In todays Daily Telegraph London Property Section was a short article that included how to turn cooking oil into bio-fuel for diesel engines. Sorry there is no link, so I have retyped it.
Make your own bio-fuel
All you need is a 45 gallon oil drum painted black and with a tap down the side, a large saucepan, a large sieve, some J-cloths and white spirit.
Pour the used cooking oil through the sieve into the drum and leave for a week, preferably in a sunny spot.
After a week, open the bottom tap and drain off any water collected at the bottom. Take the liquid fat off the top, put in a large preserving pan, heat on the stove to 50-60 degrees C, then pour through a sieve lined with a J-cloth into a bucket containing a little white spirit (5% of total quantity).
Leave to stand for 3-4 weeks. It is then available for use in your diesel engine. It will cost you about 30p per litre including tax (currently 27.1p per litre).
Anyone going to try it?
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Roger
I read frequently, but only post when I have something useful to say.
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I can just see the smile on SWMBO's face as I heat up used cooking oil by the gallon in her new kitchen ....
I think an old Belling in the shed is called for.
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I really wouldn't advise running this in anything other than a banger...
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I second that. Not recommended for use in a modern high-pressure common rail engine. Unfortunately the article doesn't mention the constant irritation of paperwork required to pay the duty.
On another note, glad to see it's correctly referred to as "biofuel" and not "biodiesel".
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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There must be a market for all that chip shop fat - is any of it used for this? What do they do with it all - is it reprocessed and re-used?
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Phil
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I can just see the smile on SWMBO's face as I heat up used cooking oil by the gallon in her new kitchen .... I think an old Belling in the shed is called for.
Almost like the smile on my Mum's face when I was class 1 kart racing and she came home to find a new set of SKF main bearings in her deep freeze, and two crank case halves in her oven!
The smell of Castrol R pervaded the house for weeks afterwards.
Kids, eh!
Who'd 'ave 'em?
:-)
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In todays Daily Telegraph London Property Section
Were they joking publishing that?! I thought the "white spirit method" had been illegal for some time?
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Not illegal if you pay the RFD.
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andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmm, doughnuts ...
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Not illegal if you pay the RFD. --
I'd seen some conflicting information about adding white spirit on another forum, some people were saying it was illegal.
But I've found a page at www.gnn.gov.uk that says, "...White spirit is not approved for use as a road fuel. If white spirit is added to Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) or used in biodiesel production the whole batch would be rendered liable to duty at the ultra low sulphur diesel rate..."
Also I read somewhere else that burning white spirit in a car engine produces more nasties than petrol or diesel?
I was browsing a US biodiesel forum a while back and someone was asking, "I have 5 drums of used engine oil in the garage, could I run my car on it if it was filtered/thinned?. The response was along the lines of, "yes, but you would literally get the black death coming out of your exhaust!"
;o)
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www.doctordiesel.co.uk/
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Someone already has a business doing this,somwhere in the Midlands IIRC.He collects used oil from fast food outlets and processes it,selling mainly to commercial customers.He was featured in 'Car Mechanics'mag a couple of years ago.You could run a banger on it and it will smell of chips....
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www.goldenfuels.com/ in Oxford. They were charging 92.0/litre
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Yes lots of places doing it:
www.ebony-solutions.co.uk/pricing.html
www.bio-power.co.uk/agents.htm
Theres a recipe here for proper biodiesel, but it only makes enough to get you to the shops and back!: www.biofuel-uk.net/
I fancied making some on a slightly bigger scale, but my fiancee would not have been too happy with a pan of sodium methoxide bubbling away in the kitchen!
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If your turbo seals give up the engine will run on its own oil until the oil runs out and seizes your engine, therefore old engine oil mixed with diesel works well in old engines.
Sunflower oil is a lot runnier than vegatable oil and will mix straight from the bottle. Do either in large quantities in new engines will shag it quickly.
If your turbo seals give up the engine will run on its own oil until the oil runs out and seizes your engine.
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What was that stuff Strawbridge was using in his "It's Not Easy to be Green" program? He started with chip fat but then it all seemed a bit hazy from that point on.
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What was that stuff Strawbridge was using in his "It's Not Easy to be Green" program? He started with chip fat but then it all seemed a bit hazy from that point on.
I assume they carried out the proper biodiesel transesterification process, but they didnt go into detail on the chemistry bit in the middle. Think I heard him mention 'catalyst', then all of a sudden he was putting it in the Landy and starting it up! They were happy just showing the filter and pump equipment they rigged up.
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Yes, I wasn't sure whether he was saying this is a good idea or not.
Most of the projects they do they are very coy about costs; I imagine none are even remotely cost effective, but then that's not the point. I'm not sure what the point IS, but it's good tv.
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I think this is the ultimate in making bio-fuel:
tinyurl.com/rwa3z
I wouldn't try it in your kitchen though! I suspect the wife might object.
(Yes I know it not a new idea, however I suspect that the commercialisation of it might be a first if it works out OK).
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Heres another one, to get rid of all those annoying supermarket carrier bags: snipurl.com/qd1s
And note the seperate section at the bottom on Catalytic Depolymerization, claiming they can make diesel out of all sorts of stuff including 'BSE infected animals'! Sounds too good to be true. Reminds me of the bit in Back To The Future where he fuels the DeLorean on bits of rubbish and a banana skin...
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Strawbridge spent £100,000k in 6 months on all his various projects.
I think this goes to show that his aim wasn't about cost-effectiveness, but about lifestyle changes.
(I presume a lot of the cash was spent on booze for his kid's friends)
They definitely used a 2 stage process with a chemical catalyst though.
Ian
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One TV programme recently featured a Land Rover owner who bought up local cooking oil supplies and used in the car.
His face was hidden as he didn't pay duty; he pointed out that buying normal vegetable or sunflower oil plus paying duty would be dearer than popping into Tesco's fuel station.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Methanol: not something you want in the house! Just think of the consequences of spillage, and ignition sources, never mind the toxicity. Spoilsports site - www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/biodiesel.htm
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A large part of the £100,000 spent was to make the house habitable (it needed a new roof for starters - not much change from 10 grand for a house that size) and any new owner would have had to spend a similar amount on the essentials first.
If you strip out the cost for the actual 'green' elements of the project it will be a small proportion of the total cost incurred. From watching it the most expensive item seemed to be the whole house ventilation system, IIRC the heat exchanger was over £2,000.
He did use chip fat and a catalyst for the diesel - he was paying about 70p a litre.
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The Strawbridge's have just started their own website and forum about the programme, and green issues in general (literally two or three days ago). If you are interested in the biodiesel project, or indeed any of the others, then it's here. Both Brigit and Dick are very active in replying to questions (at the minute, until the novelty wears off I imagine!)
tinyurl.com/eovo9
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