Biodiesel in the Basement
Wednesday April 18, 2007
Biodiesel is in the news constantly. Magazines print articles about celebrity Daryl Hannah driving a biodiesel-powered El Camino.
Samples of biodiesel from our basement - photo © Adrian GableTrade journals highlight farmers who use it for powering their tractors and field equipment. Manufacturers put out press releases about how their newest diesel powered trucks are all set to run on blends of biodiesel. That's great—you want to do it too, right? But where can you get the fuel? Yes, more and more filling stations are dispensing biodiesel in at least one of their pumps, but maybe not in your home town.
Well, maybe you didn't know this, but you can make it for yourself. Really, you can, and it's not that difficult! We've been brewing our own biodiesel in the basement of our home for the last five years, and now we've put together a set of step-by-step biodiesel instructions so you can make your own too. This will get you going, but check back soon for a list of tips, tricks and gotchas that'll help make the whole process a lot easier.
Samples of biodiesel from our basement - photo © Adrian Gable
Well, maybe you didn't know this, but you can make it for yourself. Really, you can, and it's not that difficult! We've been brewing our own biodiesel in the basement of our home for the last five years, and now we've put together a set of step-by-step biodiesel instructions so you can make your own too. This will get you going, but check back soon for a list of tips, tricks and gotchas that'll help make the whole process a lot easier.
Comments
Not for nothing, but isn’t this a lot of work for the amount of fuel you get? I didn’t quite see how much fuel you made at any one time.
Hi Bob,
Good question. It would be a lot of work for one five gallon batch, but we usually bang out three or four batches in succession, so it’s pretty efficient. We do smaller batches because they are easier to handle and if, by chance, we do have a failure, we lose only five gallons not the 25 to 50 we’d lose in a big batch. Thanks for pointing out that we didn’t clarify the amount we make at one time, we’ll go back and fix that.
–Scott