My $0.02...

I made about 15 gallons last week. It was my first batch. I've made a small "appleseed" reactor with a 30 gallon water heater. I built it using guidelines from "girl mark"s book (I can't even remember the title, it's green and I think you can get it from Utah biodiesel).

Some observations - the book is a starting point. There have been multiple improvements to the original appleseed design by many people, which I only discovered by spending time on the biodiesel forums (biodiesel.infopop.cc I think ... sorry for the lack of info, I'm not at home right now).

I spent a whole bunch of time prepping for and making my first batch. I still have to go to the "washing" and "drying" processes, but I made decent fuel first time around, which is a big step. I've already made about 10 test batches to get a feel for the process. This would be my second observation - you will spend time to get an idea of what "transesterification" is and how your particular system and WVO supply (and methanol and lye) all work together). However after that, I can see that it will be easy to get a hang of it and be able to do it as routine. It's like cooking up a meal using a new recipe - first time around you're measuring, etc and not sure how things will go. Do it a few times you'll get the hang of it. Except with biodiesel you've got to practice safety around the methanol / methoxide fumes.

I'll admit I've gotten frustrated here and there, and I am concerned about making bad fuel and messing up my PSD. But hearing other success stories has spurned me on. I'll be watching how my engine is doing with oil analyses and eventually getting my fuel tested (ASTM I think) to protect things. Right now I only make enough a month to make B20 - if things work out I'll build a bigger reactor and go for B100.

 

Great way to go...good luck!
Nut

 

Fire Rooster? I live in the Phoenix area and would love a tour of your setup! I buy B100 from Western States Petroleum and it's getting to be $3.25 - $3.50 and gallon delivered!! My email is twjull@***.net.

 

Go down to western and use cash its cheaper. I keep talking about my system but I dont have it operational yet. Might want to move this thread to bio section and read from there. Here in AZ Firerooster, Chadjones, myself and I think a guy in Tucson are attempting or have made thier own. Troy

 

Is there anyone in the seattle area that makes there own biodiesel I would like to learn more about it and eather help or watch you do it once so I know exactly what I'm getting into? you can reach me at d_fuhrmann131313 @ hotmail.com

 

Welcome to FTE! Our moderator
Kwikkordead is from the Seattle area i believe and he might know someone.
Nut

 

The guy that I knew in this area has sold everything and moved back to Missouri where he grew up.
Personally I have never pursued this because I simply don't have the room around my house for such a thing, nor do I have the extra time.

 

"girl mark"s book

yeah, i ordered the book a while back. no response from them and still no book. i wonder if they jumped ship.

 

I ordered the book a while back too, still haven't received it. If I remember correctly, it was stated there would be a delay in shipping.

 

a response to email would be nice. I even posted in the forum where gurl mark mods. I am going to give it a while longer, then i'll have to do something about it.


all i have heard are great things about the book. i really would like to have it already. i guess its the anticipation that is killing me.

 

While you're waiting, get into the forums at http://biodiesel.infopop.cc/. The book is a great start, but the "technology" has advanced since she wrote it for the appleseed setup. There have been many improvements since that you can get from reading the forums. Also, there are lots of details that I had to figure out on my own - then realized that the forums had most of my answers.

I currently have an appleseed along with 3 55-gal drums - one for settling the used oil (before pumping into the appleseed), one for washing, one for drying. I thought I was saving money by doing the wash and drying in 55-gal drums instead of buying a cone tank, but when you add up all the valves etc and the $15 each I paid for the drums it gets close to what I would have paid for a cone tank setup. So I'll probably do the cone tank in the future - it's much easier for separating layers, from what I've read. One cone tank can be used for multiple operations, (such as washing and drying) since you can get all of the bottom layer out (unlike the standpipe design).

 

I have been doing BD since April with a homemade Applessed processor and will agree that KOH is the better reactant since you can use the glycerol byproduct as fertilizer if you need more! And feed it to livestock, according to some they will fight over it, but must decant the methanol first!

Cone bottom barrels are expensive and standpipes work you just gotta get them set up right. You can find oil presses on ebay and other places on the net if you are interested in growing your own crops for it.

There is no quick process to quality fuel as stated before and the biodieselcommunity.org and infopop forums linked from that page are great resources. Do your research before spending your money on a system.

 

in the infamous words of Nixon:



"WE WILL NEVER SEE $1 GASOLINE"