First camping trip running on biodiesel!

[arveetek]

My wife and I took a short RV trip to Branson this weekend. Before heading off, I filled the truck up with my first tank of home-brewed biodiesel. I didn't run it straight 100%, but mixed it with about 20% regular dino diesel, since it's been getting cool at nights, and the biodiesel doesn't like the cool weather very much.

The truck ran great, and the only problem I noticed is that every time we got out of the truck, we got hungry! ;) The exhaust smells great, like a barbecue grill! I didn't notice any difference in power or fuel consumption. In fact, the truck ran stronger than ever, but that's probably due to the cooler temps and the fact that the a/c wasn't used. High ambient temps and a/c robs a lot of power.

I calculated that the first fill-up of biodiesel saved me $90! I put in 13 gallons of regular #2 that cost me $40, and then I put in 30 gallons of biodiesel that cost me $15! Not figuring the cost of the processor/wash equipment, the biodiesel costs us about $.50 a gallon to make. Dad and I split the costs of making the processor and wash stands, so we each invested $500, which also included buying a 55 gallon drum of methanol. So after filling up the truck about 5 times, I'll have paid off the initial cost of building the processor. I'm getting quite excited about this now!

I'll soon be running the biodiesel in the Tahoe. I'll have to cut the mixture down to around %50 for the winter, but in the summer I plan to run straight B100.

Casey

[Subzilla]

Keep talking about it and you're going to inspire me to get off my butt and complete my gathering of processor parts! I'm slowly trying to acquire parts while maintaining the fleet and live life. I am very eager to get a system up and running and have found a mutual interested party about 3 miles from the house through the WVO forums. Did you buy the kit to assemble or did you collect the parts separately? I've already concluded that any money I spend will be recouped very quickly at the current "fill up the tank" rate of $100 diesel. What a cool way to show how versitile our engines can be!

[trbankii]

So, what is your source for WVO? And what forums do people recommend for biodiesel?

[Subzilla]

Probably the best one is: http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/6/ubb.x?a=cfrm&s=447609751 I think "Girl Mark" is the creator for this forum, not sure, but also check out her tutorial website for the soon to be famous "Appleseed Processor": http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/appleseedprocessor/ . Lots of great info on the subject.

[Vaughn MacKenzie]

I have been putting filtered WVO in my Blazer and it burns it really well. I get mine from the cafeteria where I work and filter it by heating and pouring through rags two times. I also avoid processing the heavy fats that settle to the bottom, I save this for warm weather.

When I fill up I put up to 10 gallons of WVO in the tank and the rest diesel. When it's cooler I add up to a gallon of unleaded. Also as winter comes along I will put less percentage of WVO in.

Interestingly the exhaust has the french-fry smell at idle, but as soon as you put a little load on the engine the odor changes to typical diesel exhaust smell, no hint of veggie oil smell.

I have a coolant/fuel heater unit on order, planning to install that so I can still run WVO in cooler weather.

Vaughn

[85-m1028]

I have been thinking of doing a wash set up myself but I am not of how to dispose of the seddiment left over "glycerin" after washing a hundred gallons or so it can ad up, what are you supposed to do with that stuff???

[Dieselboy]

Originally posted by Subzilla:
...What a cool way to show how versitile our engines can be! The use of plant oil as fuel may seem insignificant today. But such products can in time become just as important as kerosene and these coal-tar products of today. - Rudolf Diesel.

Originally, Diesel saw his engine running on agrarian based fuels. His humanitarian vision what that this tool could make the avergage worker independant from the large corporate interests. It could run on a variety of fuels supported by local economies.

Early experiments with air-blast coal injection were less than successful, but in 1897 his first semi-stable engine ran on peanut oil. It wasn't for another twenty years that we would see the engine showing up in sea going vessels and power stations. By that time, Diesel himself had lost control of his invention, and the process of refining petroleum was cheaper than extracting fuel from vegetable grades.

So here we are, over a hundred years later, paying $3 per gallon of dino juice.
:rolleyes:

[trbankii]

That was the thought I had while reading through the "appleseed" website. I admit that I did not read everything, but what do you do with the glycerine and soap?

[85-m1028]

I agree dieselboy we now have the technolgy to manufacture agrifuel on a massive level for cheap! not to mention the recycle factor and enironmentaly frendlier nature of it!

[arveetek]

Dad and I built the processor ourselves with parts purchased from various sources. We already had an old water heater sitting around. We didn't purchase any kind of kit.

We are currently getting our WVO from three sources: two local resteraunts and the local community college cafeteria. We will probably continue to add more sources as we get accustomed to producing the biodiesel and the weather gets warmer.

Getting rid of the glycerin is the biggest hassle. If you can get the leftover methanol to evaporate, then it's environmentally friendly...can be composted, etc.

Casey