Thinking about starting my own biodiesel operation

[tanman_2006]

I have been researching some biodiesel products and have decided it will pay for itself pretty quick.

I am wanting to know what I may be missing or what I might not need in my set up.

I grow canola and soybeans so I am thinking crushing my own seed would be better than finding used fryer oil.

I have found a local company to get a crusher from and I have also found a local company that has a processor and dry wash system.

Is the process the same after the oil is extracted from the seed as fryer oil processing?
I have heard that virgin oil is easier to process is there any truth to this?

I will post some links to the equip I have found later to get some opinion.

Let me know any ideas. This is an IDEA to fuel my tractors year round.

 

[tanman_2006]

Press, I am thinking the 6YL-120 will be enough for now.
http://www.seedcrushers.com/presses.html

Processor and Drywash Kit, Farmboss and Evokleen 1000.
http://evolutionbiodieselkits.com/

 

[JeffMD]

As far as the processor and dry wash go, those things look a little pricey to me.When you buy one of these ready made processors you pay a lot for the convenience and the polish and the paint job.

If you are mechanically inclined you can build your own processor for much less. Just google appleseed reactor and you can get the plans. As far as the drywash goes check with Chris at Houston biodiesel. He has something he built out of PVC pipe ( I think) for a lot less than that.

You can also sort of set up a still and recover a lot of your methanol. This can really bring your production costs down.

The advantage of using virgin oil over waste oil is your filtration will be easier and more than likely your ph will be fairly stable and mild batch to batch. You probably wont need as much lye as you would with waste oil.

 

[tanman_2006]

As far as the processor and dry wash go, those things look a little pricey to me.When you buy one of these ready made processors you pay a lot for the convenience and the polish and the paint job.

If you are mechanically inclined you can build your own processor for much less. Just google appleseed reactor and you can get the plans. As far as the drywash goes check with Chris at Houston biodiesel. He has something he built out of PVC pipe ( I think) for a lot less than that.

You can also sort of set up a still and recover a lot of your methanol. This can really bring your production costs down.

The advantage of using virgin oil over waste oil is your filtration will be easier and more than likely your ph will be fairly stable and mild batch to batch. You probably wont need as much lye as you would with waste oil.

Thanks for the reply. I'm not in a hurry so building might be a good option. I'm pretty well a novice when it comes to building but Im not scared of it either as long as I know what I need, where to get it, and HOW. My main problem is a lack of tools. Will any of this take anything special?

I am interested in funtional and doing a fairly large quantity at one time. I won't just be sitting around brewing. If I can cut costs on the proccessor and drywash then I might up my crusher size.

The farm boss processor has a 230 gallon capacity. I have old 250 gallon roundup containers that can be used for that part (but I would still like bigger) Would any poly tank work?

I checked at Houston Biodiesel and didn't see any drywash specs

 

[coachjpg]

http://www.oilcrusher.5u.com/index.html
This guy has an interesting approach. He grows his own seeds, crushes it, and runs it in his diesels. He filters, adds gas, and burns it. No methanol. No toxic waste.

I'm interested to hear what folks think of this approach.

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[Franko914]

http://www.oilcrusher.5u.com/index.html
This guy has an interesting approach. He grows his own seeds, crushes it, and runs it in his diesels. He filters, adds gas, and burns it. No methanol. No toxic waste.

I'm interested to hear what folks think of this approach.

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It just means the guy is running "straight vegetable oil" (SVO) in his diesel, although he is adding gasoline to it. Biodiesel is the product of a chemical process that uses vegetable oil, an alkali (NaOH or KOH), alcohol (methanol or ethanol) and heat. SVO has very very little lubricity compared to dino-diesel which, in turn, has less lubricity than bio-diesel. In fact, when bio-diesel is added to dino-diesel, the increased lubricity helps the IP run smoother. Older mechanical IPs are able to run SVO more "easily" than newer electro-mechanical IPs. Wouldn't want to run SVO on common-rail diesels.

 

[coachjpg]

SVO has very very little lubricity compared to dino-diesel which, in turn, has less lubricity than bio-diesel.

I'd like to read more about this. Can you provide pointer(s) to further detail? From what I've read, SVO has much higher lubricity than Ultra-Low Sulpher Diesel. As for svo/biodiesel lubricity, I understood that lubricity varies more by the vegetable oil used than by whether anyone has treated it with (m)ethanol.

Wouldn't want to run SVO on common-rail diesels.

This guy does it without problem:
http://indstyle.addr.com/clubpages/SMLFRYZ.htm
He just heats and filters. Some also cut it with gas/kero/diesel.

Here is my understanding. If I'm misinformed, I'd very much like to be educated.

1. Particles: If you don't filter your VO well, you kill your engine. Cat says filter to <= 4 microns absolute. Most consumer diesel filters capture down to 10 microns. Many WVO users shoot for <= 1 micron absolute, using bags and/or or centrifuge.
2. Viscosity: You have to get the density & viscosity to where the pumps can handle it. Some do that with heat, some with dilution, or a mix of the two. Measuring specific gravity is a simple test for this. If your fuel has the same specific gravity as your local diesel, your pumps should handle it fine.
3. Glycerin: Glycerin can cause your fuel to clump or string when you want it to flow or fog. If you do nothing about the glycerin in your VO, your engine will have to cope with it. Some engines (indirect injection) can handle glycerin in the fuel, some (direct injection) can't. You can use (m)ethanol to strip out the glycerin and convert it to toxic waste, or you can blend in some gasoline, pass it through a centrifuge a few times, and burn the glycerin as part of your fuel. The gasoline/centrifuge approach modifies the glycerin to where it won't form clumps or strings. The centrifuge also filters the fuel.
4. Lubricity: Ultra Low Sulpher Diesel has much-reduced lubricity, causing problems in pumps designed for older diesel. VO, SVO, WVO, and BioDiesel all have far better (~25X) lubricity than ULSD.
5. Cetane: BioDiesel has lower cetane than dino-diesel, which is why Cat says to expect 5-8% power loss with biodiesel. If you leave the glycerin in, VO has higher cetane numbers than dino-diesel, resulting in more power.

There are lots of other parameters in the Cat diesel spec, but these are the key items that challenge home-scale VO-based fuel production. IIUC, the others are generally not problematic.

I've read up on this quite a bit, and I thought I understood it. Your comments make me wonder. Am I misinformed? It wouldn't be the first time...

Thanks,
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[Franko914]

Lubricity, in this topic's context, i.e., lubricity of fuel for diesel engines, be it dino-diesel, bio-diesel or vegetable oil (SVO, WVO), is of much importance mainly because of how it affects the internal components of the high-pressure injection pump. Not to be confused with (surface) lubrication properties when comparing, say, graphite grease and petroleum jelly. In this regard, ULSD has less lubricity than the (dino) diesel fuel of old because of the lower sulphur content (sulphur increases the fuel's lubricity; occurs naturally in the crude oils in varying amounts; "sweet" crude requiring less refining than others). The US government has decreed (correctly) that reducing sulphur in gasoline and diesel fuels reduces acid rain (sulphur being the main culprit and component in [sulphuric] acid rain).

Bio-diesel, a product of the chemical process that converts vegetable oil or animal fat into bio-diesel, also resulting with glycerol byproduct, has much higher lubricity properties than dino-diesel, and a very strong solvent at that. Veggie oil, regardless of what others claim, has much less lubricity than dino-diesel, VLSD or ULSD.

Some folks who convert to SVO were prepared to replace their IPs every 80k to 90k miles knowing the fuel's lubricity properties would shorten the IP's life. 80k miles at 15 mpg consumption equals 5333 gallons, and at $3/gallon... one saves $16k on diesel fuel. Spend even $2,000 on a new IP including labor, you're still ahead.

Lubricity is affected by choices in vegetable oil stock, or use of tallow. I haven't heard of lubricity being determined by use of either methanol or ethanol, either sodium hyroxide or pottasium hyroxide. I HAVE heard of the glycerol byproduct quality being affected... specialty soap makers pay biodiesel producers for their quality byproduct.

A fuel's cetane number is a measure of the delay of ignition time (how long it takes for the fuel to start combusting from the moment it is injected into the combustion chamber). Bio-diesel produces less energy than dino-diesel because it has less caloric content. It does not directly mean that it will provide less "power" to the wheels, rather, one would get less efficiency, i.e., less miles-per-gallon.

There are excellent articles and white papers from reputable and recognized organizations. There is at least one member who is on a biodiesel board. I'll try to get a list of documents and links/websites. It is easy to confuse properties and characteristics of the three fuels but what helped me was to understand, thoroughly, the chemical process(es) that produce biodiesel, i.e., transesterifcation. There is even a process that uses acid instead of alkali. Start over with that and the use of VO (whether straight or waste) becomes easier to understand.

 

[coachjpg]

It sounds like I've been misled and/or misinformed about the lubricity issue. Intuitively, it's not obvious why removing glycerin and converting esters would massively improve the lubricity of VO.

I would very much appreciate pointers to reliable sources of information on this.

Thanks,
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[tanman_2006]

WOW! This is really giving me extra to think about. I can spend extra on the making a processor and converting to biodiesel (which I would most likely filter before and after processing anyways) and this would save me from lube problems and make my IP and Injectors last longer. OR I could save money by running SVO that has been put through a centrefuge and then most likely filter again at a few other points just to make me feel better and save the money to replace my IP and Injectors.

Are there additives that would work on SVO to add lube? Would 30wt or 2 stroke still work? Can I mix/dilute it with Dinodiesel and increase lube and jelling point enough to matter, if so what % SVO?

I knew I should have paid attention more in chemistry/biochemistry. Maybe even kept with my Biofuel Production Major. Big time fail on my part! lol

 

[Franko914]

It sounds like I've been misled and/or misinformed about the lubricity issue. Intuitively, it's not obvious why removing glycerin and converting esters would massively improve the lubricity of VO.

I would very much appreciate pointers to reliable sources of information on this.

Thanks,
-jpg

Try starting with www.make-biodiesel.org which I have found to be well organized and informative.

I've also found journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html to be well organized and informative.