month. I use methanol and KOH. I get the meth from a racing club in 55 gal
barrels. I have four reactor vessels. Two are plastic with cone bottoms and
two are converted 55 gal steel drums.(They came full of methanol) If you cut
off the top and install a valve at the bottom you end up with a very good
reaction vessel for about 20 bucks. I can make 40 gallon batches with them
and use them constantly. I used one barrel for over one year then it
developed a tiny pin hole so I just removed the valve and took it to the
dump. Cutting the top off a newly emptied methanol drum takes about ten
minutes with a sawzall and drilling the hole and installing the valve also
takes about ten minutes. no need to think of stainless steel or concave
bottom......The drums I get are either free to use or free to take to the
dump. I currently go through a drum of methanol every two
months....................>I Drive down the road Happy<...........DB
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott McFarland" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 28, 2005 1:05 PM
Subject: [Biofuel] Born Again: Help Portland, Oregon
Are there any bio-fuelers in the Portland area that are willing to talk
with me? Offline?
We live on a small farm (120 acre, hazelnuts), heat with oil and run
diesel vehicles and can easily consume 2-3Kgal per year. Extended family
farms consume more. I'm a self-employed software maker helping that
extended family seasonally, (I'm not a farmer, just an in-law...) so my
TINKER time alternates between VAST quantities (my "R&D" time) to
virtually none (coding time).
At this point, I've spent a couple weeks reading JTF articles, the
procedures, the processors, and skimmed the (diverse) messages on
mail-list ... (didn't know it would throw me into seeing your discussions
on RELIGION and POLITICS ... I see why, though).
Something has clicked in me after all the reading ... THERE IS NO RETURN
. I take my kids to school and look at local pump prices of $2.47 ...
this morning at $2.69 . I JUST GET ANGRY, knowing there has to be a
better way, knowing fuel can be made, knowing with some effort on my part
I don't have to be AS dependent. I feel like I've been lied to, betrayed,
and I'm just waking-up. NOW, this whole alternate fuel idea is becoming
an obsession for me and I need/want to be productive (it's a sanity
thing).
Is there anyone near Portland that can talk with me to prove this process
makes sense, financially, in our local area?
Here's my wish list of questions that need answers:
- A good, (safe, visible/understandable, scalable) system:
I'm just not able to tinker and make it work ... I need a recipe of
quality components
that will work together to make a:
50-100 gal system to handle weekly supply of render
Cone-bottom is important to get out the glycerin ASAP, even during 1st
stage, right?
I don't have time or means to weld. Where to get affordable plastic
vessels?
Is anybody selling cone-bottom steel drums that can be coated?
Dare I ask what 100-200 gal stainless cones cost? (Breweries?)
Mixing: so many ways to go ... why not pneumatic pump/diaphragm??? Safe
but costly?
Washing: use same pneumatic system for bubble-wash ?
Buy a system: $3K to $4K OUCH (poor) ... take about a year to
break-even?
Justify by producing for others (6 mos)? Just buy good components?
- Chemical resources:
Sheesh: How do you ask for methanol without getting black-listed ...?
I get the impression from methanol suppliers that this process is a NO-NO
ie. ChemCentral will deliver monthly 1-2 barrels $3.54/gal
BUT NOT FOR FUEL ... why? specs? what? is this illegal? good grief.
Where to get good, affordable methanol?
Is the future of BD in making your own ETHANOL, sieve to anhydrous?
- WVO: an hour of calling to find this is do-able:
One restaurant ready to give 10 gal/week (4 or 5 more to go)
Questions on making this sustainable.
Safeway: NOPE! They have a 100 gal/week iron-clad corporate contract:
national renderer (Darling) ... other big-chains sure to have same
Portland rendering sells/exports 55 gal drums of yellow-lard $0.14-0.16 /
lb
that makes it $1.10 gal ... add $0.70 for 20% volume methanol plus
catalyst
and energy costs to process and the margin narrows quickly ... am I
missing
something? ... other than principles ...
Business Feasibility: (just try to be productive)
ASSUMPTION: clients motivated to buy if save $0.50 / gal off pump prices.
GIVEN:
Local pump price $2.40
Sell for $1.90 / gal
Costs $0.70 / gal from WVO (doubtful: MeOH cost + 25% recovery)
Profit $1.20 / gal
ASSUMPTION: $100,000 income
REQUIRES: approx 83,000 gal annually
QUESTION:
How many clients would you need?
ASSUMPTION: client needs about 2,000 gal / year
ANSWER: 40 clients needed (I can scratch-out a list of 20 in a hurry)
QUESTION:
Can one man supply 40 clients? What would the volume look like?
Practical?
SIMPLE MATH:
7,000 gal / month
1,600 gal / week (52)
230 gal / day (365, continuous)
DELIVERY:
400 gal to 4 clients each week OR
320 gal delivered daily (5 day work-week) OR
40 gal fill-ups by each of 40 clients every week OR
some combination of above
PICKUP: wvo ASSUME 100% production using 2 stage, amplify for 80%
production
100,000 gal per year (figure some contingency of waste)
2,000 gal per week (approx)
274 gal per day (continuous) OR (think work-week)
400 gal per day (2 weeks vacation, ha!, 5 day week)
8 50 gal barrels per day
ANSWERS:
- Production volume requires at least one 330 gal batch processor or
series
ie. (3-4) 100 gal processors, etc.
- DELIVERY: you'll need a tank truck and/or 2-4 thousand gal storage
(min)
- PICKUP: you tell me ... how many restaurants would you need to collect
8 barrels per day? This sounds like a full-time collection job?
CONCLUSION:
- NOT A ONE MAN JOB (with wvo)
- Happy with $50K? cut volume in half
- Happy with $3,400? make 40 gal / week, collect a barrel (4-5
restaurants)
- Want to help one other family? make 80 gals / week, collect two barrels
(10 rest)
Which leads to another QUESTION:
What if you buy farm-clean SVO?
ANSWER: Further increase production volume or price.
EDUCATED GUESS: Margins narrow, effort increases,and why BD is expensive,
scarce
and/or left to personal producers.
... and another QUESTION:
What's going on with renderers???
They've got pick-up costs, labor, processing, but there has to be great
profit
potential for them, yes?
GUESS: One way to have a thriving BD business (quit your day-job), is to
become a
renderer, OR farm a k-zillion acres for oil, AND/OR farm and process for
200 proof ...
Where have I gone wrong? What am I missing?
Sincerely,
Scott McFarland
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