New to bio and WVO
 

I just bought a 97 F350 PSD last week and want to run it on biodiesel or WVO. IF I go the WVO route I must convert, right? But with biodiesel I can run it just stock like it is, right? I live in Nashville Tn. and want to know if anyone else is near me that can point me in the right direction. Can I get biodiesel cheaper than dino diesel? If so where and how?

Thanks!

bump, bump

Biodiesel=no modifications
WVO=modifications of fuel system

Do you wanna make your own bio or buy it? Call around for methanol and Koh (aka potassium lye or potassium caustic soda) We can do the math for you and tell you what it will cost as far as chemicals pretty easy.

I'd like to make it but I'm not sure how to do that and what all I need.

First off is the essentials
25 gallons of wvo heated to 150 degrees
Seperate container is 5 gallons of methanol and 3lbs of Koh mechanically mixed for 1/2 hr.

Combine 2 and mix for another 1/2 hour after the wvo reaches 150
pump to settling tank and repeat through out the day.

14 to 18 hours later drain glycerin off the bottom and pull the bio off the top
Add magnesol and mix for 1/2 hour ( we have to give you instructions on that later)

filter through 5 then 1 micron..remember again to pull bio from top as the soap will be the first out on the bottom and plug your filters.

Place into truck, turn key for cycle. truck starts and go down the road.

Try http://www.biodieselcommunity.org for the best info for making Bio.
Then hang around here you will learn quickly.

It isn't rocket science just some simple chemistry. Getting started can be relatively inexpensive, as you will see from that site I sent you to.

WOW! after reading some of the link it sure seems pretty dangerous to make bio. The only place I would have to do this is in my garage and that doesn't seem very safe for me or my family. I didn't want to convert my truck to run just on filtered WVO but after reading the dangers of making bio I'm definitely leaning towards filtered WVO.

With a little care and following good saftey practices you should have no problems.
That site emphasizes the danger aspect in an attempt to reduce carelessness.

Plenty of folks here make BD without hurting themselves.

Is there just not a different way to make it without Methanol? It seems such a toxic dangerous chemical. I'm trying to make something better for the environment and more economical but I have to use VERY toxic chemicals. It doesn't seem to jive with our goal.

No, there is not another "greener" chemical that you can use to make biodiesel from WVO. You may want to look into local retail sellers of biodiesel if the methanol bothers you that much. Sorry.

BTW, the lye is actually the more dangerous chemical, not the methanol.

I didn't even know about the lye. I'm just to understand why we have to use such toxic dangerous chemicals to help the environment.

This is not an uncomon problem. Someone will put forth an idea to "help the environment", and it turns out others may percieve problems with the idea. I suppose the best idea for helping the environment is to return to a hunter gatherer society. The only problem with this is we could only support a small fraction of the worlds current population. Oh, and we would all have to work from sunrise to sunset every day trying to catch and kill something to eat.

I think biodiesel is a real option for reducing the use of petrolium, but it can not be done without what you percieve as toxic dangerous chemicals.

I don't mean to come off as harsh, but as far as biodiesel goes, this is the chemistry, and there are not any other choices.

So these chemicals are only dangerous in my perception? This is all new to me and I'm not a Chemist but I did take 3 chemistry classes in college and remember some of that stuff as very toxic and dangerous. I have a small garage, a wife and two children. If my little helping the environment means putting them at significant risk then it doesn't make sense to me. I'm trying to figure all this out not prove a point.

In my opinion, the real danger to your family would be from fire, not from exposure to any of the chemicals used in the process. In the biodiesel process, you are heating flamable chemicals. This always presents the possibility of a fire.