I have searched but don't see any clear answer which surprises me. If there isn't a financial benefit to alt fuels then forget it.

Is there alt fuel with a positive ROI (say over 5 years even) including upgrades/mods needed and anticipated problems/maintenance? This is a strictly financial question, I don't care a rats *** about global warming BS and will not pay to be 'green'.

B5 and B100 bio at the pump here in the Bay Area is about the same as regular diesel. No cost advantage.

SVO is more expensive than diesel and requires expensive upgrades.

WVO? Seems like it's highly dependent if you can find a reliable source.

Homebrew? Positive ROI?

I would run this in my '06 Superduty 6.0 Diesel.

 

I've spent MAYBE $500 in the last 6+ years on equipment for my bio operation, and made close to 10,000 gallons. My total cost is somewhere around $1/ gallon. Pretty good ROI in my book!

 

Depends upon how you look at it. If you look at raw costs only, (methanol, pottasium hydroxide, electricity, and in my case, water), I am looking at my biodiesel production per gallon being around $.80.

Full tank of my biodiesel cost= $23.00
Full tank of #2, ($4.20/gal)= $121.00

About 5 fillups of my homebrew paid for what it cost me to fabricate my processor and wash tank. If you add labor to the mix though, forget it. I have plenty of other reasons why I do it.

 

You guys bring up a good point. Labor. I would likely never brew my own because of the cost of my time.

 

I think it's also tied in to your driving style. You get a pretty quick ROI on alt fuels (either WVO or bio) if you do long trips and bring your own fuel along - or buy cheaply from other homebrewers/greasers along your route. For our family, it means taking trips we otherwise wouldn't take because of the cost of plane tickets and/or pump fuel.

 

I keep a spreadsheet showing my cost. Was trying to attach it, but looks like I can't do an xls. Any way to post it?

 

I am a blender and find that it costs me about 50c per gallon to blend my diesel fuel out of free WVO. I do not have in the equation the cost of my processor, but that depends upon how much equipment and plumbing parts one can recycle, and how many miles one gets on the engine burning the recycled fuel.