Biodiesel discussion

[DonRed7]

My oldest boy works a few shifts a week at the local KFC(dirty bird) and they put about 30 liters of used cooking oil each day in the removal containers. With home heating oil now going over a buck a liter i'm wondering if you can burn properly processed oil in you'r oil fired furnace. Realizing that before investing/building some processing equipment that i would have to make sure i secured a continuous and reliable source. Does anyone here have any experience with it ? And am i correct in thinking my oil fired boiler will burn it?

Cheers

-Don

 

[jekirby]

I don't know that much about it, but the formula for using old cooking oil is not that complicated. The simplified version from how I understand it is multiple filterings and mixing in 10% refined desel. My sister knows a man in Richmond VA that has a deal with a local Wendy's to take their old oil. I can see how it is a win/win for both. He picks it up in the same Volvo wagon he burns it in-diesel of course. He tells my sister that he only buys the refined stuff for the mix and his fuel bill for a year is just in the hundeds. Do a search, there are some good home grown biodiesel sites out there. When I had to buy a truck, I looked into a diesel. I live in farm country and a used one was all used up and new was too much for me to even consider. I like this idea better then using corn for ethenol or soybeans for bd because both are loosing propisitons economically. Too much energy is being wasted trying to give us cheap energy.

As your question about the furnace: fuel oil is very similar to diesel or kerosene, so my knee jerk response would be 'why not'. How is that for ambiguity? Around here folks mix in a little K1 with their fuel oil to keep it from gelling. I have no idea if that is a myth or if there is a real benefit from that practice. I do know that there is a very unique oder when burning the stuff and you may want to weight that in you decision process.

 

[Knifemaker]

Yeah, but your whole house will smell like KFC and thus make you ill.........

If I remember correctly, any vegetable oil can be used, but not sure of the process needed...

KM

 

[FJRay]

Should burn it just fine. My Brother has been running and heating his boat for a number of years and he lives aboard full time. He is to lazy to brew his own so he buys it where ever he can. From what he says it burns enough cleaner that cleaning the stove burner and the stack is a thing of the past.

 

[FJRBluesman]

Yeah, but your whole house will smell like KFC and thus make you ill.........

Yuk! mg:

Maybe you could get you favorite restaurant smell that way, without leaving your home... :lol:

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

It seems to me that there are some added valves involved in automotive applications. The engine must run on regular diesel until good and hot before switching to the re-used cooking oil. I know your question was about home heating, but there may be similar requirements.

 

[jekirby]

It seems to me that there are some added valves involved in automotive applications. The engine must run on regular diesel until good and hot before switching to the re-used cooking oil. I know your question was about home heating, but there may be similar requirements.

I think what you are thinking of is the engine using congealed cooking oil. The app' I saw used a pre-heater to liquify the goop, unrefined straight out of the restraunt. The idea of mixing in some of teh refined fuel is to get past the preheating stage and a little easier to ignite in winter. In WWII, i believe it was, the Germans would add a small amount of gasoline to their diesel in the winter so their tanks would start.

 

[TriggerT]

I looked into modifying my F350 to run on bio-diesel a few years ago, but decided against it. yes, the problem of the oil congealing is one of the concerns, so most people (from what I read ) have two tanks on their vehicles. They run on the standard diesel, until things heat up, and then switch to the bio-diesel.

if you are going to do this, (or run a commercially sold bio-diesel) make sure to change your fuel filter after each of the first few tanks. There will be a lot of junk in the filter, this is because the bio-diesel is actually cleaning parts of the engine. (Again from what I am told by several diesel mechanics).

Have fun filtering all that nasty used cooking oil. I have to assume you would need to filter it for your house, as well as for in a vehicle.

 

[Geezer]

A local HS teacher here runs used cooking oil in his diesel van. With the rise in fuel prices he is having trouble getting the cooking oil. Some restaurants want to charge for it.

 

[DonRed7]

The process has evolved signifigantly over the last decade and creates a much more refined product by adding specifically measured amount of sodium hydroxide (common lye) and methanol to break it down and remove the glycerine (the thick crap) leaving,...what appears to me to be very similar to diesel

-Don

 

[DucatiSSsp]

https://www.biodiesel.org/resources/faqs/

Suggest you don't put filtered cooking oil in your furnace! You need to process it into biodiesel first.

Diesel and home heating oil same thing, except for tax. Not sure if they dye it like off-road farm diesel.

Diesel engines can run on filtered vegetable oil, but the vehicle must start and stop on diesel or biodiesel. Also veggie oil must be heated.

Some of the newer diesel fuel injectors are very finicky with biodiesel. Must be very refined or will cause the fuel to plasticize in the injector tip.

Most restaurants now have contracts to pick up used cooking oil, although I'm sure your son might be able to bring home a couple of gallons per night.

 

[RedRocker]

Here's a link or two.

https://www.evolutionbiodieselkits.com/

https://www.biodieselcommunity.org/appleseedprocessor/

https://www.biodieselcommunity.org/index.php