The Ultimate Home Brew For Your Truck

Might all be true but I know someone who has been mucked around big time on this stuff - replacement of parts, with some expense (reimbursement from supplier) and loss of time etc. - quite an ordeal....may have been a bad batch but I'm staying put with the mainstream fuel.....might be less to lose on the older donks.....its not going into my high tec unit.

I was doing some work for a client who recycles vegetable oil. Picks ups so many thousand litres a day from restaurants, chip shops, Maccas (now they have dropped dripping and using vegetable oil) and other places. Did some research on various sources about producing biodiesel to use in thier own trucks and didn't go ahead because you need to be careful as to the type of vegetable oil you use. Different oils have different calorific values and melting points etc. 85% of cooking is done using palm oil, because it is the cheapest, but it doesn't produce the best biodiesel. Saflower or cronola oil seems to produce a better biodiesel.
Any body else had a look at this?

After adding up the costs, it looked like 60 to 70c a litre to make, and with doubtful control of quality. This included setup and running costs for s semi commercial process. One big question was where to legally buy the methenal to add near the end of the process?

Suggest you do some careful research first and be sure of your oil sources before going ahead.

Any other comments? Iam no expert in this area so I may haved missed some comments.

John Crossley

I was in Andamooka earlier this year being shown aroind by a local, who showed me a yard where two guys make their own diesel out of cooking oil. They also have a box trailer that they hook up to their 4WD. The trailer is a large moblie fuel tank, and they hook it up and head off, with a stack of cheap fuel. I think the trailer carries around 500 litres (a guess ...).
Their old 4WD seems relatively unaffected by it all, and keeps chugging along.
Andamooka - a most amazing place.
Jack

This method of producing fuel has been around for a long time. The first diesel ran on peanut oil. The rebels on Beauganville ran the commondeered mine Hiluxes on coconut oil and meths long after the fuel supplies ran out. Trouble is it is like anything else not easy to control quality and consistancy of product in small batches with variable base stock or ingredients. For an interesting breakdown of the reasearch done by the University of Idaho with support from Caterpillar on two Cat 3406E engines on test bed and long term road trials check out www.uidaho.edu/baebiodiesel and for less heavy reading www.vegievan.com. There are a rake of sites listed on www.dogpile.com if you type in biodiesel.

There is now a 48% duty on producing bio diesel, and laws which see you need to produce your license to buy some of the products you require to make it correctly, which are also some of the base products for producing anphetomines, so they will know who you are.

Also, you may need to notify your home insurer you are storing more than 200lt flammable liquids, may need hazkem signage for the fire brigade, and will need your set up int he agrage to be clas sone, zone one, for electrics, and containers static strapped, handling procedures etc for flammable goods, along with spill containment for more than 200 lt, like drum bunding that holds 110% of the capacity of the storage, and depending on quantities, even a triple interceptor on your outside drains in case of spill, along with a spill kit, to be legal in producing the product.

The biggest reason I dont do it though, is cooking fat solidifies at room temprature, which isnt good in tha tank or lines if you get a cold winter or cold days.

In last Saturdays local paper there is a bio diesel plant being built locally here in Wodonga area. Most of it will probably be produced from Canola. Given the sensors on some diesels today it will be interesting to see how they respond to the "home made" brew.

cheers

It isn't hard to get the ingredients. Buy Methanol for the "racing bike" and some Diggers caustic soda.

I met a guy the other week that runs his 99 model Hilux on fryer oil. Just runs it through a filter into a heated tank (from the radiator) on the tray. He starts it on dino diesel then when the tank is warmed a bit switches over to fryer oil. Made me hungry following him as it smells like a chip shop.