Were making good bio-diesel check it out

[Alex S]

got some results back, Faild the cold soak because the sample was taken before the fuel had gone threw any kind of filtration. Sent another sample out after passing threw a 5 micron and then a 1 micron and it was 82 seconds

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[h2odrx]

how much did that set you back?

 

[Alex S]

uhhhh beleve it or not $1300.00

 

[h2odrx]

uhhhh beleve it or not $1300.00

I do believe it..
but it is well worth it!

 

[rhkcommander]

I've been interested in brewing some myself, andn gearing up to do so. 1300 is a bit outta my league though right now

how much ya making, how, etc?

 

[Alex S]

Well its a small plant Im the production manager but right now were just doing an average of about 6000 gallons a week but we are having problems with our feedstock supplier and cant keep up to our demand. We are working with a new feed stock supplier and once this is set in place we hopefully be making about 9000 gallons a day


Its actually pretty dam tricky making spec fuel. I always laugh at the U-tube videos of guys making bio and calming they made good fuel just because they have separation with out any testing .

Having said that I don't think our engines would relay care much about fuel that's a bit off spec just as long as the natural rubber bits were replaced.

 

[Diesel JD]

That is something to be proud of Alex. I know how hard it is to get to that level of quality especially if you start off with ugly feedstock. It's only too bad the ASTM tests are so expensive, obviously over and above the means of the homebrewer and hard to swing for a small plant. I agree if you aren't a commercial producer or a co-op you shouldn't worry too much about ASTM spec. If it passes a 27 part methanol to 3 part biodiesel test and washes/dries easy it's probably not hurting an IDI, early Cummins or early PSD.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

cool, congrats

What type of feedstock do you use? plant or animal?

I'll stick with brewing beer, though there may be some similarities.

Again, congratulations,

LCjeff

 

[smolkin]

I've never actually had the stuff we make tested, but it's been running great in several older Mercs, a VW TDI, and our International engines. However, the Cummins my friend just got has been angry on it...those engines are more finicky about viscosity and particulates I guess. How much does an actual lab test cost?

 

[leftcoastjeff]

lots

uhhhh beleve it or not $1300.00

Enough to mod the truck to run UVO,

LCjeff

 

[94turboidi]

Enough to mod the truck to run UVO,

LCjeff

Thats what I would be thinking. I know so many people are against running it straight but I look at it like this even if I only get 10 mpg I could save the money back and in 16666 miles approx at 3.00 per gallon if my engine was trashed by that point (highly unlikely) I could spend 5000 on rebuilding my engine however I wanted. Pretty quick return on the money.

 

[leftcoastjeff]

Either way

First, again, congrats on the clean bill of health!!

Either way works with some mods to the fuel system.

Change viscosity with temp. or through chemical reaction.

Removal of particle contaminants is a must, either way.

On the side of the Bio-reaction, you can use some strange feedstock (road kill, mustard seed, switch grass etc)

filtration is the key, if it filters easy, heat it and run it, if not Bio-process it.

Just one old mans opinion, ($.02)

LCjeff

Mind you I would not take the chance either way if I owned a $40,000 truck.

 

[Diesile]

Good job, you have to like it when a plan comes together.

 

[94turboidi]

I just realized that my numbers are a bit skewed if your wanting to figure on the long of things as terms of payback you would want to figure a higher mpg which would take a longer payback period. So if you got 20 mpg you could just double the amount of time to get the payback I posted. And I agree if I owned a newer engine I would be more leary about wvo and look alot harder at the biodiesel. If I ever get a newer diesel car I might make some biodiesel.

 

[Alex S]

Well we use a blend of low FFA WVO and camelina oil. Well here in BC we have a buy loaw that dictates that all diesel sold has have minimal 5% bio diesel in it and that percentage is going up in the next years. We have sent some samples out to Shell, Petro-can, and Sun-core and both Petro and Shell are interested.

We don't send out samples often just to double check new procedures. We have 2 GCs for checking Dies, Tris and monos

Yea if you use bad feed stock you will get ****** results no way around it. We even played with acid esterifycation with higher FFA oil and it works ... sorta but its not cost elective