Thinking about setting up a biodiesel “still” in the backyard? Researching biodiesel as a process as well as a philosophy (lifestyle), but having limited success? Don’t know what to think about biodiesel in general? Getting frustrated and thinking about giving up?
Hold it! You are to be commended for your efforts up to this point.
I have been successfully making my own biodiesel in my home for more than three years, and have been using it without harmful effect in my car. I’m pretty happy with my setup as it is, but I can tell you: it was not entirely a happy hayride. Sometimes it was downright bumpy!
Take a deep breath and read a few suggestions from a successful home-based biodiesel old-timer.
(Note: This is a somewhat lengthy philosophical narrative of tings to tink about is not a “how-to” for making biodiesel, as there are many different “correct” ways to produce biodiesel. So I will let you figure out how you want to make it. Instead, I wish to share a few things to start thinking about before you begin setting up your home-based biodiesel factory. )
Congratulations! But…
Congratulations on your decision to set up your home-based biodiesel facility. If you are getting ready or are currently producing biodiesel and are having problems, here is a good way to cover all of your bases in any situation. Think about all of the following general criteria and fill in the blanks:
* What – For example, educate yourself (if not already) on the “What exactly is biodiesel?” “What is it made of?” “What will it take for me to manufacture this stuff?”
* Who – For example, “Who will be affected when I start making biodiesel?” “Who will provide me with my raw stock?” “What kind of cooperation will I need from my spouse, my family?”
* When – For example, “When or what time of day is good for making biodiesel?”
* How – For example, “How (which method) will I make the biodiesel?”
* How Much – For example, “How much will I make?” “How much of what kind of stuff will it take to make my biodiesel?”
* Why – For example, ask yourself what the various benefits of using biodiesel are. Thus… “Why even use biodiesel?”
I will give you a few long-winded thoughts below to help you start filling in more space on each of these issues.
“What”
The first “What” question you should be certain of is, “What is your raw oil stock?” In other words, what is it made of?
A lot of folks (myself included) start off in experimenting with biodiesel by purchasing small quantities of straight vegetable oil (SVO) off the market shelf, pouring it into the tank, and seeing what happens after that. Some people don’t venture beyond this, and end up buying SVO in bulk from places like Costco or Sam’s Club. This method, while essentially “green” in concept, defeats some core “green” benefits and incentives in using recyclable waste vegetable oil (WVO) – namely that WVO is free for the taking at many restaurants, and that it is both cool and eco-friendly to reuse something that otherwise would have been thrown away. I will avoid any discussion on the use of SVO, and assume that you (like me) are interested in hunting down and converting WVO into a usable fuel for your vehicle. So, after assembling my oil processor, I hunted down my first batch of WVO.
I drove around a few of the restaurant strips near my home in order to see what kind of raw stock I would be able to garner from my local restaurant owners. One such place I went to was an American buffet that had several large waste oil dumpsters tucked away near the back door. I was pretty excited at the prospect of having this much oil at my disposal. However, upon lifting the dumpster lid and looking at what was inside, reality set in. I was accosted with a horribly offensive odor and a few questions about what was actually in this “oil” dumpster.
I grabbed a yard long length of board lying on the ground nearby, and stirred up the muck that lay within… I was disgusted. Floating on the top were food chunks among a few other unidentifiable things. Underneath I saw a layer of murky light brownish fluid that sickens me to recall it. It didn’t move like oil and reeked horribly. One thing was clear: it was high in water and food content – a filtration nightmare and a low-yield stock no good for burning in a diesel engine. I consulted with a few biodiesel buddies, who told me to stay away from the exactly this kind of place.
This ties us into our “Where” factor.
“Where”
My friends suggested that I go to places that have dumpsters dedicated strictly toward receiving “pure” fryer oil. The kinds of places they steered me to were usually smaller restaurants that specialized in serving predominantly fried foods. So, a place called “Joe’s Fish Fry” or “China Buffet” are the kind of places that you would go to for your raw oil stock. Basically, you are looking for a raw stock that has been dumped directly from an oil fryer into the collection dumpster without being mixed with other waste the restaurant produces.
I get my oil from two places. My first source is an intermittent supplier: a quarterly fish fry from a local fire department get-together. The second one is a steady supplier – Mr. Wang’s China One Buffet down the street.
This brings me to our next topic: “Who”.
“Who”
Initiating and cultivating a good relationship with your WVO supplier is a factor crucial to the success of your biodiesel venture. Without your supplier, you wouldn’t have any fuel! Here are my suggestions for securing a decent supplier.
* First, be sure that the oil dumpster they put their oil into has good quality fryer oil as I have discussed above.
* Next, be a patron of your prospective supplier’s restaurant. Each time you go in, strike up a conversation with them. Whenever possible, take up the opportunity to have a casual and friendly conversation with them. Compliment them on how good the food is. Ask them how business is going. Basically, develop a rapport and trust with them so that you can spring the big question.
* Then, spring the big question on them, and tried to catch it as some sort of benefits oriented scenario: “Hey, by the way, I have a really great idea that could help you save some money on the operational costs of your restaurant.” Then, ask them how much they are paying to have their grease hauled away every month. Then tell them they you have found a way to almost completely eliminate this cost. Explain to them that you are getting ready to start making biodiesel, and you are wondering whether you could take some or most of their oil to help fuel your car.
This may sound like an incredulous idea to them, but when you explain that your diesel engine car can run on kitchen grease, they might find the idea as so novel that they would be willing to be a part of this grand experiment – with you as the guinea pig. The funny part will be: the day you drive up to their door smelling smartly of the fried foods your supplier serves at their restaurant!
As time goes on, you will have to face the fact: your supplier has saved you hundreds – perhaps even thousands – of dollars, and it wouldn’t hurt to thank them in some way. By this time you have developed a personal relationship with your supplier, and you would know by now what to offer them as a token of your thanks for all the fuel they have given you.
(My primary supplier is a Chinese restaurant. So, During Chinese New Year I usually put a $20 bill into a red lai-see envelope and casually slip it into Mr. Wang’s hand, and tell him how thankful I am that he is able to help me save some bucks. Mr. Wang will attempt to refuse the money three times (according to Chinese tradition), but will finally give in and accept my small token of appreciation. To answer his most adamant objections to my gift, I usually say that the money is not for him – rather it is a gift for his son or daughter. Halfway through the year (or perhaps more frequently) I drop off a cash-loaded gift card to some nice department store as a continuing show of my appreciation for their help.)
Another important “Who” in your biodiesel operation is your spouse or significant other. He or she will have to put up with your tiresome new obsession. Unless you have a truly no-assembly-required (open and just add water?) biodiesel processor, all that time spent assembling and fine-tuning your biodiesel processor will cause your mate to become a “biodiesel widow(er). If you have kids, then reworking the duty schedule will rise to a head. Hopefully one or two your ankle-biters will be interested in what you’re doing and will be able to help out on the project.
Whatever you do: don’t wash those rags and towels you used to mop up grease spills in the washing machine. No way, Mac! Throw them away. If you wash them, this sloppy stuff will remain as a ring on the side of your spin tank and will coat all of your washer parts with a thick, odiferous rime that will also get all over your next few loads of clothing. There is no quicker way to raise Cain with your spouse and little ones than through spoiling the family linens! If you must wash in a washer, either get a secondhand washer or send your one and only washer through a few soapy cycles to clean out all of the oil before using it again to clean clothing.
Love your spouse. Love your family… For tomorrow the grease will still be there!
And tommorrow is when? This brings us to our next topic…
“When”
Biodiesel is still a relatively new concept for the general public. This general public includes your perspective grease supplier, your family, and your neighbors. As with everything else, the “when” in which you do everything can be really important.
When I talk about biodiesel with other people, some of them think it’s a bizarre concept. It’s the kind of thing that “those funny people in other towns” do. For some people, it breeds a kind of xenophobic air. It’s something strange. Either that, or it’s something that they hear about on the news, but never expect to see in real life. So, talking with people about biodiesel is something that takes them a little time to warm up to.
This applies also to your prospective supplier, despite any of the cost-saving benefits that you may propose to them. More importantly, when you speak about this with your neighbors, the “when” can be really important. I have a “biodiesel buddy” who is extremely aware of this now. He was a veritable biodiesel propaganda machine: extremely enthusiastic about the biodiesel idea that he would go and speak with pretty much anyone about it, whenever and wherever possible. Sure, it’s good to have enthusiastic proponents for alternative fuels. But hey, there are times when such enthusiasm can backfire on you.
This buddy of mine is of a more eccentric stock (a nice way to say he is a weirdo), and therefore he is sometimes prone to rub people the wrong way. This is exactly what happened to him with his neighbor. He moved into his home a couple of years ago. One afternoon soon after arriving he held a BBQ with his family, relatives, and neighbors. He struck up a friendly rapport with his next-door neighbor, and everything seemed like it was going to be fine after that. Everything had been going okay until one day one of the kids (from whichever side of the fence) started throwing trash into the other neighbor’s yard, thus sparking off a small-scale feud.
Unfortunately, their relationship cooled on the friendly side, and started to heat up on the animosity side. One or the other’s dog would bark at night (something that was previously amicably tolerated), and so one of them would call the animal control authorities to have the dog silenced. One of them reported the other for working on a car in the front yard, which is apparently against some sort of city code.
Eventually this whole thing came to a head when this guy’s neighbor called up some environmental authority and recorded my buddy in violation of some sort of toxic waste issue. An investigation was started, and the legal mess that ensued was indeed traumatic.
Lesson learned: Sometimes “when” is never. Sometimes it’s just better not to bring up the biodiesel topic.
“How”
“How” you make your biodiesel is an important topic, and this was indeed a issue brought up in the case of my biodiesel buddy above. How he made his fuel involved some amount of toxic waste disposal.
Many people choose to make their biodiesel using the popular “methanol and lye” method. Many people don’t know that there is at least one alternative to methanol and lye “distillation”. The method I use removes glycerol using dual-pole resin beads. No input chemicals are needed, and this method does not produce any by-product requiring disposal.
There is nothing wrong with the methanol and lye method. This route is very effective and when done correctly produces a high quality fuel. But in the wrong or inexperienced hands, going with methanol and lye can sometimes be fraught with danger. This is something to consider carefully before buying in on this chemical process, especially if you have children. If you are producing biodiesel on your property, you must consider your children’s safety as a top priority.
For those of you who do not know what lye is: it is that industrial strength white powder used to unclog stopped up drains and pipes. This said, it will readily eat you alive if you get any of this on you, especially into your eyes. It is frequently marketed under the Red Devil brand. Very nasty stuff!
Likewise, methanol is commonly known as wood alcohol. Methanol in its raw form is extremely flammable, and thus poses a relatively severe storage and fire risk.This stuff is also poisonous, and is sometimes the resultant product of a home distillery a gone wrong. The minimum toxic dosage of methanol is a mere 4 ounces. If this stuff doesn’t kill you, it can at least cause blindness and severe brain or kidney damage. It goes without saying, if you are going to be keeping this stuff around the house, make sure neither kids nor animals can get anywhere near it. Be certain to keep all chemicals behind a lock and key. Also make sure to assemble a proper spill kit on the chance you have an accident in containing any of these materials, including your raw oil stock. Fire extinguishers and precautions to store these raw chemicals in a fireproof structure wouldn’t hurt either.
I chose to go with a “non-toxic”* process because I was living in a confined apartment space, and thus wanted to minimize any chance of fumes, chemicals or other hazards typically related to a more toxic method. Additionally, after the initial expense of purchasing and setting up my processor unit, there was essentially no costs involved in producing as much biodiesel that I wanted – the reason for this being my unit requires no input chemicals like methanol or lye. All told, operational costs were close to zero. This speaks loudly as an added economical benefit.
The processor I use I bought from an alternative energy guy named Bob who runs a wonderfully informative alternative energy website.
* Note: I use the words “non-toxic” here carefully. As with any unusual process involving large volumes of a potentially poisonous or flammable fluid – as vegetable oil is under some circumstances. My use of the words “non-toxic” refers to the fact that my production method does not require the storage or use of dangerous chemicals.
“How Much”
“How Much” has a direct bearing upon several factors.
Most obviously you have to take into account how much biodiesel you want to produce during a given time. Factor this into the size of the production unit you will be working with.
Also take into account: the how much available space you’re working with, how much chemical product (if any) you will need to transport and store, how much room you have or storage of finished product, and whether the production unit you are looking at can produce enough fuel to satisfy your needs within a given time.
“Why”
At the production level, “Why” may have to do with several things such as why you chose to go with this or that production method. For some people, “Why” may be optional thinking. Most folks are just happy to make biodiesel and say nothing about it afterwards. They just drive down the street, feeling smug at the economic and environmental benefits that using biodiesel brings. This is just fine…
The question “why” accosted me several times while I was setting up my production apparatus. I bought my processor from an online supplier. The kit included an amazingly large industrial sponge that was used as a filter to remove fine particles in my raw fuel stock down to 10 microns. This small a particle might or might not clog a fuel filter, depending upon what car you’re running this fuel through. In my case, the filter was clogged pretty quickly – I had to change out about once every 10 days. When you get stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic and have to change a fuel filter (I learned to keep a spare in the glove box), it can be pretty inconvenient. At times like this, I asked myself why I was even doing the biodiesel thing – was it even worth this trouble?
Because of this filter problem, I almost gave up. However, having spent as much money as I did on the processor, I didn’t want to give up. Also, just because other people had produce biodiesel successfully had me asking, “Why can’t I do that, too? These guys must’ve run across similar problems and overcome them.”
I did some research on various filtration methods, and came across an idea that uses absolutely no filters: a centrifuge. Namely, the centrifuge I ran across was one that was designed to go under the hood of a long haul truck, the eighteen-wheeler kind. Basically this puppy spins the fluid you shoot through it at 2000 g-forces, basically cleaning the fluid particulate content down to less than 1 micron. I was all for this, and the less than $600 price tag made it a mild risk while remaining somewhat affordable. So, I went for it.
At first I couldn’t get it to work, or which led me once again to ask “why?” I was really disappointed. But after some persistent tweaking and tinkering, I got it to work and it worked afterwards like a charm. I was able to drive my Jetta around for free and without having to change the fuel filter at all.
It Ain’t ofOver ‘Til The Fat Biodiesel Lady SIngs
The filtering thing represented the last of several really tough challenges I had when setting up my biodiesel processor at home. I wanted to go with a “non-toxic” production method so that I could operate the apparatus in my apartment without the danger of fumes or having to store dangerous chemicals. Since then, I have relocated the machine outside because of the occasional and unavoidable grease slops and spills. It’s messy work. It’s really best done outside.
Lately I drive upwards of 7000 miles per month, delivering medicine to sick folks at their homes. With the efficiency that my car gets and at the cost of current diesel prices, this would mean I would have to be spending about $500 per month for fuel. The financial freedom I derive from producing my own fuel is an obvious benefit.
But I, just like that other guy who makes his own biodiesel, drive down the street with that smug look on my face. I’m proud of what I’ve done, and I’m glad that it contributes to helping out with the environment.
P.S…
Just as there are different kinds of cars requiring different kinds of fuel, there are at least just as many variations on the fuel that can be used to run them. Surprisingly enough, in my biodiesel production journey, I have run across several other folks who are making different blends of derived from different kinds of fuel stock. You would be surprised what they are using.
I have to make a distinction here. There is “green” biodiesel which is derived from some natural or organic content. There is also what is called “black” biodiesel – the “black” terminology referring to the color of the raw feedstock. In this case, black biodiesel can be made from recycled crankcase oil, transmission oil, brake fluid, and a few other kinds of industrial oils.
Some farmer folks I have spoken with, have done some experimentation on their farm machinery, and have found that they can burn raw vegetable oil with little or no processing. This is to say that some of them found it was not necessary to separate the glycerol content from their raw feedstock. They say that there machinery runs with a lot of smoke, but otherwise do not seem to exhibit any adverse effect.
Others I have spoken with, have a supply line to a buddy who provides them with used trucker crankcase oil, which they filter and then blend into their vegetable stock as a fuel -based lubricant. The farmers I have spoken with say that this produces a lot of smoke also. But because they are not subject to on-road pollution laws, they go ahead and burn away with this fuel that they blend in and quantities as high as 30%. I have spoken with a few road-based friends who blend whatever oil is available up to 5% with their regular diesel or biodiesel.
In all honesty, beyond dumping a gallon of cheap off-the-shelf crankcase oil into my fuel tank before filling up, I have not tried any of these other variations. You can try them, but do so at your own risk.
Have fun though!
About the Author
John Melendez worked several years in Hong Kong and Shanghai for A/S Det Østasiatiske Kompagni (EAC), a Danish trade company with offices worldwide. John served there as Regional Manager for EAC’s cargo transport JV established with Beijing City Planning Commission.
Recently John has worked among the ranks of the world’s largest software providers and IT education companies. Former Managing Editor for Computer Associates’ Windows Tips & Secrets, a monthly technology newsletter with a circulation of 35,000 subscribers, John now works as a technical writer and industrial consultant for Cibola International. His knowledge specialties include: business with China; biodiesel centrifuges; and overseas procurement of industrial goods.
An alumnus of the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Chinese Studies, John speaks, reads and writes Mandarin Chinese, German, and English. John telecommutes from Phoenix, Indianapolis and mainland China.
Read John’s other articles at: http://www.associatedcontent.com/johnmelendez
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