Biodiesel plant

[biodoctor]

I know its nothing to do with welding but i thought i'd show some pics of my biodiesel set up,first pic is the "settleing tank" this is where the waste oil i collect goes,i filter all the big bits out using a waste paper bin from "staples",the second pic is the "processor" or "reactor",this is where the oil is heated,the chemicals are added,transesterification takes place,the third pic is the "dry wash" tower and final polisher,the polisher or final filter is a 1 micron filter,the next 2 pics is the finished fuel, last pic is of finished biodiesel,the label on the jar says "filtered through eco2pure",eco2pure is a dry wash "media",the tower is full of this stuff,as the crued bio is forced through the eco2pure it removes the final traces of any impurities,fire extinguisher there's just in case.

the government are quite happy for you to make it ! ,you can make 2500 litres a YEAR tax free per household,after that you must declare it .

inital set up costs were about a grand but i made it back within the first 9 months,within 12 months i'd saved £ 500.00 not paying pump price for fuel.

average price pre litre is around £ 0.29p ,that includes chemicals,electric etc.

my emissions are stupidly low,the only thing that comes out my exhaust are what the plants have absorbed from the atmosphere to grow ,when i took my truck for its mot the guy at the garage thought his gas tester was knackered

Ive just worked out that at a pump price of £ 1.15 a litre i'm saving £ 55.86 per tank full !

 

[ytre]

Thats a brilliant set up. Ther must be a huge saving using your own bio diesel. Whats the government stratedgy on people making there own? What does it cost to set up your own plant.
Highly impressed

 

[Justme]

Common mistake with the fire extinguisher sitting.

Its far to close to the thing that might catch fire. Best near the door or even out side the room. Get out first, raise the alarm & then only if safe tackle the fire. You use the extinguisher to make a safe exit in most cases.

 

[biodoctor]

Common mistake with the fire extinguisher sitting.

Its far to close to the thing that might catch fire. Best near the door or even out side the room. Get out first, raise the alarm & then only if safe tackle the fire. You use the extinguisher to make a safe exit in most cases.

you cant see it on the photo but the extinguisher bracket is screwed to the door frame

 

[rtbcomp]

Do you have to buy the raw material or can you still scrounge it?

 

[craig8661]

that looks a good set up any tips for beef dripping from a chippy or is it not worth doing can get as much as i want over 200 liters a week.

 

[Weldingartisan]

that looks a good set up any tips for beef dripping from a chippy or is it not worth doing can get as much as i want over 200 liters a week.

Beef dripping from the chippy? Sounds delicious, but not too good for the old ticker! W/A

 

[biodoctor]

Do you have to buy the raw material or can you still scrounge it?

i manage to get about 20 lts a week of liquid oil from an indian takeaway,if i need more, there's a holiday home for the disabled who let me have their's as and when i need it,they actually have it collected by a big company but arn't bothered if i collect it now and then,and i have a chippy who i collect solid veg oil from every 3 weeks,so all in all it ticks away nicely.

Jerry

 

[ytre]

Jerry i asked you 2 questions this morning and you had the answers already posted on your first posting . Too early in the morning for me and had no caffiene kick to get me firing on all four cylinders

 

[biodoctor]

that looks a good set up any tips for beef dripping from a chippy or is it not worth doing can get as much as i want over 200 liters a week.

yes you can use the solid veg oil/kebeb fat,the only downside to using that is that it solidifys at 3 deg ABOVE freezing whereas using liquid veg oil it starts to go cloudy/thicken at 3 deg BELOW freezing,however as with most things there's a way round it,you can add 10% petrol to the finished bio (it's perfectly safe to do this ), or you can add a proper additive that's commercially available, i use "coldflow 350",ive managed to run on 100% biodiesel all through the winter even when its been down to -8 deg,using coldflow 350,what i usually do is, use the solid veg oil in the summer and use liquid oil in the winter to make my bio,once it's made there's no visible difference.

Jerry

 

[biodoctor]

Jerry i asked you 2 questions this morning and you had the answers already posted on your first posting . Too early in the morning for me and had no caffiene kick to get me firing on all four cylinders[/QUOTE

the answer to the questions you asked wern't in the first posting ,but as soon i submitted it i knew i'd missed the answers to the most 2 asked questions ( how much did it cost to set up ? and how much does it save), so i re-edited it

 

[breezer]

What sort of mileage do you do to force such savings?

And what sort of mpg do you get?

Jim

 

[madkayaker]

did you have to change any seals etc in the fuel system

 

[biodoctor]

What sort of mileage do you do to force such savings?

And what sort of mpg do you get?

Jim

Hi,when the price of diesel went upto £ 1.35 a litre (2008) i just thought enough is enough ,i tow a sankey trailer complete with loads of camping gear and roof tent,milage is around the 25 mpg so slightly down on white diesel,but .29p a litre who cares

 

[biodoctor]

did you have to change any seals etc in the fuel system

Hi madkayaker ,no i haven't changed anything,i change the oil n filter every 3,000 miles thats it ,no fuel leaks from the injection pump or anywhere else

Jerry

 

[mike os]

Is the system you use suitable for any vehicle?

Ie is the finshed product methanol/ethanol free

 

[biodoctor]

Is the system you use suitable for any vehicle?

Ie is the finshed product methanol/ethanol free

as far as i know yes as long as it's diesel,there's certainly no methanol left in the bio otherwise the eco2pure would be useless as methanol strips out the chemicals in it,all my biodiesel has a ph7 ( neutral ), i know of some people who run 50/50 or 60/40 in favour of the bio,there's loads of info on the web about bio,if in doubt check somewhere first,my mate runs a VW passat and his wife runs a mondeo,i run a Landy,for some reason fuel systems with a bosch unjector pump appear to be better at dealing with bio than systems using lucas pumps.

Jerry

 

[white van man 2]

i've got an old zx with the xudt in. that gets run on cooking oil with no problems. not tried it on processed stuff yet.

word of warning though - more modern stuff doesn't like any form of bio fuel, and the repair can be *very* expensive! i've got a 2002 transit sat on my drive awaiting repair. at 50k miles it was moved onto bio fuel from regular pump diesel. by 65k it now needs a new fuel system. bio diesel doesn't lubricate the pump as well as diesel and it wears prematurely. this puts small bits of swarf into the fuel system that also kills of the injectors. my bro killed his brand new clio diesel by running it on homebrew veggie diesel. it ran for just over 30k then was back to the main dealer for new pump, injectors, lines and filter head.

i'm not saying this shouldn't be done - quite the opposite in fact. just make sure you know your motor is going to like it before you start

 

[tigler]

This is the problem that concerns me , there are many horror stories of common rail diesels self destructing their fuel systems on BioD.

 

[Bigjoe]

I would say no common rail diesel should be run on bio-diesel personally, ive worked on a few modern diesels that have tries and it tends to damge them due to much tighter tolerances with pumps,injectors etc but on an indirect diesel engine go for it!

Wish i still had my 406 td that would be drinking the bio brew quite happily