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Bio diesel

Posted: Mon May 28, 2018 10:19 am
by Scottish-prepper
Has anyone here ever tried making bio diesel or ethanol fuel to power their car or genny?

I feel for sustainability post society this would be an invaluable skill.

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Wed May 30, 2018 8:37 pm
by DustyDog
Looked in to it a few years ago when waste veg oil (Wvo) was cheap and plentiful, I didn’t seem that hard, from what I can remember, you use a catalyst (ethanol I think) having first tested it to see how much catalyst you need to separate the oil from all the gunk you don’t need, then have to wash the oil and a few other bits and bobs. I believe that a company made a device called the ‘fuel pod’ and it did all the work for you, you got your wvo, that has been filtered down to whatever micron it was, it heated then decided how much catalyst it used and so on, it even had a standard fuel pump nozzle just like a regular fuel pump you would normally use, the company reckoned that their diesel Range Rover had done 70+ thousand miles on the stuff.
But by then the cost of buying an ICB of wvo went skyward and by the time you got the stuff unless you made tons of the fuel, cost of the machine and the oil made it not worth the hassle.
So maybe in a post apocalyptic world but at the mo, it may be worth having a look and seeing if it has got any easier or cheaper but don’t count on getting waste oil for peanuts. As for ethanol fuel, couldn’t say myself.

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 2:07 am
by shocker
I made bio some years ago - it can be arduous and (a it) dangerous but if one is careful, fine. Of course research into vehicle suitability is a must as bio can have nasty effects on some engines, and kill seals on some engines that is is otherwise suitable for.

I quickly moved on to filtering my waste oil in steps down to 5 micron with cheap "sock" filters in a series of dustbins on multilevel (strong!) shelves. Then I would add a dash of unleaded, up to 10% in winter then away. Sometimes preheating of the fuel is needed in-vehicle, there are many ways to do this, Or twin-tanking and starting on dino-diesel until the engine is warm, similar to LPG/petrol.

I was running 300tdi landrovers for 2 years without problems. A mate ran his XUD engined Peugeot likewise.

I lost my workshop space and had to give it up just when I was building a new system with heaters and an old central heating pump. At that time interest was growing in cleaning up waste motor oil for fuel. I am somewhat behind the times but if you want I will look up someof the old forums and sites and post links.

Shocks

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 6:33 am
by Deeps
Morning Shocker, good to see you back mate.

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Thu May 31, 2018 7:08 am
by shocker
Hiya Deeps ! Thanks for the welcome mate, good to be back :D ;)

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2019 10:41 am
by Raven
I feel that for everyday use this is good! Price of diesel here is around £1.30!!!!

Only thing is the bit of research i have done on them seems to require fairly “clean” oil, whereas i would want to be using the used stuff from restaurants, etc which partially defeats the purpose for me. :S

Re: Bio diesel

Posted: Fri Aug 16, 2019 10:28 am
by grenfell
I did some reading about this some time ago but decided for the relatively low milage i do it wouldn't have given me that much in savi gs. I seem to recall that used oil has the advantage that it has undergone prolonged heating which has a positive effect on the molecular structure. It would be interesting to hear how different oils work with the process . On the subject of ethanol i also seem to recall that producing it is perfectly ok but it's illegal to use ina road vehicle probably because it becomes a tax avoidance thing. From a practical point it works ,theBrazilians used ethanol for years and ethanol is added to petrol now up to( i think) 5% although there are some who worry about its affect on rubber seals and its hydroscopic nature.