OT: Biodiesel at Home

Anyone here tried making this stuff at home? I found this youtube video today. He pays 77c/gallon. Not sure how that math works out when the methanol is $2.60/gallon and you need 3 equivalents of methanol per mole of triglyceride. Looks like you need to dedicate your garage to the operation and well....my garage is occupado!

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Reply to
Garage_Woodworks
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I wonder how long it will take for some 'agency' to lobby for that process to be outlawed(taxed??) Or to make it illegal for the fry-joints to hand the spent oil over to 'non-licensed' people.

Reply to
Robatoy

I wonder how long it will take for some 'agency' to lobby for that process to be outlawed(taxed??) Or to make it illegal for the fry-joints to hand the spent oil over to 'non-licensed' people.

It IS toxic waste - in a manner of speaking.

Dave in Houston

Reply to
Dave in Houston

McDonalds is using their own oil to power their own vehicles in the UK.

My home town has (4) biodiesel plants who have to _buy_ the oil, because most restaurants have already figured out that it's worth something.

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Reply to
B A R R Y

I have been so tempted to do this. I'm considering buying a 3 yr old truck, something just out of warranty to do this with. As for the dedicated garage, I'm sure with a little thought process and planning, that it could be cut way down in size. It's the storage of usable fuel that scares me. Lou

Reply to
Lou

That's already happening. People have been prosecuted for violating zoning laws and other obscure reasons - for just doing it in their own garage for their own use.

Hell - what isn't these days?

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Diesel isn't a bad storage risk. Much safer than gasoline.

Reply to
Mike Marlow

Farmers have been doing it for decades with little risk

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

Is there *anything* that is *not* known by the state of California to cause cancer? I know I can't buy anything without that label on it. I would think the list of things not known by California to cause cancer would be shorter. It might thus be an environmentally friendly change then to require that labels only be applied to products not known by the state of California to cause cancer -- it might cut down on the use of that carcinogenic ink.

Reply to
Mark & Juanita

Exactly.

How much heating oil is stored in a typical oil heated home?

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Reply to
B A R R Y

On the order of 300 gallons (might be 388).

Reply to
Fred the Red Shirt

[snip]

Apparently not! Recently I purchased an electrical EXTENSION CORD. You know the thing you use when the outlet is too far away to plug in the table lamp. This EXTENSION CORD had the ubiquitous California warning. Don't see how plugging in my table lamp is likely to give me cancer.

Guess Cal's gubmint is just a whole lot smarted than we are here in the Midwest.

GWK

Reply to
Gary K

The distinction between an inflammable liquid and a combustible liquid is the flashpoint, that is the temperature at which vapors above the liquid can be ignited by an open flame.

Combustible liquids have a flashpoint that is high enough that the vapors will not form an explosive atmosphere under ordinary household conditions. I think the standard is 140 degrees F.

Diesel fuel, fuel oil and kerosene are combustible. To ignite those, they must be pre-heated, or atomized.

Gasoline is inflammable, it can form an explosive atmosphere under mundane conditions

Reply to
Fred the Red Shirt

Raw bear meat.

That give you trichinosis instead.

Have you heard the theory that cancer is caused by white mice?

Reply to
Fred the Red Shirt

You sure about kerosene in that list, Fred? I run a kerosene heater and the liquid just wicks up and is lit without being atomized. Granted it's much less volatile than gas, and its flashpoint is higher, but from what I've seen it doesn't need to be an aerosol to be lit.

Tanus

Reply to
Tanus

Yes.

It must be heated or atomized.

What ignites it--something hot?

Reply to
Fred the Red Shirt

That was a rhetorical question to make a point, but I'd guess about the same.

The point was that LOTS of people already have nearly the same substance, in a decent amount, INSIDE THE HOUSE (like my basement).

I rented a house that had twin 500's!

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Reply to
B A R R Y

Yes, it must be heated to light. I use a cigarette lighter.

Tanus

Reply to
Tanus

"Mark & Juanita" wrote

Yep, soon they will require labels on vitamins. And there is talk of banning vitamins from all the toxic cancer they create.

Apparently they don't know about the smog in LA.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

of a pickup truck. Diesel powered, of course.

Reply to
Fred the Red Shirt

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