Newbie - Kit Availability?

[SNOWS Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close SNOWS]

Hi All,

Doing lots of k's on the new Disco 3 and like most people had a gutful of the diesel prices.

Would like to start making Biodiesel but would like to buy an already made kit. Probably looking at making around 400 litres per month.

Any of you experts out there want to make me a kit that will work and show me how to do it?

Please PM me if interested to discuss.

Thanks for your time..

SNOWS

[SNOWS Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close SNOWS]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Also, another question...

What do you have to do to stop waxing up in subzero temps? Is there such a thing as Alpine mix Bio Diesel?

Sorry to sound stupid (but I am on this subject!)

[pangit Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close pangit]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

You can check out Oily's kits here that he is selling for $1450. There are also commercial reactors available, and a friend of mine is thinking of getting this one for around $3000.

Alternatively you could do what most of us do and build your own. I'm in the middle of doing that at the moment, and it's not that difficult but you will need to spend some time researching these and other forums to see what people have built. The "Appleseed" design is the most popular, based around an old hot water tank, a pump and some plumbing. You will also need several 205L drums for washing/drying. All up cost will be a few hundred dollars, which you will recoup pretty quickly at 400L per month.

One point you don't mention is where you are intending to get your WVO from. Some people have had difficulty in securing a reliable and good quality source, so you might want to check it out and speak to your local restaurants before you start spending big bucks on a reactor.

EDIT: added URL of Biomaster reactor

[rainboaussie Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close rainboaussie]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Hi Newbie.
Visit the Henty Farm Field Days Sept 19th/21st
My company will have several types of units there ,from kits to build your own to a biodiesel processor --also imfo on vegetable oil press

Regards
rainboaussie

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

For those who can't get to the Henty Farm Field Day, is there a website where your kits, components & systems are shown.
G

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Hey Rainbowaussie, do you have any info on your kits? Web links etc? There are always people asking for this sort of thing in here, so we'd be grateful for it. If you don't have any web presence, contact me and I can help you get some info together to post here.

[Guest Close David]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

One thing I have Been thinking about for a while is plans for an Aussie DIY Bio setup. This would be something that could be built using parts available anywhere in OZ from hardware stores etc.

I would imagine this thing could be built using 200l Drums and standard plumbing fittings etc. The plans would have an item list that you just went and bought the bits for from a plumbing supply place or ordered over the net.

The problem I see is that there is going to be some fabrication required when using a drum in welding in an additional bung hole or 2 and that it would be difficult for everyone to source the exact same pump which may throw some parts and measurements off the formulated plan. Perhaps if the heating of the drum was done with gas ( which seems to be an un-popular choice) or the oil was heated externally and then transfered to the reactor, a screw together design that required no modification to the drum could be devised.

Alternately, maybe someone may be able to come up with a parts kit so all a person needed was their own 200L drum and could go from there. I guess the design goals would be simplicity to build, parts be readily available and a list of suppliers be given and for the whole thing to be built as economically as possible with the greatest saftey in using the thing.

The design and documentation of such a setup could be a great project for a BD club or group to undertake. Once the McProcessor clone was set up, it would be easy for said club to build and sell these reactors to the public or members.

[gwalker Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close gwalker]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

My idea would be to have available a basic pump kit with valves attached, together with some tubing, connectors and a thermometer. Then all the newbie has to do is get their own reactor tank and measuring flasks.

I've also been playing with the concept of using a 9Kg lpg tank as a reactor base, connected to a larger reactor storage tank above. The idea is that with the converted lpg tank as a reactor base, the unit can be upsized by simply replacing the above storage tank. Heating could be electric inside the base tank or it could be heated by a gas burner.

G

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Good idea re a DIY kit plan for Australia. If anyone has any submissions on this, I'm sure we'd all welcome them and I'm sure some folks/clubs/future or present organisations would love to have this sort of thing on offer. Of course to my mind, the plans should be freely available, but if someone wants to package and support the parts for such an "open source" project, more power to them.
I'd see this working in a similar manner to the open source software movement (for example http://extensions.joomla.org/). In this case, the communities of software developers form, share and make available all their code to build a useful project which anyone can get for free, modify themselves etc. Off the back of this, other software developers can make some money providing useful "plug-ins" or installation services etc as "value addons". The free to all open source movement and the commercial success of some of the spin offs is a good example of how this sort of thing could work. In fact, the internet itself is a good example of this.
Before I get too off topic, I hope you all get my point and I see no reason why this forum and all of us could not be a great conduit for bringing such a plan into being.

[rainboaussie Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close rainboaussie]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Hi all
Thanks for your replies
We plan to have such kits available which will start from basics ,such as a suitable pump ,plumbing ,valves ,taps incl all parts but less tanks .. we will also have suitable tanks available on a base --for heating the oil ,one could concider an old home water heater tank or we could supply a suitable heating element to fit to a suitable drum ----suitable filters for final filtering may also be stocked .all this equipment should be stocked and available approx .the 3rd week in Sept 2006.
We are in the process of setting up a web page ,but this may be a couple weeks away
I dont know if I am allowed to put my contact email on here ,but please some tell me if it is ok ??
regards

rainboaussie

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Already sorted re your email contact - it's in your member profile here already.

If anyone wants to contact you, they can view your member profile (just click on your name above your post) and send an email to you from a form in this website. This way it will hide your email address from spammers, yet still give people a legitimate way to contact you. If you were to print your email address in a post in here, you would find that spam scripts that crawl the web would harvest it within days.

(I have an address I have created for the Sydney Picnic day that I have not published anywhere and has only been created in the last couple of weeks. For the first time yesterday, I printed it here in a "hidden" manner, without using the @ symbol and today I have just got my first spam on it - they are quick! I'm sure you'll be careful about publishing your email address on line when you do your own website - don't do it, hide it in a form!)

[pestie Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close pestie]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Hi Rainbowausie;
How goes your company website and how are the BD kits going. Give us an update please. Regards Pestie.

[Matt Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Matt]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Regarding a hot water system to do this in, you could / should not go past a Solar Edwards solar hot water tank (305 litre for example). They are now coming into scrap yards and being 316 stainless they do make wonderful tanks. Dome ends and all the ports you would like and you can soft solder it if your careful to add others.

Matt

[Robert Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Robert]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

Hey Rainbowaussie - Anything happen with that website? Did you need a hand?

Also, if anyone is looking for kits, Bioworks in WA seem to have some interesting options. They have also signed into the forum here as a member and I'm sure they'd be happy to answer any questions for you.

[rainboaussie Biofuels Forum Newbie Find all posts View Profile Close rainboaussie]

Re: Newbie - Kit Availability?

We are about to start our operation later this week -have just recieved into stock a couple of complete processors /oil press will be picked up on wednesday -we also will have available kits either with or without tanks ---our web site will be up in approx one week --all imfo and pricing will be avail. then

rainboaussie