this:
Glycerin also easily absorbs water from the surrounding air, which means it is hygroscopic. If you were to leave some glycerin in the open, it would absorb water from the surrounding air to eventually become 20% water and 80% glycerin. If you were to place a small amount of pure glycerin on your tongue, you're tongue would blister because glycerin is dehydrating.
interesting...

I've always been detered by the waste product at the end of the process - glycerine. I'd rather have a process that has as few left over parts as possible.

[Manitoba deli]

I think there is an easy way to make soap from the glycerin

Jason

[Frisch]

I made a 1L test batch a year ago. It seemed to work, but I'm not ready to make the investment.

[Adam]

I've always wanted to try it myself, but the captial costs of buying all the processing equipment to do it on a scale that is large enough to not be a complete pita has always stopped me. There is also the ongoing cost of the methanol (which isn't cheap) and the hazards of the processing. I figured the one time cost of adding a WVO kit to your vehicle and setting up a WVO filter system was about the same cost as setting up a decent biodiesel processor, plus it is a lot less hassle to filter WVO than to process it into biodiesel.

There is a small scale biodiesel producer on Galiano that was kind enough to give me a tour of his process. He was using somewhere around six 1000L totes in his setup which took up the entire double car garage. I joined the Island biodiesel coop which sells the Galiano made biodiesel at slightly above dino-diesel prices. Personally, I'm willing to pay a premium to so that my money doesn't go to big oil , but goes to support my local economy by buying locally produced biodiesel from local WVO.

Having said that, I am 1/2 Scottish, so saving $$ is important, whihc is why I went the WVO route. Very little captial costs to set up, and the ongoing costs and pita factor are much lower than biodiesel.

[crushers]

curious,
here in Ontario you can get hit a "road tax" fine if they find you running home brew...
i have 'heard' of a couple cases and the fines were outlandish (i guess they were trying to make an example out of them). similar to running purple diesel.

anyone look into this at all?

[Adam]

I looked into it a few years ago. In BC we were exempt from any taxes, but I think that is set to change in the next few months and local biodiesel coops are starting to added tax to their brew to get ready for the change. Seems ridiculous that they want to tax individuals a dollar here or there if they've gone to the trouble to produce their own fuel. It is not like the entire province will start buying diesels and filtering their own WVO. It is only ever going to be a small percentage of the population. I'm not sure why the 'enviro-conscious' BC Liberals would want to discourage local fuel production that replaces a greenhouse gas producing fossil fuel consumption.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columb ... -ends.html

[tonydca]

"The provincial government said it's pulling the tax exemption because regular diesel must now contain at least three per cent biodiesel, which means more biodiesel will actually be sold.

The B.C. Sustainable Energy Association supports the move.

"This is exactly the kind of policy you need," said association president Guy Dauncey, "assuming that the biodiesel being sold has a strong net carbon reduction benefit."

Dauncey said the B.C. government should adopt another change which would help ease the impact of the price increase — make biofuels exempt from the 4.14-cent-per-litre provincial carbon tax."

My Spidey-sense tells me the lack of exmption is more about govt revenue and less about the environment. Point-of-sale tax coillection on fuels is a huge cash cow for the govt.

I don't think they would ding you for putting home-brew in your tank if you showed that you were able to make it yourself.

Having said *that* though, I seem to recall reading a while back (can't find the article, sorry) that some jurisdictions down in the States were contemplating banning WVO as a fuel, arguing that it was basically an improper disposal of garbage (likening it to open burning of trash). A crock of sh!t to be sure and I believe this was happening during the $100+/bbl oil spike - once again, nothing like the prospect of depriving the govt of revenue to get them moving!

[crushers]

to the provincal governments they look at it as 'tax evasion'.
they say they want to be known as a " " government...
...
...
...
...
...
... to me they are . with GREED for more money.

[after oil]

i made a few batches of biodiesel a few years ago. its not practical, especially in powell river. there is no ready source of methanol here, and the cost of shipping it is very high. i cannot bring it on the ferry either...
its a pain and there is waste product.. i dont understand why anybody bothers to make it when wvo requires so little processing...

[EnviroImports.com]

I make B100 on a regular basis, I run my vehicles on it and kept my oil burning furnace , I use my excess to heat my house, you sure do get alot of Glycerin as a bi-product, so my base cost for most diesel is roughly $.30-.32/Liter, and then I sell my glycerin to a few concrete workers and companys, they buy it in 45 gallon drums or 20L pails, I sell the pails full for $20/pail, its a fraction of what they used to use and pay for a form release agent, its the ultimate in recycling the waste product and closes the carbon loop, the plywood and other wood they use absorbs alot of it, and the concrete also has some of it on the top skin,
there is alot of my glycerin in the new wallmart complex here in Victoria, and the companys get extra L.E.E.D Credits for using recycled material and not using diesel fuel as a form release.
Its not for everyone , and its never going to cut much into big oil's profits, but for those who want to find a different path, it might work well, I also do put in Straight wvo in my fuel , but doubt I will go back to WVO as a main fuel.

[Kuan]

I also make Bio and have been running my 2 vehicles on B100 for the last 3 years now. Its much better than Petro-diesel and is a rewarding process. It is time consuming and the issue of glycerin can be a problem if you don't have a plan to deal with it. I make some soap with mine and compost the rest (after removing excess methanol).

My operation setup was about $1200-$1500 but I think I could do it again for cheaper. My main costs were in the mixing pump and vacuum pump.

I will be adding WVO kits to my vehicles this summer for the ultimate combination of veggie and bio. It will mean I can make much less bio and still avoid using petro-diesel which I hate.

[RichD]

curious,
here in Ontario you can get hit a "road tax" fine if they find you running home brew...
i have 'heard' of a couple cases and the fines were outlandish (i guess they were trying to make an example out of them). similar to running purple diesel.

anyone look into this at all?

http://www.auditor.on.ca/en/reports_en/en08/310en08.pdf

Where the illegal use of untaxed fuel is detected,
inspectors will issue a Provincial Offences sum­
mons, similar to a parking ticket. They may also
issue a tax assessment based on an estimate of the
tax payable for all fuel used in the vehicle since it
was new, unless the owner can prove that tax was
paid on fuel previously used in the vehicle.

Read on page 15... if you want to be able to use self-manufactured fuel in Ontario, you better lobby for the right because they are going to crack down, as recommended by the auditors.

I don't think that this is targeting homebrew operations and you could probably fight the fine and win.

Thankfully BC has taken a more enlightened view. The manufacture of biodiesel is perfectly legal here, but commercial sales are not.