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Hi everyone
I'm very new to this home made biodiesel
lark and have only got to the stage where I've run two 1 litre test batches
with new canola. The results have been really good and I have used
the biodiesel in a primus stove (mixed with kerosene - it didn't burn
properly on it's own). I'm planning on running it through my old car (a
'94 Mitsubishi) to see if it goes OK, but having read a lot of Journey to
Forever, the engine will almost definitely run on it as they "will run
on any fuel for a short period of time" - my idea is to run my old car
on 100% BD to see if anything detrimental happens and then run both cars on it
if all is OK.
I have now got all the chemicals I need to go into
larger scale production and have acquired an old stainless steel LPG tank
which I am planning to modify so I can use it as a reactor.
I would really appreciate being able to get in
touch with biodieselers in New Zealand around the Hamilton area so I can see
their setup and find out what their experiences have been like. The place
I get my chemicals from said they get quite a lot of biodieselers coming in so
they are definitely some here! I've looked through the archives and
'Bob-bmolloy' and 'Michael Williams' have mentioned NZ biodiesel producers but
they appear to have gone off line with it.
The main problem I have come up against is
obtaining waste oil. I went into the local Burger King and they change the
oil in their fryers every few days which sounded ideal as the oil wouldn't
have been cooked to death. The manager was very reluctant to let me help
myself to the drum out the back so I had to contact the head office in Auckland
who said I should contact 'The Tallow Man' who has the contract for removing the
oil. I did this and he tried to put me off making biodiesel because they'd
tried it and had blown up the engine in their vehicle quite quickly - he
said they'd filtered down to 10 microns but there were still microscopic solids
in the oil that did the damage. Not sure if they were tran-esterifying or
just blending WVO with something else - anyway, it didn't put me
off.
Either way, he was not happy for me to help myself
to Burger King's waste oil as he pay the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry
$1000 a year to do the job commercially. They use the oil in animal feed
but he said he'd be happy to sell me some oil if I wanted it but I'm not
interested as it makes it too expensive.
I've approached a few local chip shops and
takeaways but it's very hard to make myself understood (mainly due to language
difficulties). I did arrange to pick up some oil from one guy, but when I
went back on their 'oil change day' he didn't recognise me and it was clear that
they weren't changing the oil in their fryers. He offered me a tub of
crispy bits they had strained from their fryer but I tried to explain (to no
avail) that this wasn't what I was after. Besides, from the smells
coming from the places I've visited, their oil is pretty old and has been
cooked/burnt so I imagine the FFA level would be pretty high. As such,
finding out how the other people doing this in NZ get their waste oil is very
interesting to me. I considered placing an ad in the paper but don't want
too much oil in case I find it hard to convert it (also, from what 'The Tallow
Man' said, I could potentially be considered a commercial outfit and be
subjected to fees, regulations and who knows what if I publicly advertised as
someone who would 'dispose' of waste vegetable oil).
Also, a source of cheap methanol would be great - I
paid NZ$70 for 20 litres, but I'm sure it can be obtained at a cheaper price
having looked at trademe (NZ equivalent to ebay).
Anyway, any help/advice would be
great.
Thanks
Daniel
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