My employer is wanting to design a biodiesel setup, primarily for us to sell to other customers but also for us to use ourselves (well, in our delivery truck, and I have the only other diesel vehicle...it's a small company).

So, if we start making bio, I would like to use it.

But I need to know what I (and we) will need to do to run it.

Will I need a tank heater? Different filter setup?

I have already replaced my injector o-rings and return lines, replacing them with Viton O-rings and buna-n hose, so I'm good to go there at least.

 

No mods are necessary. If you want to sell to the public be prepared to spend lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$. Public sales are regulated and the cost to do so is very high!

 

did you change the seals in your ip ?

 

Sorry, I wasn't quite clear- he wants to sell the systems, not the bio itself.

Anyway- which seals in the IP? I was told by other IDI guys that as long as you had viton O-rings and some good hose on the returns, you were pretty well good to go for bio or wvo or whatever.

And when I mean "mods" I suppose I should say, would I need anything else for cold weather operation?

 

Well.........Since "he" wants to sell biodiesel processors, the thing to do is look at other systems and come up with his own design, or copy someone else's.


Since I design Micro Biodiesel systems for a living I see no reason to help someone else develop a system for free................

 

I'm asking about what I might need to do to run it in MY truck, or in our company truck. I'm not asking for any help designing a system, hell they've already bought everything to make it and have a system designed, more or less.

I just don't want our company truck to end up inoperable because we're trying to run bio in 20 degree weather and it gels up or something.

 

Sorry if I came off a little strong, but I've had things I posted here show up on other bio forums and claimed by other people............

The gel point of your bio will depend a lot on the original type of oil. Soy will gel at a higher temp than canola. Most bio will gel around 20-25 deg f. I've been doing this for 5 years now, and in the winter I use B-80 until the temps go down to about 20 deg. If I think the temps are going below 20 deg, I remix to B-50. Have had 0 problems so far. Any diesel truck built after 1994 needs no mods to the fuel system, earlier than 94 will have to have the rubber lines changed over to Viton. Are you going to water wash, or dry wash? Biodiesel is a strong solvent and will clean out the entire fuel system. You will probably have to change the fuel fiter sooner untill you get some miles running on the bio. Once the system is cleaned out you can go back to normal change intervals. If your final storage is outside in winter, you'll have to store it (B-100) in a heated building. B-80 or B-50 can safely be stored outside.

 

Same here on the mixing. For 9+ months out of the year down here in Houston, I run B100 and never give it a second thought. Our WVO oil sources are varied from a half dozen places, so it's not like we have a definitive oil type, such as soy.
When the temps look like they are going to drop below, say...40 degrees and lower, we'll just start mixing in pump-diesel for the lower-temp blends. We just keep a couple of 55 gallon drums of pump diesel sitting around just for that purpose. Our finished B100 is stored inside a building that's warm enough for us not to worry about having to blend our stored product.

As for my '03 6.0L truck, the only thing I did was change the fuel filters after running a tank or two of the B100 through it the first time. I had 105,000 miles on it before using any type of biodiesel, and strangely enough after running a couple of tanks of B100 through it, the filters still looked clean. But I changed them anyway, and plan to check again in about 5,000 miles since I do occasionally run pump diesel when I'm out on a long trip (can't carry enough B100 with me )