Homemade Biodiesel

First up, what is biodiesel?

Biodiesel is normally made from crops

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel formulated exclusively for diesel engines; it’s made from vegetable oil or animal fats.

There are a number of pros and cons and they can be found here along with more information.

But what about this ‘homemade’ bit?

When one thinks of fuels, one automatically thinks, service (gas) stations, big petroleum companies, high finance, need to drill for oil.

But that’s not strictly true.

For a modest investment you can refine biodiesel in your garage. Now I haven’t looked seriously at the cost factor or producing biodiesel at home compared with what you can get at the service station, if you can get it. But one report on Popular Mechanics estimates 50c a gallon.

For the person who can’t get it, i.e. it’s not available in your area, then you have an alternative.

From this to your car/truck/tractor tank

Biodiesel is normally made from oil producing crops by big companies. But there is a source of vegetable oils that can be used. Vegetable oils that have been used by the food industry are just begging to be recycled.

Commercial units are available, but you can do the same thing with plastic buckets and a paint stirrer.

Restaurants, fast food outlets, etc use a lot of vegetable oil. If you can find such a source that has yet to be tapped you can take their oil for the price of collecting it, or maybe a small fee. Most outlets are just pleased that they don’t have to bear the cost of disposal.

Once you have the vegetable oil, it is a simple process that takes a few days and you have biodiesel at home to add to your fuel.

So for a person looking at cutting costs and being a serious recycler, this is worth investigating.

You can find many sources on the web about making homemade biodiesel, but this one at About.com has two links that give you the step by step details.

Learn the Biodiesel Making Process Step by Step – Part 1

Learn the Biodiesel Making Process Step by Step – Part 2