I made my own Biodiesel.
There is no telling what I will want to learn about at the drop of a hat. I had a co-worker while I was in the National Capital Region (NCR) that had an older Mercedes Benz car with a diesel engine. He told me that he was running it on old grease from a fast food place he liked. The concept is called a Greasel car.
It works this way, he has two tanks in the back of his car, one is the original diesel tank and there is a tank of old fryer oil in the trunk. He starts the car using the normal diesel and once the engine is warmed up he flips a switch and the grease is fed into the engine. When he is at his destination he flips the switch again and the engine resumes running on diesel again. If he accidentally leaves the switch on ‘grease’ when he stops the engine it may not start since the flash point of grease needs to be higher than the cold engine. Lets just say if he makes that mistake it is a mess and requires taking the car to a shop to get things going again.
While this is not something I was interested in doing, it lead to me wanting to learn about making my own biodiesel, which is not as hard as it sounds and doesn’t require multiple tanks.
In doing research I found that one of the founders of the “Make your own biodiesel” movement was going to be teaching a class near me. I registered and took the course which was an interesting weekend to say the least. Students leave the class with all the information they need, and a 2 liter bottle of diesel which they made.
Now that I had the information I needed I went out and found a good used VW New Beetle with a diesel engine. The turbo diesel to be exact. Then I started assembling the system to make my own diesel at scale. Requiring an electric water heater, piping and some chemicals.
At the time I had a nice sized barn on my property so I had lots of space to work with. I also prepared a full on demonstration and documentation to deliver to my Home Owners Association to ask if they would be OK with me doing this.
I took copies of everything in multiple folders to give to each of the board members. And I was all set to spend a long time talking them into my request. In reality, I gave them the folders and started my short version of what I was asking for. The head of the board stopped me and consulted with the other members…then turned and said “Granted”. Jeez, that was easy.
At the time there was a Thai restaurant that we really liked and I got to know the owner pretty well. I asked him what he did with his oil and he proceeded to regale me with how much the oil disposal company charged him. I proposed a deal where I would haul off and take care of his oil for free. He couldn’t accept fast enough.
The end result was that I had a constant supply of excellent quality oil, since the Thai place did not fry the things that make the oil less usable. I would pick up several gallons a week and my water heater was a 50 gallon size. This meant I could make roughly 40 gallons each cycle. My end cost per gallon ended up being close to 75 cents a gallon. Additionally, the diesel I was making was far superior to the stuff you get at the pump. It had excellent lubrication qualities and left the engine way cleaner.
I also learned how to tune the engine electronics on my VW, which allowed me to get close to 45 miles to the gallon. Making the Beetle one of the least expensive to operate cars I have ever had. (The possible exception being my Bolt EV).
And, the by product of making the diesel was basically lye soap. I would take this soap and purify it slightly and add a nice scent. These bars made great presents. The soap also took anything off your hands and left them nice and soft.