Biodiesel Anyone??

[gordyo]

I have a question for anyone who has tinkered with Biodiesel.
One of my fellow Physical Plant employee's at the college is experimenting with making Biodiesel from the waste Fryolator oil from our food service dept. He has made a few batches and has been burning it in his 1986 F-250 with a 6.9 diesel mixed with the petro diesel. He then weened the truck off of this and now runs just the Biodiesel now that warm weather is here.

Here is the question. When he was running petro diesel he always had low oil pressure. As soon as he switched to running the Biodiesel he noticed that his oil pressure went up to normal. Last week he ran out of Bio and put a few gallons of petro diesel in and the oil pressure dropped again. When he got in to work he had made another 5 gallon batch and put it in the truck and ran it and the oil pressure went back up to normal. What the heck is this Biodiesel doing??

I have heard that the Diesel engine was origianlly made to run on peanut oil, don't know if this is true or not but they must have been on to something.

[76chevyman]

WHat i have seen and herd. It depends on what the Bio-diesel is made out of differnt people make it out of differant things. But im sure its a thicker fuel. ANd what i have read it gets MUCH better gas milage then normal diesel. as much as twice the milage. I think it could be possiable that this fuel will be in the near future. AS for bringing the oil pressure up. Im not sure. Un less the truck has bad piston rings and the regular fuel just seeps by in to the oil. I really dont know. But when you find out please share with us.

Rich:burnout

[wyldman]

Gotta be a fluke,as fuel has absolutly no bearing on oil pressure whatsoever.The only thing that may be affected is the idle speed,which could cause a change in oil pressure due to the RPM difference,but if measured at the same RPM,it should be exactly the same.

Biodiesel generally makes a little less power,and the mileage will drop off some too.It all depends of the quality of the process,and the oil it originates from.

[JustUsDe]

Jeff,
We have 1/3 of our fleet running bio. We have been testing it here at our dot for a couple of years. They are looking for a suitable site to open a refinery for it here in delaware. If you would like to hear from some of our mechanics on the pros and cons they have seen with us using it pm me a number and I will have them call you.


Ray

[Pickering Snow]

Very interesting got to wonder though how cetane numbers come out and if there is a damage factor involed like Chris said i could see the change in idle speed causing the oil pump to increase presure that would be it . My other concern would be performace has well there has to be a big diff has reed vapor presure is afected and the residue from this type of fuel must make deposits somewere guess i would like to learn more about it would be neat to hit up the local mickey Ds for fryer oil once a week and make a few gallons :D

[Long0]

There is a local station around here that is selling Bio. The cost is almost 100% higher than standard No. 2 selling down the road. I have not tried it due to the same items Chris mentioned. There was a big write up in the local paper when this place first started selling it, and they stated the same. The price would have to get below No. 2 before I would consider trying it. I just can't see paying twice as much for fuel, only to have less power, and worse mileage.

Andy

[76chevyman]

Go here you will be surprised on how well this fuel Preforms
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/fuelfactsheets/

Rich:burnout

[cat320]

so will this be cheaper to run or cost every one much more??

[gordyo]

Cat,

Here is the figures right now for us.

Right now it is costly for us to purchase the Methanol you need to blend with the Fryolator Oil because we are in the infant stage and only purchase 5 gallons at a time so it is costly. When we get to the point when we have this up and running and can purchase in bulk the cost will go down.
Right now it costs us about $2.35 a gallon to make. However consider that we must pay $1.60 per gallon to get rid of our Fryolator oil as Haz and you can see that we actually are ahead of the game if we can get this to the point of recycling all our used Fryolator Oil and also run some of our fleet off it. Seems like a win win but I am proceeding very cautiously. Of course this does not take into consideration the labor to make it either.

[Dockboy]

Originally posted by gordyo
I have heard that the Diesel engine was origianlly made to run on peanut oil, don't know if this is true or not but they must have been on to something.

gordyo,

Yes! Mr. Diesel originally designed the motor to run on food oil. With the advent of better refining processes and the greater availability of crude oil, refined fuel oil became more readily available and cheaper;)