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Posts Tagged ‘biodiesel’

When you have been driving for some years, you will have discovered that the fuel costs is occupying a large allocation of your monthly revenue. Will not it be good if you can reduce on the gas that you are using now? Well, the good news is that you can. All you want is to change to Homemade Biodiesel.

Biodiesel Definition

First, what? Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that burns cleanly. It’s converted from plant oil. It is a non-petroleum based diesel fuel. One must take note that it’s has little similiarties to straight vegetable oil (SVO).

Biodiesel is available widely and can be discovered in a number of gas kiosks country-wide. The price varies but it is known to be cheaper than the normal petroleum prices.

Main benefactor of Biodiesel

Most industrial vehicles that use diesel can find that Biodiesel is more economical. Business owners who owns a number of of diesel-powered autos should weigh trying out Biodiesel as it will help them to save the general expenses.

How about home users?

Now how will people like you gain advantage from it? You can get benefits from it by using Homemade Biodiesel. It is possible to create Biodiesel at home, by changing unwanted plant oil. There are two methods to do it: You can purchase a Biodiesel processor to handle Homemade Biodiesel with ease. Oor you can handle Biodiesel manually. Don’t worry, it is not difficult to build your own Homemade Biodiesel. The method is just more manual and takes slightly longer time.

I would suggest that you begin with hands-on approach of creating Homemade Biodiesel, try it out in your own vehicle first. When it is proved to work out for your vehicle you can then think about buying a Biodiesel Processer. The rationale is that a Biodiesel Processor is sort of costly and you will not need to waste cash on it.

If you’ve been on the road for some years, you will have recognized that the petrol expenses is eating an enormous portion of your monthly earnings. Will not it be great if you can cut down on the gas that you are using now? Well, the good news is that you can. What you must do is to use Homemade Biodiesel.

What is Biodiesel?

First, what’s Biodiesel? Biodiesel is an alternative fuel that burns cleanly. is made from vegetable oil. It’s a non-petroleum based diesel fuel. Note that it’s quite different straight vegetable oil.

Biodiesel is sold widely and is discovered in many petrol stations in USA. The price flutuates a little but it is known to be less expensive than the normal petroleum prices.

Who will benefit the most?

Most industrial vehicles that run on diesel will benefit the most from Biodiesel. Business owners who owns a fleet of diesel-powered vehicles should consider trying out Biodiesel as it might help them to reduce the overall costs of running the business.

How about home users?

Will folks like you benefit from it? You can get benefits from it by trying Homemade Biodiesel. It is feasible to make Biodiesel at our own basement, just by converting waste vegetable oil. There are two ways to do it: You can purchase a Biodiesel processor to prepare Homemade Biodiesel with ease. Oor you can handle Biodiesel on your own. Don’t worry, it isn’t not easy to create your own Homemade Biodiesel. The method is just more hands-on and takes a little longer time.

I would recommend that you commence with manual creation of Homemade Biodiesel, try it out in your car . Once it is shown to work well for your auto you can then think about getting a Biodiesel Processer. The reason is that a Biodiesel Processor tends to be quite expensive and you will not wish to gamble away cash on it first.

Waste vegetable oil has attracted attention in the last few years as a cleaner, less expensive alternative to fossil fuels for cars and trucks. In most countries including the United States, it is collected and refined into a biofuel for diesel or just straight use in vehicles. Some of the cities have converted their municipal vehicles over as to use this fuel.

But now, the question that arise is its legality? The only problem with using the waste vegetable oil is that it is not an approved fuel by the EPA. It’s not exactly illegal – it won’t land you in jail, but it could get you fined. Other biofuels, like ethanol and biodiesel, are EPA-approved. They’ve been researched and tested heavily by the EPA and are regulated by the government like any other fuel source. In terms of being approved with the EPA, the ethanol or biodiesel that you buy from commercial sellers is in compliance with the Clean Air Act.

They say the reason you are not suppose to use the waste vegetable oil is that is has not been done long enough to tell if there will be any harm to the environment. And since people get it free from restaurants there is no way to know if it meets the specs of the clean air act which has strict rules as to how fuel is processed. People using waste vegetable oil are just storing it in their garage and filtering and filling up.

And what can the EPA do to you for running your car on what may be the most carbon-neutral fuel source in the whole wide world? It can fine you up to $32,500 per day. The EPA could also charge you an additional $2,750 for modifying a car to run on a non-EPA-approved fuel.

But I think the main thing is that this is an untaxed fuel. Right now there is no infrastructure in place to charge a tax on it. And in time when they can develop a way to regulate and tax, it will become as legal as diesel or gasoline in the EPA’s eyes.

Biodiesel or biofuels are diesels fuels that are made by reacting waste vegetable oil (WVO) with other common chemicals. Biodiesel or biofuels may be used in any diesel automotive engine in its pure form or blended with petroleum based diesel.

Due to unstable oil price situation in the world market, many countries have been looking for alternative energy to substitute petroleum. Researches on the use of vegetable oils as fuel substitutes in diesel engines have been done in many countries with much success.

So can I run my diesel engine on biofuels, the answer is yes, but with that said some vehicles are more readily converted than others?

What makes your one vehicle better for Biofuel than another vehicle?

Fuel Pump: The higher viscosity of WVO (waste vegetable oil) is hard on fuel pumps.  Stock mechanical fuel pumps are typically tougher than stock electric fuel pumps.  Stock electric fuel pumps will most likely fail prematurely from WVO (waste vegetable oil) use.

Direct/Indirect Injection: It is widely considered that indirect injection engines are more acceptable to WVO use.  The thinking behind this is that with indirect injection, fuel is injected into a pre-combustion chamber and unspent WVO (waste vegetable oil) would not be directly contaminating (coking) the piston and cylinder walls.  Contamination of cylinder walls and piston rings would lead to blow-by and lubrication oil contamination.   This will most certainly lead to premature engine failure.

Use: Vehicles engines used for long continuous duration are more suitable for WVO than one used occasionally for short duration.  Engines should not be started on WVO (waste vegetable oil) and hence, the required purge/shutdown procedure makes short duration use impractical.

Cost: less expensive vehicles are inherently more acceptable to modify and have a good risk/reward quotient.  Older vehicles typically have less complex and more overdesigned components.

What do in need to convert my vehicle to run on WVO (waste vegetable oil)?

A single tank is an option but while this in the lowest cost conversion it is also the most risky and should be avoided If possible.

A single tank with a heated filter, injector line heaters and fuel coolant heat exchanger is very popular. But the Weakness in this system is in the initial startup, cold un-burnt WVO will be in contact with cold combustion chamber and cylinder walls.  Ultimately, piston ring contamination and coking will occur and leading to lubrication oil contamination and pre-mature engine failure.

Next is a two tank system that can be manually switched from diesel to biodiesel when your engine is at running temperature what this does is produces higher combustion temperatures and more completely consume the WVO (waste vegetable oil) reducing contamination to the engine? The problem with this system is the drive needs to switch from diesel to biodiesel after the engine gets to operating temperature and switch from biodiesel to diesel and the residual WVO must be consumed leaving only diesel in the engine for the next cold starting. The weakness of this system is making the proper switching waiting until the engine is properly heated and back to diesel without allowing sufficient time for the complete purge of WVO from the engine.

The simplest to use is the two tank system with automated control it is the same as above but electronic sensors and timers control the switching of the diesel to biodiesel and vice versa.

This system provides the highest reliability and is a completely independent WVO (waste vegetable oil) system from the stock diesel fuel system.

ue to unstable oil price situation in the world market, many countries have been looking for alternative energy to substitute petroleum. Researches on the use of waste vegetable oils (WVO) as fuel substitutes in diesel engines have been done in many countries with much success.
Biofuel is diesel fuel that is made by reacting waste vegetable oil (WVO) with other common chemicals. Biofuel may be used in any diesel automotive engine in its pure form or blended with petroleum-based diesel.
Biodiesel is nontoxic and biodegradable, that it can help reduce dependence on foreign oil and cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. It’s an oxygenated fuel, so it burns more completely than other fossil-based products. Filling your car with biodiesel cuts down on emissions of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfur and the nastiest of all diesel byproducts–particulate matter.
Cars built since 1994 that are already equipped with diesel engines can run even 100 percent biodiesel with little or no modification. Some work will be needed to run on pure vegetable oil, but you may be able to do it yourself.
The energy content of a given amount of waste vegetable oil is only a little less than that of diesel fuel, and is more than for gasoline. Therefore, power and fuel economy on WVO is almost the same as on diesel. Under most conditions, there is little or no perceptible difference to the driver between driving on diesel and driving on WVO.
WVO system reliability has improved greatly in a short period of time. The growing base of WVO users have contributed their knowledge to that gained in production and sale of systems.
Biodiesel is a natural fuel system lubricant. Independent studies by Stanadyne Automotive Corp. Southwest Research Institute show biodiesel improves the wear or scarring of metal parts within the fuel system.
The flash point (the point at which fuel ignites) for biodiesel (B100) is a minimum of 300 degrees versus about 125 degrees Fahrenheit for regular petroleum diesel #2.
Biodiesel is also non-toxic and biodegradable. These factors make biodiesel one of the safest fuels to use, handle and store.

First what are these two types of filtering systems?

WVO (waste vegetable oil) centrifuge:

A centrifuge is a piece of equipment, generally driven by a motor that puts WVO in rotation around a fixed axis, applying a force perpendicular to the axis. The oil entrifuge works using the sedimentation principle, where the centripetal acceleration is used to evenly distribute substances (WVO) of greater and lesser density. Traditional centrifuges use an electric motor to spin a “bowl” at high RPM and create a force like gravity but up to 3000 times the force of gravity. This speeds up particulate and water separation enormously. Separation levels that might take months using only gravity take less than a minute in a centrifuge. And most industrial centrifuges are continuous so dirty WVO can be fed in and clean/dry WVO fuel exits. accumulatMost centrifuges must be stopped to remove the contaminants but some systems are available that allow automated cleaning without stopping the centrifuge.

WVO (waste vegetable oil) Filter:

A gravity or pressure filtration system, the WVO is simply poured into a filter bag placed over a container into which the WVO is collected. These filter bags come in different microns or levels of filtering ability to fit your needs.

Which is better well it all comes down to how much WVO you want to process, how much time you have to spend processing how much money do you want to spend and how hard do you want to work.

With WVO Filter system Oil will run through a 100 micron filter bag at 2-5 gallons per minute however, if the oil is dirty or just creamy the flow rate will deteriorate rapidly.Pre heating the oil helps as does larger and longer filter bags.  My advice is to only use filter bags after settling. Which means time waiting for the oil to settle. Cartridge WVO filters, tee strainers ECT, should be used only with heated oil or heating of the filter.Waxy particles in cool oil quickly clog cartridge filters and no amount of pressure will resolve this issue. Any mechanical cartridge filter will require an amount of pressure to work, finding an appropriate pump, plumbing and pressure relief system can be difficult and large spills are possible.

With WVO Centrifuge “Forced Settling” can clean WVO to sub micron levels as well as removing heavier liquid contaminants such as water.  If you are looking at having to deal with hundreds of gallons or more, a centrifuge is your only solution. A WVO centrifuge is required to remove solid and liquid contaminants from the WVO regardless of size. Centrifuges have proven to be quite efficient in the cleaning of waste vegetable oil and reducing the free fatty acids in the pre processing of Biodiesel. They also have proven to remove glycerin after the processing. Contaminant particles as small as 1/10^th of 1 micron are removed, all without the use of a disposable costly filter element. There is simply no better way to make quality biodiesel quickly. What takes many hours for gravity to separate down; a centrifuge can separate instantly in seconds.

There is much information on vegetable oil how it is made, what it is use for from the time it is process to the time it is considered a waste product. Usually the point it becomes a waste product is when it leaves the fryer. Just because it’s already considered a waste material, doesn’t mean that it’s the end of its serviceable life as there is an increasing interest to use this waste oil as fuel, biodiesel and biofuel.

So how is waste vegetable oil or WVO turned into fuel? First of all, this needs to be done at room temperature at about 70 degrees Farenheit – add some sodium hydroxide (lye), methanol (heet), and vegetable oil. Adding these three ingredients together in correct quantities and mix them until they are completely blended. At this point you let the mixture settle it will separate into layers the bottom layer will be glycerin and the top layer will be Biodiesel .

The process above was with clean oil but what about the oils and grease from fryers grills etc. what to do when you have old oil that isn’t very clean ? Well at the start of the process you need to filter the oil there are many ways to do this Bag filters are the easiest, cheapest and slowest processing tool that you have other than strait settling to process WVO . Oil will run through a 100 micron filter bag at 2-5 gallons per minute however, if the oil is dirty or just creamy the flow rate will deteriorate rapidly . Pre-heating the oil helps as does larger/longer filter bags . You can use filter bags after settling, but the best advise is to use the centrifuge to get more precision process.

Cartridge WVO filters, tee strainers ECT, should be used only with heated oil or heating of the filter.  Waxy precipitates in cool oil quickly clog cartridge filters and no amount of pressure will resolve this issue.  Reserve cartridge filters for final polishing/filtering at transfer into the vehicle or very low volume/emergency use.   Any mechanical cartridge filter will require an amount of pressure to work, finding an appropriate pump, plumbing and pressure relief system can be difficult and large spills are possible.

Another way is to use what I call “Forced Settling” WVO centrifuges can clean WVO to sub micron levels as well as removing heavier liquid contaminants such as water.  If you are looking at having to deal with hundreds of gallons or more, a centrifuge is your only solution.

You probably don’t stop to think about it, but all fuels have a shelf life that depends on their chemical composition and storage conditions. The chemical stability of biodiesel depends on the oil from which it was derived. Biodiesel from oils that naturally contain the antioxidant tocopherol or vitamin E (e.g., rapeseed oil) remain usable longer than biodiesel from other types of vegetable oils. Stability is noticeably diminished after 10 days and the fuel may be unusable after 2 months. Temperature also affects fuel stability in that excessive temperatures may denature the fuel.