500 lb. koolaid man
Posts: 1068
Joined: 5/22/2006
From: Palm Harbor,
FL, USA
Status: offline
|
Rite now, I'm hoping my first car will be a Volkswagen Jetta run off biodiesel , making my own fuel from used vege oil from restaurants.(funny how " biodiesel " cames up as misspelled on the RCU spell check)
Here's everything I know about biodiesel so far..........
Main advantages to biodiesel ...
Although is might cost a fair amount to start making it yourself, it's clearly cheaper to make then buying petroleum fuel at the pumps. The average for making a gallon is in between $0.70 and$0.80. Plus it's good for the environment, smells like frenchfries,  and your engine loves it since it actually cleans your engine(previously petroleum) getting rid of carbon and other junk, also lubing the engine better than petroleum, the list goes on and on.
New Ford diesels can't run off biodiesel because of something to do with pressure in the new engines is around 11,000 rather than 4,000 like all other car diesels. More future diesels will also have the same issue because of the way they are going to be made, however as I said, rite now this only applies to the brand new ford diesel trucks, you can't use biodiesel in them. There are lots and lots of diesel trucks on the road but the only cars that have been diesel are old Volkswagens and Mercedes. BTW you can not run a gasoline engine on biodiesel , only diesel engines can use it, the reason is biodiesel actually isn't flammable at all, you can take a match to it and it won't light. I don't know much at all about diesel engines but I know they run off compressing the fuel rather than ignition.
Making biodiesel ...
Making your own biodiesel is the cheapest and easiest way of obtaining it. It's made from either new or used(usually free from restaurants) vege oil(BTW any plant or animal fat/oil can be used to make biodiesel I think). It's claimed easy but is also a bit complicated  What I've learned so far is that, well, lets start simple, if you use used vegetable oil you have to run it through a filter(25 micron) before you begin the actual process of making biodiesel , a teacher at my high school runs biodiesel and he uses an old pair of jeans to filter his used oil.  Ok... Making it... there are two "general ways" that I know if. In both processes, the oil has to be thinned out so it doesn't goop up your engine since it is naturally thick, this is an easy process involving heat. The first way that I know of to make the fuel is the science teacher at my schools way. Filter it with jeans, put it in your main gas tank. There are no chemicals added to the biodiesel this way so you need a separate tank of petroleum diesel to fire up the engine, then you flip a switch once the engine is warm then your exhaust smells different, that's the only visible(you know what I mean) change. Then a line is run through the radiator to heat up the vege oil thinning it out. The teacher bought a $1000(ouch  ) kit online specifically for his car that includes a seperate tank(3 gal for petroleum diesel) and other things, but I'm sure spending this kind of money can be avoided with more thinking if that makes any sense, for example use a plastic 3 gal. tank from wallmart and so on. The other method(easy to find info online) is a fairly long process of adding lye and 99% alcohol to the vege oil, this "way" gets 100% of the water and glycerin out of the oil and thins it out, and since chemicals are added no mods to the car are needed, just put the fuel into the tank, start the car and go with only biodiesel in the main tank, no other tank needed for starting the car.
Everyone says that restaurants love to get rid of this oil since they have to pay a service to remove it, then this company recycles it and sells it making a profit. Well this is true and not true. In most cases restaurants have to pay to remove the oil and are happy to give it to biodiesel people for free so they don't have to pay to dispose it, although there are things that get in the way of the fact that they just give it to you and are glad to. here's a ton of examples. Sometimes companies pay them to haul it away rather than the other way around. Sometimes other people have already claimed it for biodiesel . Supposedly you need a licence to take it off there hands, then end up using it to run your car, although that might be another one of those laws that you will never get in trouble for.  I've heard of a person in southern Cali who went restaurant to restaurant and didn't have luck anywhere. And that some guy that owns 4 restaurants gave it away to people that eventually gave up on biodiesel then he got a $125 fine for dropping then picking back up the removal service. Basic point is that the situation is not always companies are glad to just give the used oil to you to take it away. It could go either way, you might have the first restaurant you check say take any quantity you want, whenever you want, or you might get told no from place to place. One option is to buy it cheap off the company that collects it.  The best option is to have connections, know someone in the restaurant business / the owner. 
Feel free to post anything you want about biodiesel , and feel free to ask questions.
_____________________________
I have too many projects already... but I always find more.
|
Printable Version
All Forums >> RC Cars, Buggies, Trucks, Tanks and more >> Off Topic Forum - Cars, Trucks, Buggies and more >> Biodiesel - open discussion 
Biodiesel - open discussion - 
