Bio-diesel in your Landy. Anyone tried or tempted?

Its good to see we are all starting to become environmentally conscious.
Thats enough of the big words.
When I was over in europe the other month I saw a very interesting news item, even though it was in italian. The item was about fuel and the euro price.
While I was in italy and greece I noticed a hell of a lot of cars were diesel, saw a brand new toyota echo in diesel, plenty of camrys.mercs and the like large and small cars.
Sorry back to the news, it was about a french farmer who was selling what appeared to be canola oil to drivers, direct from his shed, he had a machine that crushed/pressed the seed and out came the oil, it was strained then poured straight into the fuel tank, the car in the article was a peugot. Then the bloke with the car drove off, then there was some technical stuff ( I thinK) a bloke in overalls showing filters and so on.

I thought it was a great idea, want to try it in my tractor, thats if I can find canola oil at the right price.



john

OK Who in Melbourne is up for a Biodiesel Training day in Jan??

Here is the email i got, i'm looking at organising a traing day for 5 of us.

*****************************
Biodiesel Training Days

We also offer Biodiesel Training Days that are usually held Thursday mornings or Saturday afternoons for 3 hours. We wish to invite you to a Biodiesel Training Day to be held on the following days:
60 Kinkora Rd, Hawthorn

What you will need to bring?
You will literally get your hands dirty so wear overalls and bring your
own:
* chemical gloves (can be bought at Bunning's for $6-$8)
* safety goggles
* mask.
Please ensure that you do bring these items along for your safety. In the event that you forget to bring these items, we will provide them for you on the day.

On the Biodiesel Training Day we will:
* make at least one full batch of biodiesel fuel (250L),
* discuss safety and OH&S issues,
* go through the steps of making the Biodiesel Fuel including
titration,
calculation of the methanol/potassium hydroxide catalyst, mixing including sampling during mixing, initial water treatment (secret recipe!!), settling, water wash (part 2), drying, filtration,
* basic evaluation of the batch of Biodiesel to assess its
quality.

A complete set of notes on what we do and why is given to you on the day. We explain the plant design and operation so that you can go ahead and make your own if you want. We will try to answer all of your questions.

Purchasing Samples
We'll supply a sample to take home if you want at a cost of $1/litre.

Parking
Plenty of parking, but make sure you don't upset any neighbours, so park thoughtfully.

Cost
The cost of the training day is $50.00 per person. The cost covers lunch.

Bookings
To participate in one of our Biodiesel Training Days, please contact us to book for a training session. Once we have at least 3 people interested in attending, we will contact you to confirm your booking.

Further Information

If you need to know more information on Biodiesel, you can subscribe to our newsletter by contacting us. The newsletters covers issues on alternative fuels and energy and our business activities such as the Sun Lizard, an alternative solar heating/cooling system for the house, and Biodiesel.

Alternatively, you can check the following Biodiesel websites for more
information:

Collaborative Biodiesel Tutorial
http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
Information on making biodiesel and homebrewing equipment.

Infopop Biodiesel and SVO Forum http://tinyurl.com/bjxmw
Forum to learn about biodiesel fuel and information on producing it yourself.

Biodiesel Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biodiesel
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biodieselbas...s.yahoo.com/gro
up/v
egoil-diesel/
Forums participated by experienced home brewers and beginners.

Local B100 Biz Yahoo Group
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/local-b100-biz/
Groups interested in biofuel related topics including biofuel regulatory issues, ways to promote biofuel, and ways to run a successful business.

Iowa State University Biodiesel pages
http://www.me.iastate.edu/biodiesel
Website devoted to educating the biodiesel industry which includes 26 pg document covering the chemistry and practice of biodiesel.

So who would like to get trained up in Melb???

I thought the government was introducing laws to stop these type of gatherings 8O
You will all be on the news with 'terrorists' arrested in Hawthorn, all suited up with chemicals https://www.aulro.com/afvb/ https://www.aulro.com/afvb/

But seriously, all this talk about biodiesel is still yet to be developed into an alternative fuel. There is still some way to go before it is a viable product.

Then again there are some pioneers in this world..

Cheers,
Lyndon.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Feral
I thought the government was introducing laws to stop these type of gatherings 8O
You will all be on the news with 'terrorists' arrested in Hawthorn, all suited up with chemicals https://www.aulro.com/afvb/ :lol:

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Nah, should be OK - just don't disagree with the Gov'ts fuel policies or read "unauthorised" books. You'll get done for sedition 8O :twisted:

$50 for a training day is pretty cheap and would be worth it.

Does a private producer have to pay excise or just be registered with the ATO? If the former, how many private producers do you think are paying excise?

Ron

Quote:

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Originally posted by NOZ
May I ask whats the cost of a 200lt drum ?

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So you get this stuff, it blocks your filters, replace the filter, run it till you run out, fill up on dinodiesel, it blocks your filters again?, change the filter, buy more biodiesel, block the filter, fit new filter etc!! Whats the point if you cannot keep running the stuff? Suppliers in the desert, mountains? :?

Cost of 200 litres sounds like a lot more than $1 litre to me.

Trev.

it cleans your system out, 1 filter to be changed thats it.....

Quote:

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Originally posted by sclarke
it cleans your system out, 1 filter to be changed thats it.....

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What does it clean out? its only diesel fuel. So if you add diesel back to a part tank of biodiesel, why does it not take out the crap again?

What am I missing here?

Trev.

Quote:

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Originally posted by p38arover
Does a private producer have to pay excise or just be registered with the ATO? If the former, how many private producers do you think are paying excise?

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I had a look at the ATO site and it looks as though you must be registered and pay excise. However, you can apply for a clean fuels grant which offsets the cost of the excise. This will apply intil 2011.

That begs the question, if excise is offset by the grant, why are commercial retailers of BD charging so much for it.

Ron

<span style="color:blue">because they can....</span>