Vegetable oil people, what's your take on this?

[jbach36]

http://atlanta.craigslist.org/bfs/821490448.html

I'm not necessarily looking to buy and sell, but just wondered how good seeds were to make biodiesel.

[jross]

You can probably make money (if that's your objective).

However, I noted they did not address the following areas of concern:
1) How will you resell the biofuel? (may require special licensing)
2) How much water is required (biofuel refining typically requires 4 times as much water as fuel output, and that's for large plants - smaller operations can require much more)
3) Byproduct disposal (You will produce all sorts of nasty chemicals, including formaldehyde, which should NOT be left in with the biofuel product and should be disposed of separately)

I'd do alot more research before buying a rig, and consider doing some small 'bench' runs first (mason jars!)

Its called "a scam".

[moon161]

Not included:

Tons & tons of oilseeds.
Someplace to put the leftovers.
Methanol
Lye
Titration setup
Someone to take your waste glycerine.

[Charles_B]

Well I prefer to keep things simple and run straight vegoil without the hassle and extra expense of boidiesel, have bought biodiesel when I could find some, nice to keep a couple of gals in trunk when changing fuel filters. I understand the idea of jatropha and other seeds using press to get oil, fairly simple process. I don't know as thats a good price for seed press or not as never really researched presses price wise. Byproduct of seeds being pressed is mulch totally biodegradable being only plant material, or some could be used for feed depending on seed used. This particular press, I don't get the impression its a high output, but may be wrong. Have thought of planting jatropha on my property in W Texas but haven't looked into how well it does in arid areas.

[Alastair]

Originally Posted by jross

You can probably make money (if that's your objective).

However, I noted they did not address the following areas of concern:
1) How will you resell the biofuel? (may require special licensing)
2) How much water is required (biofuel refining typically requires 4 times as much water as fuel output, and that's for large plants - smaller operations can require much more)
3) Byproduct disposal (You will produce all sorts of nasty chemicals, including formaldehyde, which should NOT be left in with the biofuel product and should be disposed of separately)

I'd do alot more research before buying a rig, and consider doing some small 'bench' runs first (mason jars!)

1) Selling Good, Proper BioDiesel is seldom a problem--Just ask Willie Nelson!

2) BioDiesel can be made and made well with little use of water at all....

3) The manufacture of BioDiesel does involve certain dangerous chemicals. However, the Co-Products/By-products Do Not Contain Formaldehyde! BioDiesel 'by-product' is composed of soaps and glycerol, combined with water and excess NaOH (Caustic) Excess Methanol will be removed from By-Product for economic reasons for re-use.

The By-Product can be further 'split' by acidualtion to produce a purer form of glycerol and FFA oil--Great stuff for 'furnace-oil' is FFA, (Boiler-fuel) and the purer glycerol is much easier to sell on....

4) You'll definately Have to have some licencing from your EPA, and possibly 'State' regulations too. I have just completed a similar (UK based) licence for our Environment-Agency...

[daw_two]

I currently have my biodiesel processor for sale --- due to pending move. Current house has 3 car garage; new house has 2 car garage.

If you are interested; here is the ad:

http://memphis.craigslist.org/cto/817928006.html

[pizzachef]

You can build a processor less than $1000, and that's including a new electric water heater.
http://www.b100supply.com/biodiesel_kit_p/10014.htm

Unless you have a vast supply of plant seeds, I don't think the presser is worth it. Waste oil is still free from lots of restaurants, depending on where you live (and how progressive the area is) you might have to search around to find a supply, but I'm still getting oil without too much trouble.

[Diesel911]

I read that Jatropha seeds were toxic which means that after the oil is squeezed out you have to dump the toxic hulls somewhere.
The hulls of the edible type seeds they get oil from can be eaten by Livestock and could be sold for that purpose.

[TchTchr]

A guy on the Ford site I frequent has a much larger press and processor. He has 100 acres of camalina, soy and canola which will yield 20,000 gallons of fuel.

[mobetta]

Originally Posted by TchTchr

A guy on the Ford site I frequent has a much larger press and processor. He has 100 acres of camalina, soy and canola which will yield 20,000 gallons of fuel.

thats a lot of fuel. to my knowledge, soy is about 40 gal/acre when pressed into oil. I would not bother w/ it if I were growing fuel.

[veggihatetank]

The part where he claims its used to extract oil from algae seemed like a warning flag to me. all the info I've seen on oil from algae people is it's still in the early experimental stages .,, unless he obtained it from using a time machine to travel into the future.

Humm, algae seeds?

[johnpierce79]

Using plants to help clean up heavily polluted soils has been successfully tested for many years and shown to be a cheap and environmentally friendly way to clear heavy metals such as arsenic, copper, zinc and chromium from contaminated land. The main problem with the method has been the amount of time it takes to grow successive crops of plants to clean up an area. Now scientists may have come up with a solution by combining heavy metal tolerant bacteria with plants used to make biofuels such as oil seed rape.
"We discovered that inoculating the plants with metal resistant bacteria provided them with sufficient protection that their seeds germinated better and their growth was enhanced. The plant leaves accumulate the metals, the bacteria deal with the contamination, and the plants seem to benefit from some of their activity," says Olivia Odhiambo from the Institute of Technology, Carlow, Ireland.
Oilseed rape is a member of the Brassica family, which also includes cabbages and Brussels sprouts. It is well suited to Irish growing conditions and is already widely grown by farmers for biodiesel production.
"As some of the bacterial strains we tested are showing enhanced growth properties in the crop, this also means greater plant production and more biodiesel," says Olivia Odhiambo. "This is good news for owners of land that cannot currently be used for food plants due to heavy metal contamination. However, this technology could also have much wider implications in improving biofuel crop production nationally and internationally by simply helping farmers grow more fuel per hectare."
The scientists have looked at two types of metal tolerant bacteria which colonise the leaves of the oil seed rape plants and one metal tolerant type that lives in the roots of other brassicas and found that all three were successful in promoting the plant growth, although they did show different tolerances to different heavy metals. The Carlow team now hopes to extend their study to include other commercial biofuel plants and different strains of metal resistant bacteria.