Bio-diesel

Boston
The only thing I can say its a lot of work and dirty work too, but very rewarding. Not nearly as bad as playing with mineral oil, at least this veggi stuff wash,s off. They collect how much? 2000 gallons a week that's a lot of bloody fuel, you could easily go commercial! You do want the hassle of making bio and good bio, the only fire hazard is the methanol and when mixed, I advise to use a separate tank both methanol and and KOH pumped and mixed sealed No air NO burn! also saves doing it by hand, you can buy them over the nett ready made.http://www.evolutionbiodieselkits.com/mega-II-biodiesel-processor-specs.php For heating use either an electric element in the tank, or you can run hot water coil rigged up to a solar system. You only need to get the oil to around 35-38deg C for processing that's it. drying and washing is done at ambient temps above 10degC, depends were you are.
Don't give others the chance to make comments about how modern diesels are fussy, and bio is bad, do it right and its better than any stuff you get from the pump any day, guaranteed! Skip corners and will make crap not bio, and you will stuff your pumps.
Mark775 & Frosty
lucky we have water traps on filters, and your dead right they don't like running on water, so we do we keep running them on that rubbish that comes out of the pump?
by the way I do run one common rail and two DIDs and their all much happier on bio.
Good Luck
Katoh
Pump diesel is $1.49 a liter were I am, poor people on the marina pay $1.66 liter that's because they have no choice unless they can trailer their boat. To those who need to convert there's 3.8liters to a US gallon and 4.45liters to an imperial gallon.

 

I'm actually pretty curious about Marks idea of taking fish waste and pressing it for the oils, not sure if the factory ships are already doing this but even if they are there's still a market for the product as pellet feed for farmed fish.

I gotta wonder if a vessel hanging out in "the grounds" making fuel might just not be a pretty hip little business

you'd have to get the factory ships to tank there waste in some kind of barge or whatever but once you catch the incidentals your in.

 

This is the coolest way to make diesel I've ever seen:



http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110227/ap_on_bi_ge/us_growing_fuel

 

best part is there's no destruction of the biomass
the green stuff poops oils that can be gravity seperated from the water and then processed into fuel
something like 5 to 20 times more than algae based bio-diesel which was something like 5 to 20 times more than typical terrestrial based crops

my gwod there is a light at the end of the tunnel and its got something to do with changing the stranglehold of the energy industry

now to clean up plastics pollution and mandate the use of CO2 scrubbing polymers and make the oil and gas bastads pay for it

 

other than ( and this is a weird one I know ) for the oil and gas giants, its illegal to sell used motor oil as fuel. You can process it yourself but you cant sell it. So making a biz out of it is not happening.

ALso I nixed keeping the backyard refinery and have my neighbor working on welding up a 200 gallon tank for the bed of the truck that also contains all the filter stuff, that way I'm completely self contained. Total fuel on board is 250 gallons so I have some range and ability to get to my favorite mill and back with a load of hardwood in tow.

All in all what I spent on all this crap will be made up in less than one full tank and, its free from then on out. Ok I got six oil filters none of which cost more than about $8 so ya I think I'll likely change them every 1000 gallons or so ;-)

Oh I forgot to mention that I got two 24 volt 10 amp DC motors to run a small geared pump to push the 100lb pressure I need to make the centrifuge work. What happens is after I run through the 6 oil filters then I send it through the centrifuge and from there is drops down a large diameter tube over a cone in one section of the tank. Its basically a gigantic water separator, clean fuel rises to the top and spills over a bulkhead to where its picked up by the main fuel line which I will set up on a valve to fill the factory tanks in the truck. Gives me an excuse to stop somewhere and stretch my legs if I'm on the road.

 

The tank for the truck and assuming everything works the way layed out the basic design for the boat tank as well

yerp
its for WMO, bio-diesel, vegi oil, should filter just about anything



I also posted a pict in the "what have you done this weekend thread" cause after all
it is what I did this week end.

 

the close to finished product

 

That's one mighty flash setup!

 

Ok NOW you have my attention -- But isnt the pump a bit high? how will it prime up there.

That pump will not like being regulated. is it vane or impeller?

 

its a geared pump, I think its for a hydrolic system but I'm having trouble identifying it off the tag thats on it

I"m told geared pumps are self priming so should work like a charm, or at least it better cause its got to dry lift about two feet. From what I read about this type of pump it should be able to dry lift about ten feet. Thats kinda one of the variables I haven't tested yet

wish me luck

oh and its up that high so that if one of those snap fittings leaks it doesn't drain the tank

its also designed so I could crane it right out of the back of the truck and into the boat

 

Ok I can see you have given it a lot of thought with your filter brackets. Its a nice job.

That gear pump will prime, but it will bog down and pull some amps if it cant get rid of the outlet pressure.

 

thanks
there is a overpressure return outlet on the fluid pressure control valve and once I find a rheostat to moderate motor speed with I'll fire it up and see how it goes. I didn't have the centrifuge on it when I tested everything ( which is the one item that really needs regulating ) so I'm kinda guessing as to what kind of pressure the regulator can handle, considering the volume the pump seems to be able to put out. Its a 3/8 fitting regulator and a 1/2 fitting pump head so I might need to spring for a larger fluid pressure regulator.

Either way the regulator will have a overpressure relief so the motor doesn't burn out.

I could cheap out and just put a pressure gauge at the centrifuge and another at the pump head and use the rheostat to set the pump speed. That way I'd have a crude method of regulating the pressure although it wouldn't self adjust like a real fluid pressure regulator would.

 

I found this article in todays BBC and just had to include it
http://www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/04/19/oil.sands.extreme.energy/index.html?hpt=C2

the latest configuration of the big tank



I'm waiting still on a part and the centrifuge water separator they sent was screwed up so Its go tot go back for a new one. There's a cage/door going over the works so they don't get smashed by things floating around in the bed and I'm thinking inline water heater as suggested. Still plugging away at it but I had to put it down for a while as I have other projects going on as well.

oh hey side note
got some warehouse space for the build
yahoooooooo

cheers
B

 

when do you think you will be trying it out, i am keen to see how it go's, very neat job.

 

As I said, I'm waiting for a part, so another month maybe. I'll test out the pump on pure veggie oil and make sure that can lift the few feet I need it to. Then I'll test out the heater, a combo of solar hot box and inline. One for winter and one for summer. I'm thinking I don't run it much if at all in the colder months so the inline wont see much use but if calculations prove themselves out then a few days in the CO summer sun and I should be up to processing temp without reservation. After that I'm already running on mostly WMO so the engine part of things is already proven.

I'll post picts soon as I get it completed, but I keep getting interrupted by other projects. Just got the warehouse and start moving in tomorrow. That and I'm waiting on those dam parts still, drives me nuts to have to wait for **** like that. Anyway I'll post more when I have it

cheers
B