Hi Guys,

I've been looking at all your terrific information regarding how to make Biodiesel and what to make it with.

My mum runs a small country pub, in the middle of nowhere, and the price of electricity is very high.

We have several fridges the need to run and a cool-room for the beer, let alone the lights and other items.

I'm not sure if she can sustain the increases in energy prices that I expect to happen over the next 4 years, and I would like to run the coolroom and refrigeration units with a diesel generator running on our own leftover frying oil.

We don't go through incredible amounts of oil, perhaps only 40 liters a week, and it currently is the Frytol variety, which by all accounts is a little more difficult to process and more (or less I guess you could say) sensitive to temperature.

Does anyone know if there are any 'always on' generators running home grown biodiesel, and if there are any issues running it for very long periods of time.

If anyone knows a setup where we could continue to use Frytol that would be good (as its a well priced oil for it's cooking qualities) but if not I would be willing to convince her to change to something less difficult.

I think some aspects are easier for us, as I could have the oil filtered when draining (and the oil still hot).

Any opinions, suggestions, help! would be very very appreciated.

Chris.

Chris,
Welcome to the Forum.
Do you have a diesel generator already?
Is it air or water cooled?

Either can be used but water coooling lends it self to using the frytol using the coolant , so the frytol can be used (unmodified) in the generator as fuel.
No need to make it into biodiesel!

Making biodiesel would add an extra level of complexity to the issue and leave you with a byproduct (~20% by volume of the biodiesel made) to dispose of.

The most important things to consider are that the engine must be hot when switched to oil, the engine must be run hard, and the engine must be purged of the frytol before shutdown. You would not like to try starting on solid fuel would you?

Do some research here on WVO forum and consider your options.

Regards,
Tony

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Searching the Biofuels Forum using Google
Adding images and/or documents to your posts

You'd be better of using a wind generator and solar power to lower your energy costs with a back up generator running on BD or VO. As Tony points out running stationary engines on VO at constant speeds can produce a lot of problems and you need a source for heating the oil first as well as a good purge system.

Is the cool room single or 3 phase power. There's good cheap inverters and batteries around as well as solar panels and really cheap wind generators. Plenty of sun up MInyip way, don't know about wind though. Work out your power requirements, then get a kVA wind generator so suit, over time you can slowly reduce you bills until you become energy self sufficient, also get a power saver which will tell you how much you're using at the time, then you can switch of un-needed things and save more.

On my boat we use BD and vo, it's a 2 stroke direct injection 671GM and runs at a constant speed. To overcome any problems, we run at higher revs when switching over to VO and for about 5 minutes before change over and shutting down for the day. Its been doing this for about 6 years with no problems at all.

One of my pubs was fully solar, wind and we saved heaps once it was set up, plus no power failures as we had backup of the type I've described. It took a number of years to built it up but the savings were used for the system, so it paid for itself in the long run. We'll be coming up your way later this year to play some music, we'll drop into your pub and say hello. Hope you've got good cold beer.

Its probably easier to start saving electricity than generating it. There are kits to turn chest freezers into highly efficient fridges, which goes along the philosophy of its easier to save a watt than make one. Of course big freezers may be a different story.

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cheers
Chris.
1990 landcruiser 80, 1HD-T two tank, copper pipe HE+ 20 plate FPHE, toyota solenoids and filters. 1978 300D, elsbett one tank system. 1979 300D veg oil/ diesel blend for now.

Thank-you for all your posts.

We have attempted to reduce our bills, but it's difficult with food as it needs to be kept refrigerated or frozen at all times.

Currently we have one cold room for the beer and some food items, and we are getting one new cold room to replace the 4 freezers and 4 refrigerators that are currently holding the rest of the food stock.

I've look at solar, but the costs on initial outlay are significant 25k, and wind power is currently not much of an option because it's in town (and it would be difficult to get a permit for a wind generator of any size).

Don't currently have a generator, am looking at slow speed 1800 revs ones from china. Proper heavy duty.

I am not interested in running VO straight because I imagine that the generator will come on and off fairly regularly in response to power demands, and I certainly wouldn't want a buzzer going off at 3am in the morning telling me to clear out the lines! Unless I could run it straight by changing our frying oils over to something more suitable?

Once again, thank-you all for comments.

Chris

Of course!

It's 95 Main St, Minyip aka Coopers Crossing, its the one they used to film the Flying Doctors in.

If you are running a business then having a sizable (5-10kw) solar grid connect system can be profitable once tax benefits, net metering and RECs are taken into account. Solar panel prices have dropped considerably due to GFC.

Another thing you could consider is to make your new cold room super efficient by lining the outside of it with the wall panels from the old cold rooms. Get rid of any incandescant globes and halogen downlights. Have motion sensors which turn off unused lighting like in public toilets when noone is using them. Lots of opportunity to save power in a pub.

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Johnnojack
4WD Isuzu Jackaroo 3.1 68,000km on WVO 2 tank home built system 6 solenoids. Mk. 8 version.

If you look at one of the listeroid engines it would be almost perfect for what you need and have.

Have a look at a recent electricity bill - how many Kwh per week are you using each week ?

If you can produce 40 litres of oil/frytol then from a listeroid this will give you approx 160Kw/h of electricity


A listeroid 6/1 with electric start will cost you about $3500 landed in Australia. As long as you are handy you will be able to break this down and clean it up for running without too many issues.

Figure about another $1500 for automation and heat exchangers/pumps etc and you will get out of it for $5K

From what i can read people are prediciting about a 300% increase in electricity prices in NSW over the next 5 years

Craig

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Toyota Surf SSRG 1993 3 Litre Turbo
Single tank conversion
blend of 70%WVO, 25% Kerosene, 5%ULP - varies by time of year

Thanks everyone, some good ideas for the pub which i'll be implementing. Thank-you a lot for giving me a few more practical ideas - it all helps.

The listeroid sounds fantastic. Never knew about those, and the your absolutely correct, it looks like a perfect fit for my needs. Very very excited.

If anyone knows a good supplier of a listeroid 6/1, let me know!