Anyone out there make their own biodiesel?
 

Forgive me if this has been covered already, but I am about to drive cross-country, (west coast to east through the midwest), and I'm looking for any home brew makers that I can buy some moonshine from. Any leads are appreciated, has to be good, clean stuff from someone who knows what they are doing. TIA. :cool:

Not here...I'm waiting till the warranty runs out on my TDI before I tackle homebrew stuff....

They would never, never know you had been running it if it's good quality stuff.

Really? I thought the black boxes in these newfangled cars could record everything from the brand of gas you used to the length of your pee-pee...

I read thru some stuff on TDI Club from mechanics and they said there is NO possibility they would know you're running bio (or what grade of bio) via engine analysis. Diesel dropped to $2.48 here last week (reg gas dropped to $2.08 today).

No way for them to tell what fuel you have been running unless there is some left in the tank.
I tried brewing my own biodiesel for the golf, but I just couldn't afford to build a big enough processor to make it worthwhile.

I have been working on a bio diesel manufacturing plant here in wisconsin the past few weeks. It can make 3000 gallons a day. How much do you need???????:D

How much per gallon? My old man runs his own trucking co. and would be interested in a couple thousand gallons depending on price. 4 Trucks with ~ 300 gallon tanks a fill-up.

These are plants that are for sale. So this would be something that independent gas stations would buy and could produce there own fuel..

Friend of mine in Phoenix is building a large scale plant there. Will have loads of product but do not believe he will have any for another few weeks. Will you be near Phoenix?

Joe A

Joe, I will not be going by Phoenix on this leg of the trip, but maybe on the return in a few weeks. I'll definitely PM you if I am. Thanks to all for the replies!

Denis - just to be clear, there is a difference between 'biodiesel' and 'homebrew'. By homebrew I think you're referring to waste veggie oil, right? Vehicle modifications are generally needed to run that. Biodiesel is much more complicated to produce and not generally produced at home, but can be run in pretty much anything without modification.

I think he meant homebrew biodiesel... many people have set up small biodiesel processors in their garage.

FWIW, in colder climates you'll probably need some modifications to run anything above b50 (50% biodiesel) in the winter. Once you get into vehicle modifications, it makes sense to consider converting your car to run on unmodified vegetable oil.

It almost never makes sense to convert to SVO or WVO, at least not on most of the newer diesels.
Over on TDIClub you can read until your eyes bleed about nozzles plugging, injection pumps failing (mostly the cold start regulator), etc. all from the increased viscosity of running SVO/WVO. It's enough to scare me away, that's for sure, especially since I have a PD TDI.

Biodiesel requires no vehicle modifications at all. In colder climates you need to blend with D2 and D2 antigel to help bring down the pour point, but if you are going to be at -15*C or below you might as well switch back to D2 for the winter. There are companies marketing biodiesel antigels, but so far none of them have proved to be more than marginally effective. This topic comes up every winter over at TDIClub, and every winter they seem to be improving. Perhaps within another couple of years?....
None the less, all of the modification is of the fuel and not the vehicle. :)

Biodiesel is rather easy to brew, but difficult to get correct. If buying it comercially always ask for recent ASTM test data. They should have it on hand if it passed testing.
Many people have small biodiesel processors in their garages/basements/whatevers. I built a very small one, but I couldn't afford to build one large enough to produce useful amounts of fuel. The initial cost is ~$1000 to build a nice one, and you still have to source your oil. Usually you can get it for free, but once you factor in your trouble, materials, chemicals and your time I find it's better to buy it locally.

I should clarify I am not making the plants(not mine) but rather contracted to come in and consult.. I can ask about buy the bio though. I know the plants are starting price at 250,000 though and go up from there

Kinda sorta. A few years ago people were saying not to run SVO/WVO in ANY direct injection engines, due to piston rings coking up. Turns out that Powestrokes and VW TDIs run well on SVO/WVO... many out there with 100k+ on veggie.

There are people out there converting brand spanking new VW PD TDIs. Yeah, I think there nuts, I couldn't imagine throwing my warrantee out the window. It'll be interesting to see how they hold up.

As for injectors and IPs plugging up, well I read about those all the time. Usually ends up being poor filtration or water in the fuel.
People still tend to do really "low tech" SVO converiosn, thinking that if it runs, it'll run forever. Garden hose for coolant lines, filtering with t-shirts.


True dat.

FWIW, an really good SVO conversion typically costs ~$1000, and then all you have to do is filter the oil, instead of filtering and then processing.

SVO makes sense to me... 15 minutes a week to cover 80% of my fuel. 3 1/2 years and ~150 000 kms on my 2 jettas. I haven't found a downside yet.

At some of our local truckstops here in Louisiana, there are HUGE "Bio-Willie" banners flying. It seems that Willie Nelson has his own brand of bio-diesel out. From what I understand, It burns quite well, mellows out your truck, gives other motorists a great contact high, plus raises profits at all Interstate Waffle Houses. (Sorry, just had to....."On the road again.....);)


...I think the pound & a half was just an additive for the compost pile in the back of the Honeysuckle Rose.

No biodiesel, but plenty of homebrewed methane. Ask the wife.

Depends on what I've had for lunch.

Many people on TDIClub are argueing that the increased viscosity of SVO/WVO over D#2 is enough to cause excessive wear/damage to the cold start regulator in the injection pump. That and nozzle plugging are the only 2 downsides I see to a SVO/WVO conversion. That said, do you run a 2 tank system?
Just recently there was a thread on there about a fellow who had a nozzle plug, spraying the oil straight on the piston crown and into the chamber in the piston. It melted a hole right through it and he suffered a catastrophic engine failure including an engine runaway from the excessive crankcase pressure. Sounds like it would have been lots of fun to watch!

Anybody running WVO/SVO in a TDI PD is just plain stupid. I don't even want to get into that. Warranty issues aside, it's still stupid :)

If I were to run SVO/WVO I would go get an older diesel, perhaps one of the older mercedes diesels. Those things are pretty much bulletproof.

I just found a local biodiesel supplier who is selling for ~$0.75/L, so I don't think I'm going to brew my own any time soon. I was only spending $160/month on fuel in the first place. I'll probably run B10 all the way up to maybe B50 or B75. Depends on my mood and the weather. I just made contact with the guy, hopefully he can come through with a big drum of it for me :D

From my friend making Biodiesel:

Most homebrew biodiesel is "not". To do it right and certify it you simply must have the lab equipment to test it throughout the process and at the end it must meet the spec's for ASTM 6751. If it does, then it's biodiesel. If it does not then it's something else and preformance will reflect accordingly.

The good news is that diesels are built strong and will run on anything that will atomize and combust under 18 to 1 compression. The bad news is that eventually even the strong grow damaged with enough abuse, so if the fuel is not preforming "well" the components have to take up the slack.

I've been watching this thread for awhile now:
http://forums.corner-carvers.com/showthread.php?t=29848