Hello, new here....

[fuelfarmer]

Hello,
I have enjoyed reading info posted on this forum. Renewable energy of all kinds is very interesting to me. On our family farm we use some home grown energy to help control the cost of energy.  We are producing biodiesel from oilseed crops and direct burning grain for heat.

I am planing to build a small diesel generator of some kind as a useful hobby. I want to be able to burn home grown biodiesel. We already have a number of larger backup generators for the farm. I believe energy costs will continue to climb, and at some point it will make sense to think about going off grid. Not there yet, but dreaming never hurts. Anyway, I hope to hang around and learn more.     

[AdeV]

Sounds like you're already doing what I'd like to do 

How complicated is it, exactly, to grow an oil-seed crop and harvest it? That's really the main gap in my knowledge.

[veggie]

Hi Fuelfarmer,

Welcome the forum. Lots of useful stuff here.
No doubt you will be able to contribute to our fuels sections .

PS: How does a farm dispose of the gycerol after making biodiesel. Is it composed ?

cheers,
veggie

[fuelfarmer]

Growing oilseeds is not that complicated if you have the equipment to grow other crops. I have a number of youtube clips showing most of the steps from planting seeds to making fuel. Just do a search for   fuelfarmer    on youtube.

We mix the glycerin back into the press cake and feed it to the cows.

Canola is breath taking when it blooms.

[veggie]

We mix the glycerin back into the press cake and feed it to the cows.

You must be removing the methanol ?
Do you have a methanol recovery system ?

veggie

[fuelfarmer]

Yes, the methanol is recovered.

[AdeV]

Canola is breath taking when it blooms.

Especially if you suffer from hay-fever   

Because I plan to escape to a Mediterranean climate, I'd got in the back of my mind I'd be growing & pressing olives; but harvesting them looks to be a labour intensive task. So an oil seed crop may work better in that respect; plus, if I'm going to make olive oil, I might be better off selling that & buying regular vegetable oil back to use as fuel.

I'll be sure to look out for your videos, thanks!

[slowspeed]

Welcome Fulefarm
This is the first time I get to see Canola in Bloom,Very nice
How much to ship 1000 gal. to Phoenix
It sounds like you could go off grid at any time,Get a grid tie inverter and sell power back to the MAN!
Enjoy
Jeff

[injin man]

Fuelfarmer, nice to have you on board.

I suppose you know that you can run straight
Vegetable oil in a Lister/Listeroid engine, no need
to mess with it. I did check out some of your Utube
stuff and found your centifuge video quite informative,
I always wondered what happened to the unneeded fraction
being seperated. Growing oil seed crops won't be for
possible for most of us here, it's very land and machinery
intensive.

Ben

[fuelfarmer]

I would love to have a listeroid. I have just started looking around. A friend has two that followed him home, along with a bunch of small Chinese diesels. He won't part with the listeroids, but I can get a few of the small diesels from him.

We have had good luck running veggie oil in an old 6-71 Detroit two stroke to pump water. No preheating, just dump and run. The thing does start slow when it is cool. I have thought about getting a 2-71 Detroit gen set. They pop up from time to time. I already have a screaming  22.5/15 kw gas powered generator for the house when the power is out.

clip of the Detroit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhR10JUbi3U   

Screaming back up power.


I have photos of some other gen sets if it is not a pain.

[vdubnut62]

Oh Yes!  By all means, post away.
I just love the sound of a hard working Detroit!
Ron

[fuelfarmer]

55kw with John Deere engine.


35 or 40 kw, can't remember, with Ford profane (propane) fueled engine.
This unit will over heat in warm weather. I need to add so cooling capacity.

[dieselgman]

I know a fellow over here in Kansas who runs his farm on sunflower oil, he produces and presses it himself. Now here's the real kicker... he does not convert it to biodiesel at all but simply filters and dilutes to a specific gravity compatible with his tractors and burns it glycerol and all. His results are pretty impressive and his methods also have been adopted by some fair sized farmer's co-ops in Colorado.

dieselgman

[fuelfarmer]

On our farm we got into biodiesel kind of backwards.  We got the oilseed press first and ran some blends of diesel/oil and gasoline/oil. The gas/oil mix seemed to want the get into the crank case of one of our tractors when we tried it. So for a few years we just ran a 70% diesel, 30% veggie oil blend with no problems. Then we chickened out and started making biodiesel so we could run up to B100 without to much worry.

[dieselgman]

How did your fuel performance compare as to power output? What is your location if you don't mind my asking? It is good to hear about what others are doing and especially interested in the problems encountered and successes achieved!

dieselgman