Legality of BioDiesel & Veg Oil as fuel; individual usage in Ireland, from Revenue

Biodiesel demonstration on Saturday 17th september. All welcome, no charge. Starts 9.30am Will be making150 litres of biodiesel by the 2 stage method. I will also be showing how my drywash system works and a new type of fuel dryer to cope with damp Irish winters. For more details or directions send me a PM.

Here a riddle for the Revenue:

Collect WVO, filter it, run it in a diesel generator to charge your Nissan Leaf

newmug wrote: »

Hi Imakebiodiesel. I'd love to see how you make it. Are you still doing it?

If you do have a once off demo could you let me know please? I was going to make beer but this seems more fun:)

Sorry Balrog Beag for the delay in posting this reply. Ive been too busy recently to spend much time at the computer. I do make biodiesel every week and you are welcome to come and see it being done. Send me a pm and Ill let you know when Im doing it next.
I want to comment on the article posted a bit further up the page. Despite being a producer of biodiesel I agree totally with the author. Biodiesel made from new food grade oil is a waste of resources and an environmental disaster. It will push up food prices as more land is diverted to oil/fuel production. It has encouraged clear felling of rainforest in countries like Indonesia to plant palm plantations. Indigenous people in these areas have been intimidated, forcibly removed and even murdered in the process.
Producing biodiesel from waste products is the only acceptable course of action. The EU have correctly calculated the if all the waste veg oil in Europe was efficiently collected and made into biodiesel it could provide 4-5% of our transport fuel needs. They are withdrawing support for biodiesel made from new food grade oil. For once i think they have got it right.
However as the option of producing fuel from new oil disappears I hope the biodiesel producers respond creatively rather than just moaning. There are other waste products that can be used to produce biodiesel such as animal tallow from abbatoirs and even waste coffee grounds (11% oil). I have made biodiesel from both these wastes and it works, its just more trouble than new oil.

Deleted User wrote: »

What's wrong with LPG ?

The €1500 or so to have the kit fitted, and the possible insurance implications. Would take a while to make those savings back.

Deleted User wrote: »

I spend 60 a week in the Prius, or 3000 a year over 50 work weeks, - non work related driving so say 3200 a year.

conversion cost = 1000 Euro's

LPG running costs 30-35 Euro's a week or 1500-1700 a year

Electric would be about 600.

So it'll take the best part of a year to make the savings, and after that you're left having lost a good portion of your boot space.

For anyone that is still interested in making biodiesel, i put together a spreadsheet that calculates the required amount of chemicals for each stage, this is only useful to anyone who has 'done their homework', wont make much sense to anyone reading for the first time.

You are not breaking the law by collecting waste vegetable oil from a restaurant, the waste regulations concerning the collection and transport specifically exempt all vehicles on less than half a ton per axle. So collecting in car is ok but collecting in a truck you will need a waste collection permit.
However without a permit you will not be able to give the restaurant the cert he needs to show that the oil has been responsibly disposed of. In NI anyone can issue a cert but only permit holders in the Republic.
Obtaining a supply of waste veg oil can be very difficult, especially in towns and cities where the commercial collectors are most active.

Partly because of the increasing difficulty of getting veg oil I have been developing a different type of alternative fuel. Its still at the early stages and is not a commercial proposition but you may be interested in the video showing my CP processor producing kerosene from waste plastics.

http://youtu.be/BqGW4_m_zWM

The plastic is not burned.. It is heated in an oxygen free atmosphere until it boils at 385C. The vapours of long chain hydrocarbon(s Plastic) are cracked into short chain hydrocarbons ( fuel) and condensed and collected. The resultant fuel is kerosene which burns cleanly. I have used it for home heating without any adjustment to my boiler.
Clean sorted plastic is too valuable for this processand should be recycled. Dirty mixed waste plastic, which is very difficult to recycle, is ideal and would otherwise go to landfill. The yield is 1.1 litre of kerosene from 1kg of waste plastic. There is about 30 grams of char left as residue and it is 98% carbon. The rest is gas which is used to help fuel the process.

How much plastic would you need to make 1ltr ?

imakebiodiesel wrote: »

The plastic is not burned.. It is heated in an oxygen free atmosphere until it boils at 385C. The vapours of long chain hydrocarbon(s Plastic) are cracked into short chain hydrocarbons ( fuel) and condensed and collected. The resultant fuel is kerosene which burns cleanly. I have used it for home heating without any adjustment to my boiler.
Clean sorted plastic is too valuable for this processand should be recycled. Dirty mixed waste plastic, which is very difficult to recycle, is ideal and would otherwise go to landfill. The yield is 1.1 litre of kerosene from 1kg of waste plastic. There is about 30 grams of char left as residue and it is 98% carbon. The rest is gas which is used to help fuel the process.

imakebiodiesel wrote: »

As you can see from the video the processor is fueled by my own kerosene. At present it takes 7 litres of fuel to convert 15kg of plastic into 16.5 litres of fuel. However I am working on a number of modifications that will improve that ration. These include feeding the off gas back into the furnace to provide some of the heat, improving the flue system to conserve heat and adding a continuous feed system to process more plastic in a single run.

This all appears to be too good to be true.
Is there an issue with toxicity of the vented material or some such issues that would mean this process is not a viable option for large scale commercial ventures.
I know from touching on various waste disposal methods when doing an engineering degree, even when best available technology is used, there was always an environmental issue related to energy from waste systems.
It does appear to be a no brainer if you can produce the volume of kero you claim even after fuel for the system is taken into account.
How much does the catalyst cost / L of oil produced

I have not finalised the cost of the catalyst yet because so far i have been buying the various ingredients in small 25kg quantities. I am at present investigating buying them in larger quantities.

But as a rough figure I would say that the cost of producing a litre of fuel, incl catalyst, fuel input and electricity will be 20 cents for a small or medium producer, and perhaps 10 cents for a large producer. That does not include capital costs, labour and feedstock costs,if any.

Im an engineer and had almost no knowledge of chemistry. Over the last two years I have studied organic chemistry in my spare time. Thank goodness for the Kahn Academy. I would have given up long ago if I had depended on text books.