Well I'm thinking about making biodiesel. Here's some information on it..and just is pretty much all my thoughts and all my notes tossed together on the subject.
Biodiesel is an organic fuel made out of Animal Fats, Vegetable Oil, Grease etc. So far it's pretty much the only fuel I found that can be produced without actually costing more money to make. My grandpa down in Georgia produces Ethanol, the only thing I hate when people talk about ethanol is the think its such a wonderful fuel because it is made out of corn.....the problem with ethanol is the energy that it takes to make it....it's distilling which requires alot of heat and energy to make...which makes it not worth the effort. Plus most diesel vehicles requires very little retrofitting.
Well I started to research how to make it while in class one day...it looked very promising so I decided to talk to my dad and what he thought of it. I showed him how it is made, he's like we have a perfect source of animal fat....butter!!!
Well I started to research how to use butter...but I found one slight problem. Butter has alot of water content in it. So first it has to be converted to ghee (which is butter without the water content in it) once it is converted to ghee its makes a perfect raw material.
The way you make biodiesel is you take the raw material (ghee) mix some lye and methanol heat up the raw material, mix the lye methanol mixture (sodium hydroxide) in the mix, stir for an hour and let it sit for a day...and then you get biodiesel, and glycerin (soap).... I'm hoping within the few weeks to have my first batch of biodiesel made. Once I start making biodiesel I figure I can make the fuel for around 20-30 cents a gallon. Currently my parents spend about $600 a week in fuel cost for their semi truck. If I use biodiesel it will save them up to $500 a week in fuel cost which is a little over $26k a year. now I will share with you some of my notes on how much I would save personally if I bought a car and switched to use biodiesel. I pretty much have my car picked out I would get a mid 90's or newer volkwagen diesel, since from what I have heard from people that they run flawlessy on biodiesel. Here's a note for you, biodiesel will not void any engine manufacturers warranty. But the killer thing is unless I get a car thats about $5,000 I won't really save any money unless I quadruple my driving. The problem with finding a volkswagen TDI car is they are super hard to find...and once you find one they are usually have a turn around sales time of a day. The car gets a 45mpg hwy and 40mpg city...not bad eh? Plus my friend is a vw mechanic so he can get parts for cheap . If this biodiesel thing works out as smooth as I think it will I might just bite the bullet and buy a brand new car with all the options I want (then if i breaks I have a warranty) it's $22,000 for the car, but eventually when I rack up enough miles, I will save money and also I will be having better emissions and not using foreign oil Also another fact of biodiesel, it makes the engine run smoother and doubles the engine life...and since vw cars can easily get up to 300k of miles....I could potentionaly have a car that lasts me the next 15 years...
|