biodiesel????

[hellyaellen]

Love to hear anyones stories requarding running cars on biodiesel. We're looking for an older model to run on biodiesel. So far everything we've been really interested in has been sold already but i gues that gives us time to find out as much as possible before we make a purchase.

Some things we've run into already are

1. Lye - where do you get yours?
2. Used oil - The restaurants around here are selling theirs to this company

http://www.griffinind.com/Griffin%20...locations.html

thanks mamas!

[Rebecca]

Lye? I didn't realize that's an ingredient in biodiesel. My brother in law's website www.biodieselwarehouse.com (well, he just sold the biz to the current owners) recommends methanol. You can get that at a hobby shop that sells methanol-powered race cars. I was wary of this because it's toxic, flammable and explosive and I didnt' trust myself enough to mix it correctly.

Try asking a small restaurant owner versus a chain? They likely dont' have as stringent a contract as the companies buying the oil. Some have to PAY to have the waste oil taken away and if you'll do it for free, they'll be happy to give you all you want.

BIL had a diesel VW Jetta. Nice car, runs forever. He brews it for heating oil too, IIRC.

[hellyaellen]

honestly i'm not sure what the lye is for. dh will be doing all the mixing and chemical stuff. i'm going to forward him the link though.

[beanma]

yeah, i don't homebrew myself (buy from our co-op), but the instructions i've heard recommend methanol or some people use ethanol to keep it strictly petrol-free.

here are links for making your own appleseed processor -- http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/appleseedprocessor/ and here are some cool classes -- not sure if any are in your area or not -- http://www.girlmark.com/ .

there are other mamas and papas on here who know more about home-brew and running on grease than i do. i'm sure they can tell you more, but we've been really pleased with running our VWs on biodiesel. we haven't had any problems at all.

link in my siggy, too...

[hellyaellen]

[lucyem]

My sister has a diesel vw passat. She buys biodiesel at various gas stations. http://www.biodiesel.org/ is where she looks for gas stations to use when she is on a trip.

[hellyaellen]

The closest retail biodiesel is about an hour away

I checked w/ my sister who manages one of a small chain of restaurants about getting at least enough oil to do a test batch and a friend from work's dad owns a non-chain restareunt so i asked her about it also.

love the links

:

[beanma]

ellen,

you might like to check out the forums at biodieselnow, too -- http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/54/ShowForum.aspx . i haven't hung out there very much, but it looks like they could have some info for you.

i would think that getting grease from non-chain restaurants would be ideal. some folks recommend asian restaurants. (maybe a higher quality oil? not sure why.) i think your good old georgia mom-n-pop greasy spoon might be able to help you out, too.

when we first started out we got two big 55 gallon drums and put them in the back of dh's land cruiser we had at the time and he drove 4 or 5 hrs to get b100. the 110 gallons of fuel would last a long long time. now there are folks who will do home delivery, too, if you wanted to go that route instead of the homebrew route, but homebrew is emminently cool. it might be worth your while to investigate co-ops in your area. our co-op is great and offers classes and tours. they're a wealth of knowledge and would have the answers to all your questions if they were in your area (and might know some info even though they're not). if you'd like to let me know where you are in GA i could do some more specific searches and maybe ask on our biodiesel list. i'm in NC so not too far...

here are a few more linkies about georgia and biodiesel...

http://www.southerngrease.com/

http://www.b100fuel.com/archives/200...ia_senate.html

http://www.biodiesel.org/news/events...r/default.shtm

http://atlanta.bizjournals.com/atlan...08/story3.html

http://www.biodieselmagazine.com/art...article_id=979

http://www.frybrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=3483

www.agecon.uga.edu/~caed/biodieselrpt.pdf

http://southeastbiodiesel.org/ (workshop for 2006, but there may be good info on the site)

[AJP]

We run on biodiesel, but don't make it (yet). We buy it through a co-op 300 gal. at a time and store it at home, that amount lasts us about 6 months. We tow the tank to the delivery site on a trailer - the tank is a big plastic cube with a metal cage around it, originally used for a food substance like oil or sugar syrup, and is called a tote - leave it there to be filled or meet the delivery tanker, then tow it home and pump the biodiesel into another tank from which we fill the vehicle. (We pump it into another tank because we need to use the trailer in between biodiesel deliveries, and the tank is too heavy when full to move without a forklift.) This system is working very well for us right now. Our vehicle is a 2005 Jeep Liberty CRD, and it runs fine on biodiesel, no problems in the approx. 18 mos. we've been using it.

We get a lot of questions from people who see our biodiesel bumper sticker. I feel like I should make a series of stickers to put all across the back of the car to say "this vehicle runs on 100% biodiesel made from vegetable oil, it's a normal diesel engine, yes it runs fine and no modifications are necessary", since that's what we usually end up explaining.

[hellyaellen]

haven't been back to check in a while. : :

We're picking up a car Saturday. We might have a source for the oil. My work friend's dad's restaraunt is apparently not selling to the big plant. They do have a guy who picks it up but maybe they can spare some for us too. still got to look into it. Lots of mom and pop places around here.

We're in Laurens county, beanma. (your links are awesome)

[hellyaellen]

kurt has whipped up 2 test batches but they both turned into soap:

[hellyaellen]

We have a source for oil now

the restaurant my sister manages is going to let us use some of theirs

[beanma]

well congrats on sourcing the oil! i would definitely check out the www.biodieselcommunity.org and www.girlmark.com links. i think you'll find a lot of how to keep it from turning into soap info there. wish i knew what to tell you, but i'm clueless!

[hellyaellen]

Thanks! I'll pass those on to kurt. My work folks were asking me some technical questions today and i'm just: That's his department

[astar326]

I just bought an '84 Mercedes diesel today that I plan to run on biodiesel always (luckily around where I live there are a few options to buy from gas stations) and eventually WVO when I can afford to put in a second fuel system. I'm sooooooo excited! I've been researching this for a while and it's finally becoming a reality. I'm so happy, I just thought I'd share.

~Angel

[hellyaellen]

yeah, kurt did all his research over the course of like, a week? when the man gets excited he usually runs with it. makes life kind of : but in this case i was totally behind him. (i've been interested for years - and have researched, well i've been reading Mother Earth News, for a long time; never really took in all the technical aspects though)

his first 2 test batches are still sitting in the kitchen though but we did get some proper containers for larger scale mixing, so we're making progress