Marine Biodiesel fuels

[Greenseas2]

This is not for the ethanol or methannol using guys, but the folks with small diesel boats. Producing biodiesel fuel for used vegetable cooking oils id a simple process that enable the owners of small to medium sized cruising boats to produce (refine) their own fuel supply. Biodiesel refining is basically de-esterification of vegetable oils that enable it to be used to fuel diesel engines. The simple process not only produces diesel fuel, but also a vauable by-product used by soap and perfume manufacturers...Glycerin. Biodiesel is clean burning and has no sulfur, unlike petroleum diesel and no changes to diesel engines are required to use it. The largest benefit to those who set up a small refinery is that they have totally islolated themselves from the whims of OPEC and major petroeul products producers.
The basic raw materials can come from local area resaurants and bakeries, most of which use vegetable oils in cooking and baking. Lye and a couple other ingredients is easily purchased local as is the refining equipment. Making biodiesel is where small boat owners shine in that if large yacht owners want to use biodiesel, they would have to have a tanker truck to pick up the raw product and another to delivery the fuel in addition to a commercial size refinery and personnel to run it.
The small refinery capabl;e of supplying all of the fuel needed for a medium to small diesel powered power boat, or larger sailboats, plus diesel car can be made in a refinery that comfortably fits on one side of a one car garage . We were recently asked for the "recipe" for biodiesel. It isn't a recipe, but a very simple refining process. For more information, go to Biodiesel.org. There are a lot of small biodiesel refineries popping up around the US. The reason is that biodiesel can be made for about 46 cents a gallon. Small crab and fishing boats are using it and farmers throughout the US have made their own for decades. Bye Bye OPEC!

[Vega]

Originally Posted by Greenseas2

Bye Bye OPEC!

Very interesting.... but not so easy...I mean the Bye Bye.
Diesel is much cheaper. What are expensive are the taxes over it.
Besides, using that would be illegal around here (it is not that is going to stop me)

[Greenseas2]

Currently there are no taxes on biodiesel in the US; however, there are tax incentives to both produce it and use it. As far as I can tell there are no adverse affects with diesel engines. In fact, having no sulfur in the fuel will keep the injectors cleaner. The only part I don't care for is heating the used vegetable oil to 150 degrees to be able to work with it. Handlinn the lye also requires caution and precise measuring. Other than that, the process is quite simple.

[Tim B]

There is a guy in the UK who is running a Sunseeker motor-boat on it. As I remember it's a flybridge yacht, so we're talking huge quantities of fuel, but it seems to work. I'm sure you'd find it if you searched.

It's a really good idea.

Tim B.

[SamSam]

Originally Posted by Greenseas2

but a very simple refining process. For more information, go to Biodiesel.org. There are a lot of small biodiesel refineries popping up around the US.

It's a big site. Is there a nuts and bolts description somewhere describing how to make a 'carport' sized refinery and how to actually do it? Sam

[solrac]

mmmmm.....
not as simple & funny as the propaganda guys at biodiesel.org say, belive me, (I do work for a Petroleum Company)
recognize it's cheaper to produce, (if you can find a free surce provider)
recognize it even has better results than Petroleum Diesel fuel (has no sulphur as stated)
not sure the mileage per gallon compared to Petroleum Diesel... it's not still been tested enough...
but something I would'nt ever recognize, is the fact that the process is simple, the precision needed at the refinig process is quite far from a home made can & two or three pieces of tubing...
the de-esterification is a high temperature process of a flammable material with the aggregate of some volatile chemicals, and finally, the resulting product (home made one) may still have slight contents of greases,(glycerine still is a grease) that probably (surely) will end at the injectors. a engine boat is something you can not exit & push it down the street when it refuses to start...
Also, there is no Touring Club available 10 miles out from coast when something goes wrong with the grease percentage at the injectors....

[Vega]

Originally Posted by solrac

mmmmm.....
...
the resulting product (home made one) may still have slight contents of greases,(glycerine still is a grease) that probably (surely) will end at the injectors. a engine boat is something you can not exit & push it down the street when it refuses to start...
....

You have a point here

[mattotoole]

Originally Posted by Greenseas2

Currently there are no taxes on biodiesel in the US; however, there are tax incentives to both produce it and use it. As far as I can tell there are no adverse affects with diesel engines. In fact, having no sulfur in the fuel will keep the injectors cleaner. The only part I don't care for is heating the used vegetable oil to 150 degrees to be able to work with it. Handlinn the lye also requires caution and precise measuring. Other than that, the process is quite simple.

There may be no mechanism to collect taxes on homemade biodiesel in the US, but that doesn't mean you're exempt. It's a gray area where most users are slipping under the radar, but the gov't could crack down at any time.

There are a bunch of places now offering commercial biodiesel to boaters. I'm sure the info is available at www.biodiesel.org.

[Wellydeckhand]

In Indonesia , Pertamina have already starting their history pages investing into mass production and usage of biodiesel program.............. it is said to sell gas oversea to gain foreign + and to use cheap bio-diesel in the country, very funny yes?

[Greenseas2]

As with any other processing, you have to pay attention to the de-esterification process and the quality of biodiesel that you refine. There is nothig particularly dangerous about it. I found the process very easy, but too, I'm very careful. Removing the glycerin poses no problems. In running a diesel engine on the stuff for the past year, I haven't found any problems and neither have others who produce and use it. The source of raw materials may be limited in some areas that don't have a lot of restaurants or bakeries to rely on. Best to lock in your sources for a long term if you can. The fact that keeps big refineries at bay is that the collection of raw vegetable oils would be both cumbersome and expensive. This is finally where the little guy has the advantage.

Here in south Florida, it would be some time before the sources dry up unless some big outfit comes in and starts paying for the raw materials. As it stands now, our sources are happy to have someone haul it away and we've established good relations with the sources to protect our interests.

At any rate, for the small refinery biodiesel is a God send and one way to energy independence. No one is flying under the radar tax wise. In fact, there are tax incentives to produce and use biodiesel. I don't know where the false information came from but there are no taxes unless you sell it. Then it is only taxed at the local and state levels and business taxed federally as business income.

There are plenty of web sites on biodiesel production and some from the Deoartment of Energy. We bought books and went with their preliminatry instructions. Most of the equipment can be personally manufactured or purchased if you chose. A mediium refinery can be bought for around $3,000.

[Wellydeckhand]

Here you can buy local CPO for cheap price and combination of US$3,000 backyard medium plant? How much fuel will that product with that package? I mean do you still need diesel to blend with it?

[Ari]

I do really love to learn on the process and experience of members who had run this unit.

[Ari]

Originally Posted by Wellydeckhand

Here you can buy local CPO for cheap price and combination of US$3,000 backyard medium plant? How much fuel will that product with that package? I mean do you still need diesel to blend with it?

PKO is cheaper than CPO. Only the pour point for PKO is very high at about 24 degrees Celcius.Are CPO sold to day a to day buyer there ? or do you need to have special licences to buy it ?

[Wellydeckhand]

Originally Posted by Ari

PKO is cheaper than CPO. Only the pour point for PKO is very high at about 24 degrees Celcius.Are CPO sold to day a to day buyer there ? or do you need to have special licences to buy it ?

CPO is for food cooking oil, from the first press, the 3rd or 4th press will be a lower quality oil that is not stardard for consumption and would be ideal for biodiesel.

The plantation would sell their crop daily to the factory, the factory will process and produce the raw CPO, alternative Secondary grade can be purchase as long as negociation between company and price is right. My area is second only to Sumatra in term of palm plantaion and processing, dont know the future stats, because kalimantan is expanding fast....... real fast for palm oil industry.

By the way enlight me pls on PKO, ok

Wellydeckhand

[Ike]

This is very interesting. I have a couple of questions. When the diesel producers went to low sulfur fuels there were a lot of problems with gaskets in diesel engines adapting to the new fuel. I had to have the head gasket and several other gaskets changed on my diesel car. Would this kind of thing occur if you used biodiesel with practically no sulfur?

What do you do with the by-product, glycerin? You can't just dump it so where does it go?

Also you said a system could be purchased for $3,000 but how much to make your own, and what would you need? Can this be made from common stuff you can buy at a hardware store or what?

Also you said it requires high temperatures. How high? Would this be safe inside a building? Would it set of the sprinklers? (I'm not kidding. Many years ago UL tested a fuel tank for fire resistance inside a large warehouse assuming the sprinkler system would douse the fire. Someone neglected to tell them that the sprinkler system had been shut down by the fire department for some reason. They burned the building down.)