Biodiesel Titrating Instructions for newbies.

[Murphy]

I get so many requests for this...

I put up a page for all newbies to use as a guide for titrating waste vegetable oil for making biodiesel.

http://www.murphysmachines.com/how_to/how_to_titrate.html

If you have any comments or suggestions to make these instructions better and easier to understand, please speak up. I have an open mind to improvement.

[Mark Rinker]

Wow...looks like Chemistry 101 class. I used to have one of those little scales back in the 80's. :)

How many gallons of WVO can one process weekly in a garage-type setup, with no more than 3-5 man hours maintenance - i.e. assuming the process is up and running efficiently?

One of the reasons I have stayed away from alternative fuels is the volume of diesel my business consumes...I have always viewed WVO as good for college kids driving their VW Rabbit to and from class.

[Murphy]

Wow...looks like Chemistry 101 class. I used to have one of those little scales back in the 80's. :)

How many gallons of WVO can one process weekly in a garage-type setup, with no more than 3-5 man hours maintenance - i.e. assuming the process is up and running efficiently?

One of the reasons I have stayed away from alternative fuels is the volume of diesel my business consumes...I have always viewed WVO as good for college kids driving their VW Rabbit to and from class.

How much you process compared to the time investment to do it is going to be directly related to your system design and setup.

As for a garage.. you should never put a biodiesel processor in a garage that is attached to any home or dwelling.

I make hundreds of gallons every week and I invest about 2 hours a day to make it.. Maybe 3 hours on some days.

There is a fully automated processor available.. If you are interested, PM me and I can answer any questions you might have. When I say automated, I mean you dump in your raw materials, push a button and walk away. When you come back in 48 hours, you have 50 to 100 gallons of fuel ready to be pumped into a fuel tank. (it even has its own gas station type fuel pump)
There are tax write-off's available too..

I converse with many people who make their own fuel and have not yet had one person say it wasn't worth it. This includes the college kid to 5000 acre farms.

At the price of petro, biodiesel makes sense and petro isnt getting any cheaper..

[Mark Rinker]

How many gallons of WVO is required to generate a BTU equivalent of one gallon #2 diesel? What is the volume of that equivalent?

[Murphy]

How many gallons of WVO is required to generate a BTU equivalent of one gallon #2 diesel? What is the volume of that equivalent?

The appropriate answer is 1 gallon of petro diesel = 1.1 gallons of biodiesel.

Petro diesel has about 138,000 btu's (winter/summer varieties differ)
Biodiesel has about 118,000 btu's on average and a higher cetane number.

(the above numbers can vary with things like location, time of year, type of veg oil used, etc etc)

Biodiesel has 5 times the lubricity as petro diesel does.
Biodiesel does not leave sediments behind. In fact, it removes them and cleans your system.

The only drawback to biodiesel is that it gels below 40 degF or so. If you want to run it during the winter, you need to heat your fuel system.

[Subzilla]

The alternative to heating your fuel system is to mix BD with petro in some appropiate percentage. I was running 25% BD in our 20 degree temps without any problem. The trick is to place jars of the varying percentages outside or in the freezer to see at which point it gels. Again, as Murphy said, this is another varible that depends on your feedstock.

I've been watching your website develop, Murphy, and I like your step-by-step instructions. Sometimes Girl Mark assumes that the newbies know too much and she (or others) will leave out some critical info, not intentional I'm sure. You might find that link to the tritrating spread sheet someone over on the infopop forum worked up and link it to your website. You plug your numbers and it gives meth, catalyst amounts as well as final cost per gallon once you complete the batch. Very easy. That's the one I donwloaded but I'm not sure where it was on-line. Let me know if you want it.

I just dumped in 25 gallons of BD the other day at about 75 cents a gallon, with petro at $2.75 a gallon around here, that's about $50 I saved or rather earned with my labor. I look at it as a part-time job but really it's a fun hobby that pays for itself.