Marine Biodiesel fuels

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by Greenseas2, Apr 26, 2006.

  1. Guillermo
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    Guillermo Ingeniero Naval

    Yes. Petroleum diesels are produced now with sulphur contents even under 50 ppm. The process to take the sulphur out from the diesel removes the natural lubricants, so those fuels require the use of specific additives.
    Having a look at the specs of biodiesel (http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/BDSpec.PDF), I find there is an S15 Grade specification (15 ppm) for sulphur content. I was also wondering about how this biodiesel performs in engines.
    Doing some additional search at biodiesel.org I found this: http://www.biodiesel.org/pdf_files/fuelfactsheets/Lubricity.PDF
    It seems biodiesel has natural lubricating properties by itself (The one complying with ASTM D 6751; I don't know about the home made's)and when added to N 2 petroleum diesel in as low as 1%, it provides enough lubricity to avoid concerns with low sulphur.
     
  2. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    Good input.

    Biodiesel doesn't have to be mixed with petroeum diesel. As a matter of fact, you will extend the life of your engine by not using petroleum based diesel at all. Here we have replaced engine lube oil with synthetic Mobile 1 also and find that the engine runs both quieter and easier.
     
  3. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    partially correct

    Home brewed biodiesel without sulfur content has had no problems. Here we even replace petroleum based lube oil with synthetic Mobile 1 for better performance and longer engine life. At he end of this year, the local Yanmar folks have offered to take the engine apart and rebuild it to see how the biodiesel and synthetic lubricants have affected the engine. We'll know more at that time.
     
  4. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    More sites for biodiesel and equipment

    There is a plethora of information on making biodiesel as well as testing on the internet. Just go to either Yahoo.com or AOL.com and type in the word Biodiesel. There also several good books on the subject on the web sites.
     
  5. fcfc
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    fcfc Senior Member

    Do not forget Marketing ...

    Biodiesel is inexpensive when no one (or nearly no one) is using it. When the manager of the local dunkin donut will see 50 guys a day asking for used cooking oil, he will soon understand that he can make more profit selling used cooking oil than selling donuts. And biodiesel will reach the price of oil. As simple as that.
     
  6. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    Sources

    As I mentioned before, our sources are aware of what we are doing and are quite interested and proud to be part of the process.Additonally, they have seen the proof that it works and are no seriously considering buying diesel cars. There would be a good trade off with them in furnishing some amount of fuel at production costs in return for continued supplies of vegetable oil. Additonally, we have been their customers for a number of years. Loyalty out equals loyalty back. As mentioned earlier in this thread, protect your sources of raw materials. I doubt seriously if we will ever see a Dunkin Donuts biodiesel station pumping the product. For personal car and boat use, a great amount of the vegetable oil is not really needed. We use our car locally and fly on long distance trips. The key idea of biodiesel is that it gives the little guys isloation from OPEC and large petroleum producers. Take your fuel bills and add up the number of gallons that you use annually and you can see how little is really needed.

    I'm sure that if we can get an experienced chemist in to the discussion, we will also find that there is a simple process to also use the glycerin by-product as engine lubricating oil, but I'm not prepared to try that one yet. Let it suffice to say that there is a method for car owner and boat owners to become energy independent. That in itself is one huge step. As with any subject, we can inject extremes in the situation to create a negative aspect. With the ability to produce your own fuel at extremely low cost, finding negatives will be equally extremely difficult to find or generate.
     
  7. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    Sources

    As I mentioned before, our sources are aware of what we are doing and are quite interested and proud to be part of the process.Additonally, they have seen the proof that it works and are now seriously considering buying diesel cars. There would be a good trade off with them in furnishing SOME AMOUNT of fuel at production costs in return for continued supplies of vegetable oil. Additonally, we have been their customers for a number of years. Loyalty out equals loyalty back. As mentioned earlier in this thread, protect your sources of raw materials. I doubt seriously if we will ever see a Dunkin Donuts biodiesel staion pumping the product. For personal car and boat use, a great amount of the vegetable oil is not really needed. We use our car locally and fly on long distance trips. The key idea of biodiesel is that it gives the little guys isloation from OPEC and large petroleum producers. Take you fuel bills and add up the number of gallons that you use annually and you can see how little is really needed.

    I'm sure that if we can get an experienced chemist in to the discussion, we will also find that there is a simple process to also use the glycerin by-product as engine lubricating oil, but I'm not prepared to rty that one yet. Let it suffice to say that there is a method for car owner and boat owners to become energy independent. That in itself is one huge step. As with any subject, we can inject extremes in the situation to create a negative aspect. With the ability to produce your own fuel at extremely low cost, finding negatives will be equally extremely difficult to find or generate.
     
  8. solrac
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    solrac 100% sudaca

    On my last post, I emphasized that it's not too simple not too cheap & not too safe to produce the stuff. maybe I was misunderstood, I'm not against biodiesel, just stating that the technology required to obtain an acceptable grade fuel is not on the home made range.
    In this country, we have an operational full cycle Biodiesel plant, starting from the plantations on up, to the storage tanks. it has an operative volume of about 3:000.000 lts a month. mainly used for trucks & labour machinery. they are not still comercializing it for small vehicle engines, because of the high dificulties on achieving a high quality de-esterification caused by batch-processing, once they can reach the continuous cycle maybe they will do.
    by the way, this is a link to the company page:
    http://www.biodiesel-uruguay.com/biodiesel_planta_productora.php
     
  9. SamSam
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    SamSam Senior Member

    If you start with 10 gallons of vegtable oil, how much fuel and glycerin and ? do you end up with? How much fuel would be consumed in the process to refine 10 gals.? Sam
     
  10. solrac
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    solrac 100% sudaca

    not sure exactly, but depending on technology availability & quality of the base oil to refine, think the final energy-eficiency of the process maybe reaches the 70%
     
  11. stevel
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    stevel Lost at sea

    Even a mix will improve particulate emissions.

    The heavy equipment garage at LAX was involved in an experiment on a couple of their generators. They only mixed 20% biodiesel into petrodiesel and got better than a 70% reduction in particulate emissions. It may be worth considering that option if the scale of the operation is prohibitive.
     
  12. SheetWise
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    SheetWise All Beach -- No Water.

    Biodiesel from Algae

    For those interested in biodiesel, a great site is biodieselnow.com. The most promising source of fuel seems to be algae -- here's a discussion LINK.
     
  13. gonzo
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    gonzo Senior Member

    Seems like the more enthusiastic endorsers of biodiesel from waste cooking oil are environmentalists. However, they don't explain what happens to the 30% or so hazardous waste left over. Do you dump it in the sewage?
     
  14. Greenseas2
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    Greenseas2 Senior Member

    Waste

    We havenh't found anywhere close to 30% hazardous waste. Selling the glycerin is a coop type thing and fairly successful. I'm far from being a greenie, but do respect efforts to help people achieve more than a modicum of energy independence. Biodiesel isn't just limited to boats. Other uses are:
    HOME HEATING: The are several commercial diesel cabin heaters on the market that can be used in homes. And no diesel smell.
    COOKING: Same as heating.
    POWER GENERATION: Last year before the hurricanes, a very affluent couple bought a 15 KW generator to power their house after hurricanes and bragged quite loudly about having refrigeration and air conditioning. A week after the first hurricane passed, they were crying the blues because they couldn't get gas for their generator. No electricity at the gas stations. Allen Machine Company advertised two diesel engines in this month's Boats and Harbors. There was a new 23hp Yanmar diesel for $1,900 and an 13 hp Acme diesel. They also sell generators to hook up to the engines. Allenmachineco.com.
    REFRIGERATION: Lehman's Hardware in Kidron Ohio sells non-electric refrigerators and other appliance to the Amish who don't believe in using electricity. They have a Servel 8.0 cubic foot refrigerator/freezer that works on keronsene. They're checking with Servel, the manufacturer, about the use of biodiesel in the burner. Lehmans.com
    While mass production from used cooking oil may regulate a limited production, other raw materials are available, but at some cost.
     

  15. Ari
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    Ari Patience s/o Genius

    I had read a previous thread about using **** seed oil 100% in tractor engine maybe somewhere in Holland.My question is why must the vegetable oil be reprocess. Chances are there is salt and other impurities in the used cooking oil, get rid of it,but why the de alkylation ? Can't it be used straight after washing out the salt and filtering the impurities ? There is a test and observation performed by a company name Elsbet. They used Crude Palm Oil(CPO) to run Elsbet engine in a Mercedes S class body. Sorry doesn't know wether they ever publish their findings.
     
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