My first Alt fuel post

[jeffnzoya]

I own a family style restaurant that has about 5 gal of WVO per week. A few years ago I looked into purchasing a fuelmiester system but the cost was $2900.00. I felt at that time that it was to expensive for 5 gal a week. Now 5 gal = $22.00.

I have read some of your posts and see that some of you are building your own systems.

I am very interested in this however I don't want a bomb in my barn or a broken down truck in the driveway.

Can someone give me some info on my options. I see some of you are actually running WVO mixed with pump diesel. What mod's do I need to do that. Is is safe. Has any of you ran this for a long period of time.

Thanks

Jeff.

 

[bbressler]

Biodiesel would require no mods to your truck. WVO does.

If the 5 gallons a week is your only source of oil, I'd do biodiesel. With WVO, you need to dedicate a tank to it, so the little bit of use you get out of it wouldn't get much use. If you make biodiesel, you can fill up with that, save a bit of money, and when you need to fill up with regular, that's fine.

It's pretty easy to build your own system for much less than the $2900. Honestly, though, if you drive enough, I'd probably just filter/dewater the oil you've got, and mix with regular diesel in small amounts (Maybe a gallon or two per tank = < 10%). If you drive like I do, 5 gallons wouldn't last little more than a day. Converting to biodiesel would take a long time to get enough to do a batch (maybe once a month?) But -- if you've got somewhere you can find some more oil, then you've got some deciding to do.

There are risks involved with biodiesel. Methanol is flammable -- so treat it like gas. Don't smoke or have anything with open flames around. Common sense stuff.

 

[jeffnzoya]

Is there a good set of plans on how to build a system. I could probably come up with some more.

Jeff

 

[jestersv]

Welcome - Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial Website this is the place to get all your info on biodiesel