Posted: 8/26/2007 2:42:40 PM EDT
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Any one here know anything about it? ie. I am considering setting up a commercial plant for fun and profit. I would like to talk to someone who has done this before. |
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I haven't done it, but I'm familiar with the process. It's not the gold mine you think it is. Most used cooking oil is recycled, so if you're thinking of running over to the nearest restaurant and picking up their drum they probably already have a contractor who does that. Plus, you're going to have to get a building in an area zoned for business/light industry, because I doubt your neighbors will enjoy the smell of used cooking grease in the summer ("smells like...rancid french fries").  In short, biodiesel is neither a surefire way to get rich quick, nor is it a viable alternative fuel. If you have the money and patience, you can probably have a nice business, but in my opinion it probably wouldn't be worth the trouble. |
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I have looked into it more than a little, and you are correct... NIMBY. Literally, I live in the city. I also have checked out the WVO availability, and you are again correct... it is not free, I would be purchasing mine from the folks who already collect it. I would be setting up the facility on some property outside the city in a primarily agricultural district. 5 acres minimum, trying for 10. I have no illusion that this is a 'get rich quick' scheme. |
I think that line is not real accurate. Every study I've seen says otherwise... Biodiesel is NOT french fryer oil. Fuel from WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) is not a viable alternative fuel, a cheaper way to drive for an alternative hippy set. But most "REAL" biodiesel is manufactured from oilseed crops, and is a viable fuel. There are pumps here in town, which sell it, abit at a price that is currently higher than regular diesel, so the only patrons are those whom do it out of principle. There are various grades of it, depending on how much dino they mix in. I would not recommend trying to go into business to turn a profit unless you really know what you are doing. A friend works for this one - They have contract arrangements, thousands of acres in production, and will not really be cost competitive until Iran starts mining the straits of hormuz.  Bue sun If only the sunflower and rapeseed growers had the lobby of the corn folks, we might actually have a real plan for reducing oil dependence. |
Biodiesel from oilseed suffers from the same problem as ethanol made from corn: You're using food as a fuel. In general, you will have to increase the amount of crops you plant in order to make up for the shortfall, and everyone will pay more on down the line. It would be far more efficient and environmentally-friendly to just open up ANWAR and the California coast to drilling. Biofuels make sense if you're using a waste product that is currently thrown away; for example, if restaurants just dumped their used cooking oil then it would be a plus to recover it and turn it into fuel. Otherwise, you're just robbing Average-Guy Peter to pay Farmer Paul a hefty government subsidy. |
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Rapeseed is food for cattle only, whom still eat the processed remains. Ditto with the sunflower crusher remains. And oilseed sunflower is not the same as confectioner sunflower, the sunflower seeds you eat are quiet different. I'm putting 10 acres of otherwise unproductive land into oilseed sunflower next year. The land's only other possible use is cattle, and will barely support 2 head/50 acres. We'll see how it goes. |
once it starts, when do "they" stop? Is it ok to destroy 5%? 10%? 20%? the answer here is finding suitable alternatives, NOT continuing down the same path that obviously isn't working for us. Idiotic positions such as yours are why we're still driving petrol-powered vehicles dependent on a non-renewable resource we have to purchase from foreign "buddies". |
Alaska's northernmost shore. I know where you're going with this. No, odds are I won't be picnicing there. |
Not planning any vacation trips to see frozen tundra? I bet your kids hate you. You do know that the size and scope of the proposed operation is but a pin prick on the map, right? |
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enough with the bullshit. to the original poster, I'm sorry a bunch of people chose your thread to push their for/against agendas...here's my contribution.. 1. there are plans on the internet for building a small refinery. It looked sooo simple...I realized a actually had a clean water pump for one, still in the box, in my storage room...weird. 2. the business model I researched (if you could call it "reasearch" ) was based on a farm that already had a built in need for fuel. The farmer lucked upon a temporary source of used veg oil, and built a processor to clean it. 3. once his temporary batch was exhausted, he found more raw oil and just kept up his operation. Once he built the operation a little larger, he found he had a surplus, which he began to sell. 4. the surplus became his busines. hope that helped. |
Facts don't matter. He is opposed on sheer principle. Unfortunately, I don't see him out there figuring out any alternatives. He just wants them to drop in his lap, at an affordable price. |
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Finding a cheap source of your inputs will be the biggest challenge, assuming you can set up a production line without running afoul of any government red tape. Economics has determined that the demand for your inputs has been on the increase, and therefore the Law of Economics (FTW) dictates that the price will rise. The Laws of Economics pwn page 2! |
I pay around $2.80-2.90 for my biodiesel, which is the same or a little less than regular diesel. I've been using it for about a year and a half now, mostly because it's a domestic fuel source.
Actually, the oil used for most biodiesel is a byproduct, and food isn't lost. But I'm sure that would change some as production scales up. |
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Ethanol production isn't the same as Biodiesel production. From a purely scientific standpoint, Ethanol production robs the sugar content from the grain, turning it into alcohol. Biodiesel isn't alcohol, and therefore doesn't steal sugar (energy) from the food supply. Since I have a mini-hobby in winemaking, I can understand the process of creating alcohol a little better than I can define the creation of hydrocarbon chains, which is what diesel is! |
Wrong-o. What good is oil left in the ground?
ANWAR should be pumped like a 3 dollar hooker on Navy payday when the fleet is in port.
"Pristine wilderness" = WASTELAND.
It's north of the Artic Circle, ding-dong - you AINT taking your kids there - and if you wanna, theres PLENTY of Arctic desert without oil under it. |
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I too looked really closely into this. My old man consults on biofuels issues with a lot of big industrial concerns looking to add a new revenue stream, typically from their process waste. Biodiesel outfits are marginal at best right now, and that's even with a federal subsidy of $1.00/gal. Without that, there's no profit at all. The problem seems to be the cost of soybean oil. In the tropics, you might get enough oil/acre from something like Jatropha. Ethanol seems to be driving up soybean oil prices even further, as both crops compete for the same land, and corn oil and soybean oil are imperfect substitutes. Good luck getting a farmer to contract grow soybean oil at a reasonable price. They're getting too much for corn right now. At least in cent. TX, corn prices have doubled. All this is too bad, cause biodiesel is not the scam that ethanol is. Corn distillation ethanol only contains 30% more energy then it takes to make. Biodiesel is orders of magnitude better. And requires no real hardware vehicle changes until the blend gets really really bio heavy (50-60%). Ethanol needs new lines and gaskets etc at blends over 15%. |