Homebrewed Diesel

There was an article in the latest Farm Show Magazine about a guy who rigged up a progression of simple filters, holding tanks, and an electric fuel pump to recycle waste drain oil into usable diesel fuel. He mixes the waste oil with diesel fuel ranging from a 1:2 to 1:4 mix, depending on his engine application. Claims great success:

http://www.farmshow.com/issues/32/04/320407.asp

Anyone ever used this process?

Thanks.


Richard

Government bureaucrats at the EPA in Washington would probably have apoplexy over this. The used oil not only contains particulate matter that is being filtered out, but also chemical junk that will be burned upon explosion in a cylinder - adding to our air pollution. Just think what the environmentalists would say! :>) GWH

I know of some Home Brewed diesel used around here. They use waste oil from electric transformers and contaminated diesel that has been run through a filtering system, then blended with regular diesel. No idea about the pollution factor. Seems like a waste to not use it.

Time to drive a multifuel 6x6.

The Smokstak website has a forum on alternative fuels.

Biggastractor

My only comment is that the oil out of a transformer is very close in the chemical chain of diesel fuel. This has been tested and verified in another country where fuel is at a premium also.
As far as contaminated diesel, I am always willing to run that after adding some "water out" and biocide then filtering.

The biggest issue using any used oil are the soluble contaminants that get burned and thus introduced directly the to atmosphere. There was a local ag operation here in Florida that got shut down because they were running their equipment on used oil that then deposited on the crop essentially turning it toxic. Some people got sick eating the stuff and it didn't take much sleuthing to figure out the problem.

In the case of used cooking oil there are mono and diglycerides in the oil that cause significant corrosion of the engine components that come in contact with the fuel, mostly the fuel pump and injectors. Processing the used oil into biodiesel gets rid of these "impurities" resulting in a clean renewable fuel that's inexpensive and easy to produce.

I'm almost finished with a 55-gallon processor that sits in the corner of my home garage and is made from a scratch-n-dent new water heater from the local home improvement store. Total investment for all the equipment is less than $500 and that's essentially buying everything new. My current estimation of fuel cost is about $.70 a gallon and that's including the cost of the equipment spread out over a year. If you want to try a fun little project that can save you a lot of money and get the whole family involved in learning independence check this out: http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/

My favorite new sticker: BioDiesel: Making terrorism irrelevant since 1912. 😄