In 1896 Rudolf Diesel created an engine, known as the diesel engine, with the intent that the fuel for his engine could be created from almost anything organic that could be aerosolized and burned. As the cost of petroleum decreased over the next three quarters of a century, petroleum based diesel grew in its use to the point where it has almost entirely consumed the market.
Diesel costs are no longer low, and petroleum is no longer easily accessed in America. A majority of petroleum has to be imported – some of it from countries that don’t like America very much. With increasing unrest and tension in the Middle East, many experts are warning that gasoline prices could again reach $4 or even $5 a gallon, with the cost of diesel fuel likely to rise even highter.
Many farmers have forgotten that Diesel’s engine can, without any modifications, burn bio-diesel. Many farmers have also forgotten that Diesel created an engine which someone with a very basic knowledge of chemistry could create fuel - if you can mix chemical fertilizer, you can create bio-diesel.
Bio-diesel can be created easily on a family farm using three products – waste vegetable oil (easily obtained from a local restaurant), ethanol (basically what is commercially known as HEET), and potash.
Vegetable oil is used by restaurants to deep fat fry foods like French fries. When a restaurant has used the oil, they send it to a grease trap – usually a dumpster type container – and they generally have to pay to have this used vegetable oil disposed. A simple vacuum (available at http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com/fillritepump.php) with a strainer that can be attached to a pickup can be used to collect and strain waste vegetable oil (WVO) and put into a container (and empty fuel drum, a barrel, or even a simple plastic storage tub). Generally further filtration of the WVO is desired since waste particles (debris from fryers such as food particles) in the WVO will clog fuel lines. Further filtration can be done by simply using gravity to filter from one tub to another.
Once the WVO has been sufficiently filtered, it needs to be mixed with Sodium Hydroxide (lye) or Potassium Hydroxide (potash) and methanol. An excellent explanation of how to do this (as well as where you can purchase the chemicals you need) can be found at http://www.dudadiesel.com/biodiesel.php.
Once you have created your bio-diesel, you can then mix it with 2% petroleum diesel (in a 100 gallon farm fuel tank, simply purchase two gallons of farm diesel and add in 98 gallons of your created bio-diesel) which should keep your bio-diesel from molding or getting fungus – it also helps keep the fuel from gelling in cold weather.
Creating bio-diesel can save thousands in fuel costs over a year. Since bio-diesel is also a solvent and burns cleaner than petroleum based fuel, this also reduces maintenance costs to your equipment, but, because it is a solvent, be warned that if you initially switch over from petroleum based fuels you will initially experience clogged filters and possibly fuel lines, as the bio-diesel is cleaning out the gunk from the engine.
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