Storms and chickens

[Happymama]

Biofuel (100% veg) as opposed to Biodiesel (5% veg, 95% diesel, usually not an environmentally minded additive, but more to add lubricity to the diesel, so better for the engines.)

 

I'm going to make my own Biofuel reactor when I move (DH announced split on the eve of our 11th wedding anniversary last Thurs:x ) in the garage.

 

All I'll need is a big drum of methanol, A pH meter, some caustic soda or KOH, some veg oil (Rodolfo's chippy) and the equipment.

 

For example: http://www.british-bio-diesel.com/, or http://www.bioking.co.uk/ (my fave). Google B100 making equipment for these and more.

 

All you need then is a post 2000 diesel car (pre to that they may have natural rubber hoses, and biofuel will eat them, so you'll have to replace all the rubber fuel lines with plastic or otherwise in a newer car).

 

Average cost of this fuel is around £0.50 a litre assuming you pay the duty (you should) to C&E, and you've paid £0.10 for the waste oil (WVO). If you find a cheap supply of SVO (Straight veg oil - Macro, for instance) you'll use less water, but pay more.

 

it works like this: (Potted)

 

You need to remove the sugar component (glycerol) from the oil. You replace it with alcohol (Methanol) and need a catalyst to do this. Caustic soda works just fine, but if you use KOH there are other advantages, too, more later. Once you've made the switch you need to wash the oil to remove impurities. When this is done you need to dry the oil, either leave it open to a relatively dry environment for a couple of days or use a heating belt on a drum.

 

You are left with waste products at each stage. THe first one is after you've added the methanol and catalyst to the oil, you get GLYCERINE. If you've used caustic soda as a catalyst you can make soap from this, or burn it in a special stove (google glycerine burner). If you can get KOH you can do the above and also you can COMPOST the glycerine. The second stage is the water you draw off from the bottom of the washing tank. This is essentially soapy water, so you can run it off down a foul drain quite safely, or spray the roses for greenfly with it.

 

Mercedes diesel are particularly good at running on Biofuel, apparently, but otherwise, most people report quieter running, slight loss of oomph (with some exceptions, who go the other way), but no other problems seem to have come to light yet. I've heard of someone who's been running diesel Landys on it for ages, and they've got lovely innards, apparently.

 

You can run some diesels on straight veg oil as it comes out of the bottle. I think you may need a relatively tolerant (as in old) engine and you defo need a fuel heater for our winters. Veg oil 'sets' at higher temps than diesel. Sounds very risky to me. All I can think of are all those sugars varnishing the insides of the engine.

 

More on the http://www.itsnoteasybeinggreen.org/forum/index.phpsite.

[Lesley]

Sorry to hear about the split - but it does seem to have inspired you

 

You will have plenty to think about, making your biofuel - go for it........

 

...and don't forget to tell us how it is going?

[Cinnamon]

Our metheod is even easier,& we run our work van this way.

 

We bought a convertor kit which attatches to the engine,& according to The Hubby anyone with a bit of basic engine knowledge can fit it in a day.

The vehicle needs to be a Diesel,& now it is converted so that we run it on pure vegetable oil......just the stuff you buy from Tesco.

We don't need to add stuff to the oil to make it work

 

It goes straight into the van (many people don't believe us until they see us do it!) there is very little performance change & it costs next to nothing.

In fact up until a few months ago Hubby used to collect the old oil from the local Chinese & Chip shops,filter it & use that

 

Apparantly you can run most Diesel vehicles on a mix of veggie oil & Diesel without having to do any sort of conversion,too.

 

Here is a link to the site we got our kit from :

 

http://www.dieselveg.com/

[Egluntyne]

Gosh!

 

Sorry to hear about your personal circs.

[Happymama]

Cinnamon, you're not the only one that runs a van on pure SVO. Diesels were designed to run on pure Peanut oil, after all, but fossil was cheaper at the time (OH, how times have changed!).

 

I am hoping to use my B100 in other applications, if I can convince the manufacurers of diesel powered central heating equipment to bite the bullet and do some development. Not to mention aga's - but sadly just got this response from a manufacturer:

Message from Avec Cookers Website

 

Hi sorry it is not possible to run Aga's on any bio fuels at present.

 

Thanks Liam

Avec Cookers Limited

 

Begs the question: WHY NOT? Doesn't it!

[Cinnamon]

I think we are a part of a small but growing band who use oil in our van....many certainly do not believe us when we tell them.

Apparantly you can also heat a house with a converter too

 

The duty thing makes me mad.....in a lot of other EU contries there is no duty to pay as it is such an environmentaly sound way to run a vehicle

 

By the way,I too am sorry to hear about your personal situation,& hope things get better for you soon

 

[Happymama]

I think we are a part of a small but growing band who use oil in our van....many certainly do not believe us when we tell them.

Apparantly you can also heat a house with a converter too

 

The duty thing makes me mad.....in a lot of other EU contries there is no duty to pay as it is such an environmentaly sound way to run a vehicle

 

By the way,I too am sorry to hear about your personal situation,& hope things get better for you soon

 

 

Thanks! - it's not the disaster it first appeared, I feel.

 

BTW, forgot to say, but the people who I know who are using SVO also have to use a preheater or run a 2nd smaller tank with diesel in as the SVO won't start in winter, it's sludge from about 10 deg C. And they use good old Redex somewhere between every fill and once a month, depending on preference.

 

Converter? Where from? I'm DEFO interested in this. I am quite friendly with a chippy owner or two and soon to be ex-Dh also works for a water utility, and says he can slip me the odd drum of Methanol, Caustic, and get me a free pH meter. I think that despite himself, he's dead interesed. So fairly large scale production will be very cost effective!

[Cinnamon]

I will ask the Hubby - he's the man to speak to about this

I am assuming its like the convertor on the Engine to let it run properly on oil, but I may be wrong.

 

LPG is also a good option for household fuel - especially if you buy it to run a hot air balloon - its way cheaper that way

 

We have found that so long as we run the van on Diesel for the last mile before turning the engine off,& start it on Diesel before switching to oil,its fine in the 2 winters we have run it.The heat from the engine that is running warms the oil up

[Happymama]

I will ask the Hubby - he's the man to speak to about this

I am assuming its like the convertor on the Engine to let it run properly on oil, but I may be wrong.

 

Thanks! Look forward to more investigation!

 

LPG is also a good option for household fuel - especially if you buy it to run a hot air balloon - its way cheaper that way

 

 

Ah, good gen indeed, esp. as my beloved White-Westinghouse 5 burner hob came with a spare set of LPG jets! If I can find them. But then, isn't that what moving house is for?

[Cinnamon]

OK - I spoke to the Hubby,& he says that it would probably cost more to run a house on Veggie oil than it would on heating oil

 

He reckons the best alternatives are either LPG,or even better still a wood burner with a back boiler,which will heat everything in your house.

Especially useful if like me you know a window fitter who is always chucking away old wooden window frames (The Hubby!) & live opposite a tree surgeon

 

This is something we are going to look into for the furture,as fuel prices have risen so much & we would have no trouble getting wood to burn.

[The Dogmother]

I have a multifuel stove, whcih burns coal and/or wood. It doesn't have a back boiler, but does a great job at heating most of the house just through heat convection. It is in the living room and heats up my bedrom above very well too.

 

I do use coal on it to 'keep the fire in', but try to use wood where possible as I have a chippie friend who can give me all I need. I also get some logs from a tree surgeon, but they need to be stored for drying for a year before they can be used, so take up more space.

 

I find that the heating thermostat clocks off when the fire has been going for a bit, so I am saving on gas too.

[Cinnamon]

We fitted a wood burner in our living room this year, & although we have not used it much it has already proved to be a big sucess.

Makes the house smell nice,too

[Happymama]

I've also just discovered that Aga have now jumped on the bandwagon, and are now building Aga's that will run off B100 (presumably from SVO, and why not? If I can get it from a chip shop for free, and it costs 4p per litre to make, and is heating fuel not 'red' diesel and therefore does not attract the payment unto Caesar that the stuff you put in your car does?.

 

My plans are laid ...

 

My mum has a woodburning stove, and the chimney runs up the centre of the house, and it warms the stairs and the room above just by convection from the chimney. Basically half (it's two made into one, really) the house from one fire. She spends Sunday afternoons making paper logs from the previous week's papers, and uses pinecones for firelighters.

[The Dogmother]

I was thinking about making paper logs, but I get so much wood for free that it doesn't seem worth the effort.

[Muppet81]

I bought a paper "log maker" yesterday from my local Green Shop. £15 which seemed cheaper than the ones I had looked at on line. Basically 2 green plastic tubes.

 

It is really easy to use, does not require the paper to be wet before making the log and really does compact a lot of paper/thin card into the log.

 

I am not sure how long these will burn for but even if they only serve to get the fire going, it seems a good use of old neswpapers.

 

I now have a small pile of neat logs rather than a mountain of old newspapers lying around.

[One Man Banned]

Found this post and again thinking about getting a diesel to run on biofuel/biodiesel.

 

 

Got me thinking now..my friend is selling some ex BT Ford Fiesta Vans and only for a few hundred quid (got a bargain for 2! sort of BOGOF)

 

If I get one of those and run it for a few weeks, I wonder!

 

.................

tbc

[Happymama]

Go to http://www.elsbett.com/forms/ekit.htm to find out if a particular car will run on Veg oil. These cars have all been fitted with their kits, which do allow you to cold start on pure veg oil, so are a good indication of what cars can. Also, these details show whether a single (just a heater on the fuel supply) tank is ok, as fitted standard in all cars, or an extra (2 tank system) is required, as the car needs to start on diesel first (common rail, Direct Injection and Unit Direct Injection cars usually, and then only some. Rotary fuel pumps are death.)

 

Indirect fuel pumps: Bosch, Nippon-Denso, Kiki, Zexel, Doonon are OK

 

VAG cars, Merc are usually Bosch, and most Japanese cars use the rest.

 

Ford, Peugeot, Citroen, Renault, Fiat and Vauxhall use Lucas, CAV, Delphi, Stanadyne and Rotodiesel pumps. Usually not ok, some suitable for the 2 tank Elsbett system.

 

Volvo's will, too, if it's a 740/760/940 2.4D, and the 780, and the 960.