Can anyone tell me if it is legal to make your own biodiesel and use it on public roads? I can't find any information about this. Does homebrewed BD have to be registered with the EPA?

Don't worry about it. In california you will (sopposedly) need to pay your state fuel tax (notice I didn't say road taxes- that's cause it isn't a road tax). The federal government doesn't particularly care. If you're selling the stuff then a completely different set of issues applies.
But if you're just running your own vehicle on this stuff, how will they ever find you?
mark

It may be legal to make your product, but in the United Soviet States of America, it will not be legal to call your product biodiesel. However, you may call it (m)ethyl-esters.

There is a town in the Czeck republic called Budweiss. It invented a lager beer which it sold under the label Budweisser. Anheisser (sp?) Busch (Budweiser) used the name, then recently sued the town in world court and stripped the inventers and original marque owners, of their right to use their own (Budweiss) name. Now their far supperior lager can only be purchased under the label Czeckwarr.

At any rate, much the same scene is being written by the National BioDB (read hand maidens to the large soy bean growers (read Archer Daniels Midlands)). The USSA standard for Biodiesel will only be able to be met by soy bean oil. That means that anyone or organization producing Biodiesel from WVO or rendered fats will not be able to legally call their product Biodiesel.

Don't bother calling your representatives unless you donate more to their re election campaigns than ADM.

But perhaps this is a subject for a new thread.

Diff
Harmoneum est Tedium

[This message was edited by The Diff on 12 May 2003 at 11:50 PM.]

[This message was edited by The Diff on 12 May 2003 at 11:51 PM.]

My mother's father came from Pilsen and her mother came from the vicinity of Budweis, so I'm half Budweiser-Pilsner.

The name of the town in the Czech Republic is now Ceske Budejovice -- Budweis is the old Austrian name used by speakers of Deutsch-Boehm, like my grandparents.

The copyrighting of the name by Anheuser-Busch (note spelling) took place many, many years ago, and only applies in the USA -- you can find both American Budweiser and Budvar on the shelves of many places in Europe, along with Pilsner Urquel -- the orginator of the true Pilsner beer, not Budvar, and to me, still the best, by far. I suspect that nowadays the Czechs prefer to use the Czech name anyway, but I have a Budweiser Budvar T-shirt brought to me by my daughter when she came back from a trip to lecture on American tax law in Prague, and I intend to wear it next time I go to Williamsburg's Busch Gardens.
Ait Obius Caenobius: "Numen tibi adsit."

[This message was edited by Ichabod Schloppenheimer III on 14 May 2003 at 08:30 AM.]

Over here the EN 51606 standard (heavily based on the German DIN 51606) includes stuff like iodine number values that can only be met with a very high canola content. It's actually doubtful that EN 51606 standard fuel can be made from WVO as it contains all sorts of fats not just canola.

Is this another way of raping the system

Who said no man could surprise her.
Papst took a chance
Found a Busch in her pants
Now she is sadder Budweiser.

Ichabod, I stand corrected! Lets get together to discuss these things. I will bring you a six pack of Pilsner Urquel, if you bring me a six pack of Budwar(Czechwar). We can get sauced, discuss religeon and politics. But, I will look into your assertion, when I have spare time (HA). I feel quite sure that recently, in the world court, Budejovice, lost its case to use its own name.

On to the larger issues raised in my post:
Dave UK, Standards which preclude the presence of any phosphorus, virtually eliminates the product of renderers. Renderers are, when compared to soy bean growers, small and not as well organized. Cumulatively they produce an enourmous tonnage of fatty acids, but if the Biodiesel Board stantards are codified, this tonnage of grease, if processed into methyl esters, will not be able to be sold as biodiesel.
Rape is a strong word, but this IS the system. To deal has been dirty, since dirty began..
This is a case of large businesses, co-opting a name (biodisel), created by others, for themselves, and significantly limiting the potential competition, while raising the bar to capital requirements for entry level groups. The biodiesel board does not exist to benefit you or me or the environment, but rather they exist to benefit corporate soybean growers.

More later on this issue, must run, just came home for a bite of lunch and a Pilsner Urquel. Ichabod..cheers and keep up the good work. I always welcome a constructive critique.

Diff
Harmoneum est Tedium

[This message was edited by The Diff on 14 May 2003 at 02:09 PM.]

[This message was edited by The Diff on 15 May 2003 at 12:01 AM.]