Is your friend paying road tax on his SVO? Unintended consequences can be a real beatch.

I like to tell people what I'm doing because it's new and interesting. The thing I keep in mind is if I go around telling everybody how it's made and how well it works within 1 year there will be no more oil supply and we will all be back to paying at the pump when they charge the price of gold for waste oil. Right now its just that - waste. I told one of my friends about this idea and he already has plans on making 1500 gallons a week. Hope it's not from any of my suppliers. We will all run into this problem. The hour glass is running, enjoy it while you can.

quote:

Originally posted by Mad Dog:
Just wait till your insurance person sees you on TV making FUEL and recovering methonal out in your shop. The next bill you get, grab your azz with both hands & hang on tight.

My insurance company knows all about the biodiesel system I have here. they basically said "you can have all the barrels of methanol on the property you want, make all the fuel you want - that's fine... but don't sell the finished fuel or we cancel your insurance." They know its FUEL. I don't see the need to make it look like just an additive.

Fabricator: *FOR NOW* nobody using ANY alternative fuel in Ontario or I think Canada is required to pay road tax on their fuel. I can make biodiesel or use SVO and drive down the road without paying tax and it's 100% legal. That one I am sure of.

hiperf2007: I agree we will (and do) have supply/demand issues. I choose to look at the bigger picture and get people motivated to make changes in their lives that lead towards a sustainable environment. I realize I'm "stepping on my own toes" by showing this to others but it's time more people jump on the bandwagon and DO something... I'm tired of people being all talk - no action. I can't even count how many people say they're GOING to make fuel and then I never hear from them again. I'd say 1 in 100 people who seemed serious actually made any fuel.
If someone else is serious enough to compete for the "waste" veg. oil then it'll be fair game. I can live with the idea I'll loose some oil supplies if I know I helped inspire people to use our resources locally. I'd rather that than see the oil truely WASTED. Still a lot of oil around here goes in the landfill or is used as bear bate..


Anyways, the story Global wants to do has been postponed for a month or so. It was going to be for April 22 but Global's schedule changed and they plan to come out in May or June. That's fine by me cause it gives me time to get ready.

I'll keep you posted. Thanks for all the opinions.

Just a note from south (and west) of the border: In the US, your still would be illegal without a special permit from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, regardless of what you called it. If it could be used for distilling ethanol, then it is illegal. Some states and other localities may also have their own laws, too. Seems kind of ridiculous for a coil of copper in a bucket of water, but that's the way of things. Of course, it's very easy to fly below the radar here, since the prohibition is long gone and most bootleggers produce only for themselves and maybe to share with a few close friends.

VWPICKUP.
I love project and get to involved in making them. I normally do things people think is stupid and this was one of them. Prices raising to over $4.13 here in southern minnesota made me at least try it. I think your problem with the people that claim they are going to make it and never do it they are nervous that it will reck their motors. I'm still there. I have only burned 20% here and there due to low supply and it varies from week to week. One week I may have 4 gallons and the next 8 gallons. I am still concerned I am not making good fuel if fuel at all. I'm doing what I was directed to do over 10 websites of reading, but it's still there. If I ruin my injection pump, injectors, or fuel pump it's my baby. Not the people on the net telling you that it was the way you made your fuel.
Right now I am reacting the fuel at 130 degrees and mixing it for 2-3 hours ( I do the 5% pre wash). I let it settle over night and then drain. I mist wash it once and then just now started bubble washing. I dry it at around 120 degrees with a pump spraying it in the tank. I have a fan over the top and it seems to dry within 30 minutes. If I can't read through it decent, I rewash and redry. I have passed the 3/27 test everytime so far and this last time was the best. No drop out even after 48 hours and it was see through clear right after mixing the test, but still the danger is always in someones mind. There is no longer peace of mind from a pump.
The picture attached is my setup.
I have changed the setup a bit. In the picture I have a 10 mircon filter and a 5 micron filter but with in 30 gallons I plugged the 10 so I now have three filters. 30 - 20 - 10. The cummins changed to a 2 micron filter so I am going to be making a custom filter to stick in my tank that will be a 5 - 1 micron. Thats the plans so far.

processor.JPG (48 Kb, 40 downloads)

Hiperf2007: It sounds like you've done your homework and made some good fuel!

I've never actually done the 27/3 test because I've long lost the concern that I'm making bad fuel. I should do a test just to see what it does, but I'm happier on biodiesel than on diesel any day of the week (unless it's too cold.. lol)

I'm suprised you're plugging filters so much. I run each batch through a settling tank (or two) and then bubble wash 3 times, and bubble dry until clear. I then pump it through only a 1 (ONE) micron filter and don't find it's plugging very often. (every thousand gallons or so?) Although a few times I did have trouble with filters after only a few hundred gallons so I'm not sure what gets in the fuel sometimes and not others.??

I guess the peace of mind comes with experience/fuel used. I've made about 10,000 gallons here at home and never had any fuel that caused problems (or if I did it was at the beginning before I knew to keep the WVO dry, process while warm and wash afterwords) SO now that I've learned and seen how good fuel can be I have a lot of confidence in my fuel.
(I've even had a sample tested for ASTM specs and I passed)
I'm also quite experienced at showing people what I'm doing, but the only thing I'm not sure I want to put on tv is the methanol recovery thing because it's new to my operation (never been on tv or in a magazine before) All other concerns listed above don't really bother me - wont stop me from going back on TV with this because I've already given tours to hundreds (probably thousands) of people and been on TV before, CBC radio several times, and literally dozens of news paper/magazine articles. So everyone's concerns like "oh don't show anyone what you're doing - someone will shut you down" is a pretty low concern for me. The only thing I might need to keep quiet is that there is a condensing coil inside one of the tanks in my shop (which I'm about to re-do anyways... so I'll make it look very inconspicuous )

Oh by the way... I'm still waiting to hear back from Global TV about when they might come up and do the story... so maybe they've lost interest???

It's been ok that they've postponed things because I've been too busy to get things cleaned up anyways. I do still hope they come and do a story here though.

I will definantly post here when it's all coming together

cheers

I'm trying to figure out the answer to this question. How legal is methanol recovery? These are just my thoughts now but anybody can have a destiller. There is nothing illegal about it other than what you do. Everything on the illegal side has it's reasons. If you make your own liquior you are not paying taxes and what not. Methanol for starters is not illegal to have nor do you have to pay taxes on. Companies use destillers for cutting down on waste so they are legal, for example paint thinner. The only thing I think ANYBODY would have to look at is the permit to do so. I can't see how methanol can be used, purchased, and stored in anybodys garages (depending on how much) but it end up be illegal to recover it back into a legal forum. If this process is illegal, I'm sure mixing methanol with NaOH is illegal. As long as you are not abusing it against law or making it to harm anybody, and have a permit if needed, I'm calling it legal. Again, that is just me. I think there is a list from the gov of things you can legally destill but I'm not sure where to find it.

Having thought about this a little more, I honestly believe that using the 'still' to recover the methanol is more legal than allowing it to vent into the atmosphere or down the drain.
Methanol recovery is another 'nice' way of not polluting.

I'm a "fly below the radar" guy myself, but respect your position.

Make sure you have a convincing and correct and legal answer for what you do with your byproduct. Somebody from EnviroCanada will see this show and start thinking about your answer, or lack thereof.

By the way, what do you do with the glycerin??? We're going to groom you so they can't throw any stray question at you and throw you off your game.

Good luck and keep us posted.

troy

Hi everyone, Sorry I'm bad at keeping things up to date here.
The folks at Global TV were supposed to get back to me a while ago about when they might come shoot some film... I never heard back from them, and to be honest that's ok by me. Part of me wants to get the word out there and promote biodiesel, while part of me is just tired from it all. The fact that I've been too busy working (on making biodiesel and keeping a full time job otherwise) just runs me short of time/energy to go chasing after media attention.

So if anything ever comes of a TV interview, I'll let you all know. But meanwhile I'm going on holidays - crossing canada, on biofuels. Anyone between Ontario/British Columbia have a source of biodiesel or WVO? my car runs SVO now and would like to find sources along the way.

Thanks,