Видео

If you are using post-it notes on a whiteboard, then buy the super sticky version. You do need to replace the post-it after a lot of moving around. You can also buy magnet strips and use those.

Absolutely! Contact Graydon Blair, President of Utah Biodiesel Supply: www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/ Say hello to him for me! Have fun!

Planet earth. We are all in this together.

@@OCDBACKPACKER yeah I know 😎😎 it's ok if u don't tell

Three out of three flowers folks!

Seriously!

This is very true. During the drying process (removing water from the final product), any remaining methanol will be evaporated. And I agree, hybrid fuels containing alcohols perform better. However, our focus was the 1984 Mercedes 240D (manual), 1981 Mercedes 300D (auto), and 1986 Mercedes 300TD (auto), and 2007 H2. The only data I collected was for the 240D. If I recall correctly, B100 averaged 23.5 miles / gallon. Dino Diesel averaged 26 miles / gallon. Roughly 90% energy efficiency. The most remarkable phenomenon was the dramatic decrease in engine noice when first injecting biodiesel into a virgin diesel engine. Biodiesel contains lubricant properties to the engine that really was designed to process sulfur and / lead to protect the engine. I believe that an injection of 5% biodiesel will provide diesel engines properly fitted with Viton will provide 50% of the lubrication properties of B100.

Yes, however ratios and reaction times will change. I personally have not tried it.

Took this video in 2003, I don't remember.

Oil isn't biodiesel. Biodiesel is a very specific specification. This is a great technical explanation: www.hindawi.com/journals/jen/2013/926392/

Yeah, this was an awesome project for the time we started it. Diesel was spiking near $5 at that time. I was able to get methanol around $0.36 initially, so there was a window of opportunity we jumped on. However, when commodities such as corn / soy became valued in other markets, we had a supply chain problem that pushed the cost of these raw products way up. Demand for methanol increased 3x by the time we exited. I still think that there is a future for a processing unit supplementing fuel for a farm / fleet IF you have a secure and stable source of oil. Truly, the coolest thing was driving that Mercedes Diesel free for years. Almost net zero environmental impact compared to Dino Diesel.

It certainly does...15 years ago.

Yes and the only is the only really variable in the equation.

I don't remember the ratio, however this paper is very detailed and technical: www.hindawi.com/journals/jen/2013/926392/

I still get the heebie jeebies remembering the smell of some of the places I extracted oil from. Literally puked a few times. Definitely a "dirty job".

Think of it this way, ASTM D6751 Biodiesel is 100% organic food, your mix is Jolt Cola plus Twinkies. Sure, you can fuel your body with 2,000 calories of junk food, for a while. Eventually however, your injectors will gum and your engine will foul. We agree, diesel engines are awesome. In fact, a Ukrainian tank mechanic who told me stories of running tanks on all sorts of things like kerosene. Just because something works in short time doesn't mean it is good for the long term health of the engine.

Manual transmission I was the 2nd and the 4th owner of this car. Fun fact, only 5% of the W123 body style were manuals.

Yes, there is biodiesel left within the system. By closing the system itself you will be good to go, the biodiesel will accumulate ambient water. However, when you introduce new biodiesel to be washed, that water evaporates during the process.

Very true, time was more valuable than the methanol costs in the equation, at that period of time (2008 - 2009 ish).

At the time we initiated this process (2008ish) Diesel spiked near $5 / gallon. Methanol costs were $0.36 / gallon. There were opportunities at that time to create an economy of scale. That is another story. At this time, I would completely agree with you.

Digital scales hadn't been invented yet. ;-)

Not enough.

It was an absolute disaster. I'll explain. First time we ran B5 which is around 5% Biodiesel to Diesel. It was an awesome experience. The engine noise dropped by about 10 decibels because of the lubricating qualities of Biodiesel. Long time ago, sulfur and lead helped lubricate the engine, but since additives are typically needed to help with this issue. Problems occurred when we introduced B25. The fuel injectors didn't work well and the engine stopped working. We had to drain the fuel system and replace the fuel injectors. Very expensive mistake!!!

Sorry Mark, these videos are nearly a decade old and I am no longer involved in this industry or process.

Utah Biodiesel Supply is a good source of information. I am no longer involving myself in this industry or process. We posted these videos as a comprehensive guide for the time it was made. I am sure that there are actually more refined and better ways of processing biodiesel.

Diesel engines don't care if its GMO or not. One of the many benefits of the Soy oil (any grown oil for that matter) is that the carbon cycle is literally months / couple years. So the carbon which is trapped by the plant in its growth cycle is released soon after when it is used in a diesel engine.

@Cyberstrike98 yes, you can add cetane booster in small amounts. As for the green dye diesel, that could be a marker that the diesel is already B20. Unfortunately, there is no standard that I am aware of regarding green dye at this time. It is up to the supplier and they can dye mark any diesel any color they choose with the exception of red dye diesel. In the US, red dye diesel is for agricultural (non-highway use). Red dye diesel also has some tax exemptions if used for off-road, agricultural use. Back to your question, I would approach the supplier of the green dye diesel and ask why they dyed their batch. I would certainly appreciate a reply to understand for myself. Good luck.

Please contact Utah Biodiesel Supply. They are very helpful.

@Makamba Pretu, I admire your ambition. I would say before you jump into that massive volume of production you secure the raw product (oil) first. This will be your single biggest hurdle. Before you consider purchasing any equipment answer these questions: 1. How will you secure 5,000-10,000L of vegetable oil per day? 2. If you can find a viable source of relatively clean oil, how much will it cost per liter? 3. Can you secure this volume of product at a fixed price for at least 3 years? 4. If you can solve the first three boundaries of entry, how will you store and move this volume of raw product. 10,000 liters is roughly 10 275 Gallon Caged IBC Totes. You are going to need at least 50 of those to accommodate a weeks worth of input. If you don't have a forklift, than a pallet jack would suffice but the physical volume of 50 Totes of this nature would need at least 150 square meters or 1,600 sq feet just to accommodate storage and easy movement of these. Of course, with a forklift you can cut this in half. But this is just the starting point for raw product storage and containment. 5. Depending upon your supply (if you can get it per the contingencies above) the labor involved must be considered. 6. Zoning and spill containment, depending upon your zoning will then become issues to consider. What happens if 275 Gallons is spilled? Where does it go? 7. Of course this is just the beginning. If you can solve all 6 above then you have to consider manufacturing zoning for industrial production of products involving methanol. I would say, in US currency, you would be looking at a minimum of at least $2-$3 million to create a facility, with proper explosion-proof valves and pumps. Nonetheless, this expenditure is moot if you cannot secure the necessary raw product to process into biodiesel. Also to consider, you will need at least 2,000L of methanol per day, 10,000L per week. Current methanol market price in the US is about $0.80/gallon or $0.21 per liter. That equates to $2,110 per week in methanol at current prices. This doesn't consider delivery / pickup fees and the necessary storage and handling of this very dangerous substance. So you are looking at around $10,000 per month for methanol at current market rates. Unfortunately, we are slave to the supply and demand of methanol and it has been traditionally becoming more expensive per year than global inflation. I could go on, but that is the point of exploration that we ended our operation. I believe that biodiesel production is viable at a rate of 10-25 gallons per day for the hobbyist but that there is a huge gap for viability until you can process literally millions of gallons per year. Unfortunately, you will discover that procuring raw vegetable oil to be the lynch-pin in any possible dreams of an economically successful operation.

I thank you very much for this detailed explanation. Now at least I have an idea what to expect if I can ever gather so much money for this dream. I also know for sure that it will not be possible to realize this in the Netherlands. Since my country is very expensive. So it'll be in my gf's country Philippines where I shall try to realize my dream, again if I can gather 5 million US dollars (facility, equipment, raw product, connections from whom I shall take the used oil, tank trucks for transport, etc.). :-( Again, thank you very much.

I miss this car. I replaced it with a lease on a Nissan Leaf so I could get the carpool lane in AZ.

+Joe Tinnerello It is correct that my fuel did pass ASTM D 6751 standards. While some of the tests within this standard may cross over with the standard for ASTM D 975, I am almost positive that Biodiesel would not pass this test in its entirety as its chemical makeup is fundamentally different as is the process of refining petroleum distillates. Also, Joe, I no longer sell any instructional materials. I only persist these videos for educational purposes. Utah Biodiesel Supply is a great place for additional information.

Thank you for your reply. I'll contact the good folks at UBS from now on. BTW: thank you for the great information you provide in the RUclips videos. It is very easy to understand, informative and interesting. Good job. Thank you.

+Joe Tinnerello By all means. I posted all of this for educational purposes so that people can learn from my mistakes and failures. Good luck!!!

@Subgunman I agree! I think that utilizing solar would be the ultimate off-grid operation. This video was created about 8 years ago. If I were to jump into it again I would definitely consider these options.

@Ricky white, you are correct that production costs are prohibitive. Keep in mind, when this video was recorded diesel #2 was above $4/gallon. NOT including equipment, transportation and pick-up of raw product, and all labor, we were able to produce ASTM D6751biodiesel for about $2.35 at that time. Unfortunately there was a huge market swing in methanol trading. If my memory serves, initially we were able to procure methanol at $0.37 but that skyrocketed to above $1.30 when we exited the business experiment. At current market values of diesel #2, biodiesel produced in this way is not economically viable, nor is is scalable.

+CUBE Saldude1 No. Different filters flow at different rates depending upon particulate concentration. Therefore, stacking the filters may cause one layer to overflow faster than another.

What about tapping the buckets with ball valves and using fittings and tubing to split the oil into multiple buckets? You can use larger buckets up top where the flow-rate is higher through the filters, and if there's danger of an overflow, you close the ball valves upstream and let the lower filters take their time.

Whippleman What about multiple buckets that each flow from one another with simple piping and valves?

small to large i think

To be more clear. I we did try and "stack" the filter systems. Unfortunately this didn't lead to an efficient "automated" system. The reason being is that depending upon the particulate size and quality of the used oil, filters would clog at different rates. Therefore you could pass 1 gallon per minute with the top filter and 1/2 gallon a minute with the second filter. So if you were to pour 2 gallons in the top filter, the second filter would start to overflow.

Methanol! AKA methyl alcohol, wood alcohol, wood naphtha, methyl hydrate, or wood spirits, is a chemical with the formula CH3OH (often abbreviated MeOH). Methanol acquired the name "wood alcohol" because it was once produced chiefly as a byproduct of the destructive distillation of wood. Modern-day methanol production occurs in a catalytic industrial process directly from carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen. (Aliases courtesy Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methanol)

Agreed, you want to control the temperature of the reaction and an insulated tank like a water heater is a great off-the-shelf staring point.

+Duarte Olim Please do not proceed without some kind of controlled chemical containment. The risk of methanol exposure is far to great in an open-vat or similar environment. From a safety perspective, do not even try. You are going to poison your kids/family without the proper equipment. Caustic Soda alone will literally burn your hands straight through but the methanol can certainly kill you. Please, do not take this risk without the proper chemical knowledge and controls needed for safety and quality.

+Sojerothetenkin101 To answer your questions: 1. Yes, I agree, the Hummer is awesome. 2. I do not know of any Japanese offroaders that are known to run well on Biodiesel. I have been out of the Biodiesel scene for 8 years now and have not involved myself in these details for some time now. 3. I don't recall using the word 'petrol', but if I did, I meant Dino-Diesel. I we never experimented, nor would advise anyone, to use any ratio of Gasoline with a diesel engine.

Matthew, you did say petrol, but I knew what you meant. You were trying to say "petrolium product" as opposed to a bio product. It probably did confuse those in Europe since they call gasoline, "petrol". I've been wanting to ask you for some time now, why did you get out of production? Were you just "tired of it"? I've been wanting to try it as I have a TDI but Diesel currently costs 2.10 a gallon in NJ. At that price there's not a great deal of incentive to do it. By the way "and your little dog too" was the best line in your video!

@Mark Allen, thanks for the clarification. I honestly haven't reviewed these videos in over 8 years. For our European friends, sorry for the confusion. To answer your question Mark it was simple economics. When we started this project pump prices were over $4 per gallon and I was able to procure methanol for less than $0.37 per gallon. Local oil supply was plentiful at that time and could be procured without paying the point of origin. The system we put in place worked very well, most restaurants were more than happy to participate. We provided them with heavy-duty totes for the oil to be "disposed" of and we set up a route every week to perform our pick-up rounds. We created an initiative with the city of Tempe and I got their approval to set up a section of downtown to act as a hub. The result of oil getting into the large diameter pipes is not unlike clogged artery walls, the diameter of the pipes continues to shrink as these oils are negligently allowed to flow into storm drains. We helped solve this issue with our closed system loop by providing containers that could be sealed. Side-note, the city of Tempe environmental guys were excited because the number one major cost to their infrastructure was oil literally clogging up the large water pipes underneath the entire city. Especially in congested areas like downtown Tempe which has a very concentrated number of restaurants. Oil ends up going down the drain, no matter how well they tried, using the older "grease traps" methods as provided by major rendering companies like A-1. But these older designs are faulty, oil ends up getting spilled, especially after a rain storm. When we started it was a golden opportunity. When we ended we put our hands over our face as everything that could go wrong did: 1. Competition for the raw product skyrocketed. Other people entered the market and literally started first to steal our containers. On the supply tip, towards the end, some other garage guys started to actually pay the restaurant for their oil. In some cases, for $1/gallon. Additional interesting factors in the global market also emerged. The fact that soy was initially available at a reasonable cost was promising...until the biodiesel and food market began to big against each other. If you look at the history of soy costs you will see a huge spike when this idea was blossoming. I believe that raw soy doubled perhaps tripled on the commodities market at that time. This pigeon-holed us to the used oil market and local competition 2. Methanol more than tripled in cost. When we started we could get a 55 gallon drum for $0.37 at the end it was around $1.37 if my memory serves. 3. Diesel began to drop from it's high of over $4 to less than $3. That was the largest crushing blow. 4. Production costs were very high. At one point we had over 20 275-gallon ASTs in our Tempe facility. Unfortunately we were not properly zoned for this kind of operation, which is industrial. The fact that were were handling and manufacturing with a very volatile substance (methanol) we had to move out of Tempe. We looked at county property to lease/purchase but by this time, all the other factors were weighing upon us. The need for explosion-proof valves and systems also put a huge barrier to entry on any type of major bio-diesel production. In the end, it was an awesome project, but we failed at our ultimate goal. At the scale we started it would be great for hobbyists but we couldn't scale within the economic boundaries we discovered. I do believe in biodiesel. It absolutely works and is the best alternative to Diesel we have. I also believe that the true breakthroughs are going to occur with the supply of the oils themselves. In the future when an algae or high-oil content bacterium can be produced than we will see biodiesel eclipse the diesel market. Regardless, I am glad to have gone through the process and I hope others have been benefitting from our journey.

mintsanesta Honestly, I consider the creation of biodiesel to be a good hobby. As of 2015, unless you have a stable supply of hundreds of thousands of gallons of cheap, clean vegetable oil and millions of dollars of capital equipment; the creation of biodiesel is not a viable business model. But for a garage enthusiast with dispensable time (where you don't include labor costs) this is a fun, break-even venture.

Matthew Flansburg hi there , i was wondering if instead of using methanol and lye, using multi staged filtering up to 1 micron , will be possible to use it as fuel ?

Taraz Pariseau I would recommend Utah Biodiesel Supply.

thx

Ted Ciesielski I would recommend Utah Biodiesel Supply.

Nicholas Aylward A great deal has changed since I made these videos eight (8) years ago. I kept these videos up as a reference so that people could learn from what was a considerable capital loss. Ideal has too many subjective interpretations that I can't answer this question as everyone's conditions are vastly different.

Daniel Hatfield I don't know about Australia and these videos are eight (8) years old at the time of this reply. For the States, I would recommend Utah Biodiesel Supply.

Noureldin Abdulwahid Unfortunately, I don't have enough data to make an estimate for you Noureldin.

Thanks Mat I am currently watching your videos and very informative. I am Petroleum Engineer and I don't want to stuck in employment forever and this is a good business idea want could try back home in Africa. specially with the shortages of petrol fuel.

Evan Loper Sulfuric acid is effective and can be dangerous to handle, very caustic and the fumes can cause some very nasty lung damage. Unfortunately, methanol is very dangerous as well, can cause cumulative toxicity if inhaled and/or ingested. Be aware of the dangers and risks. I am sure you can find a way to use other substitutes for these agents, but I didn't explore that side of production. Good luck.

Did you ever try this out?

themrb007 Do not run 100% bio through a H1. The fuel injectors are dialed in for Diesel #2 and they will malfunction. I would only recommend running up to 5% Biodiesel for that particular vehicle. Seriously, don't do it, your engine will stop working and require a dealer reset.

Matthew Flansburg Is it possible to redial fuel injectors to run on B100 on any vehicle?

+Jemalacane0 You will have to talk with the OEM as the injectors we experimented with were very temperamental.

Ivo Ferreira Ethanol is a different beast. Processing requirements, reaction times and molar ratios of alcohol to oil are different for ethanol than methanol. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAME) were the first fatty acid esters to be introduced for use as biodiesel. However, there is a growing interest in the use of fatty acid ethyl esters (FAEE) in biodiesel. Both FAME and FAEE have their own unique advantages and disadvantages. When I was experimenting and producing ASTM D6751 Biodiesel I only used methanol. Unfortunately, I don't have any first-hand data using ethanol.