Bobby Clark wrote: >Why are there not a lot of people manufacturing biodiesel? Is it because >that petro diesel is cheaper? It seems that I have seen estimates of between >$2-$3 per gallon if you make it from virgin oil. If it burns cleaner (which >it does) then why aren't manufacturers taking advantage of this opportunity? > > I'm slowly starting to think of it, but I'm not convinced yet.
I think most people who do it do it mostly as a way of not using petro-diesel much more than to save money. I doubt I'd save much on fuel for my TDI. I'd have to buy the pieces for the processor, buy the chemicals, and go through the process of getting WVO, and practice until I get it right. If I don't get it right I run the risk of damaging my engine; rebuilding it or the injection pump or replacing the injectors will cost more than I'll save making biodiesel in a long, long time, even if the WVO is free. I have three things I want to do with every free hour I have now, so making a processor and learning to use it has some serious competition. As far as reducing my personal impact on the planet regarding fossil fuels I'm more inclined to use the WVO I can get as a replacement for some of the home heating oil I use. I have an extremely well insulated house and use ~650 gallons of heating oil last year. I think next summer I'll cut at least 150 off with solar hot water heaters. If I can get 250 gallons of WVO and mix it with K1 I can save 400 of the 650 gallons without risking the engine in my TDI:) That's a significant savings, bring me down to 10-20% of what most houses use in these parts. I also wonder what people are really doing with the leftover glycerine and wash water with excess methanol. I suspect a lot of both get dumped, as do batches that just "go bad". I don't know that, but would be interested to hear from those actually making BD what they do with their wash water. I live in the country and have my own well and septic system; introducing methanol into the ground water is not something I'm interested in doing. Perhaps I don't understand the process well enough and the by products aren't a problem? --- David _______________________________________________ Biofuel mailing list Biofuel@sustainablelists.org http://sustainablelists.org/mailman/listinfo/biofuel_sustainablelists.org Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Search the combined Biofuel and Biofuels-biz list archives (50,000 messages): http://www.mail-archive.com/biofuel@sustainablelists.org/
