Best Use for Biodiesel?

I think his best option is to turn that fuel into heat, thence into steam and thence into electricity through a boiler to turbine setup.

Well if it is biodiesel, then get a diesel engine, couple that to a generator and produce electricity that way. You can probably find a great many generator packages that run on diesel on the used market. Most UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) systems run off diesel, so running these off biodiesel should be fairly straightforeward and most of the design has been done in a package system. All you need to do is figure out how many you will need to use the available fuel supply and how to connect this to the grid.

One alternative would be to skip the biodiesel step and have your generator run directly off straight vegetable oil (Assuming that this is the source of the feedstock). The advantage of doing this is that you use all of the vegetable oil, do not have to find a way to dispose of the glycerine by-product, and consequently get a higher fuel value. The dis-advantage is that you have to keep the vegetable oil warm to prevent it from solidifying. Not a huge problem to overcome since you could use the heat generated from the engine to warm the fuel lines and fuel tank. Its a little bit of additional cost to convert the equipment over, but the cost of converting vegetable oil to boidiesel should offset this in time.

tell you friend he's crazy. The capital and operational cost for a 150 Kw diesel engine generator is about $.04/kw-hr. Then he want $.09, making the electricity $.13/kw-hr. Wholesale green energy sells for $.11/kw-hr.

At $.09/kw-hr, thats a net back $1.10/gallon for the biodiesel. Sell it as a liquid fuel and be happy.

Sounds like he should hire a salesman, there should be a fleet or other large scale customer who can take his entire production.

Producing power He'll still have to make spec fuel, to burn in the turbine, boiler or ic.

He'll have to deal w/the added regulatory burdens of power quality. The relatively small quantity will make it difficult to to get a fair deal from the local utility.

How about selling it to a existing powergenerator?

The price of diesel being what it is today, I can see the appeal.

Hi Fellows ,

Those are all very good points and some were my thoughts as well but, he' is adamant about this, so were looking for alternatives to suggest ,or the best Power systems to suggest and your opinions are valued very much.

I hope to receive more of your thoughts and we have requested a budget from him as a starting point to qualify the projects chances. Till Later,

Best Regards,

Joe Woodall, MP

Georgia Adobe LP Rammed Earth & Renewable Energy

Dewy Rose GA CSA

http://www.georgiaadobe.com

Gas turbines will burn any fuel when set up correctly, there have been many made that run on Diesel, so Bio Diesel should not be a problem, provided all seals in the fuel system are of the correct type to withstand the effects of Bio Diesel.

A turbine needs less maintenance than a Diesel engine, has less moving parts and if run at its optimum revs, uses less fuel for the same amount of shaft horsepower.

Price may be higher on initial purchase, but if the investment is looked at over a period of years, I think that you will find that its cheaper in the long run.

The exhaust heat can also be recovered and used for heating and hot water etc..

May I suggest an alternative? Biodiesel make great parts cleaning solvent for automotive and diesel shops.

Just an idea.

Brad

Add fuel tank, line and injector cleaner to that list.

Hello Georgia Adobe,

How are ya!

Turbines would put you waaay ahead on the efficiency scale and you can reclaim the heat and sell too. Guess you could call it a co-gen

Sell it to a bio-diesel fuel Co-op?

Hi Fellows,

All Good Ideas, Truly ! I have noted these same thoughts, to the client, before my original posting, Just wish I could talk him into one of them but, he's Hell bend on this path it seems.

So , I'm Making A List - Checking It Twice - Sorry, I Just Could Not Resist, On Christmas Day. Please keep the ideas flowing maybe you will come up with something I can use to convince him to just sell the stuff for CASH.

Merry Christmas

Joe

Ok I understand he's really hoping to get away from all the administrative nightmares of dealing with IRS, EPA......... all he's going to do is bring on more scrutiny. The best place to hide is in plain sight.

As soon as the various agencies hear even the rumor of what he's trying to do, they'll be on their way to have a look. No ill will, just gonna feel like they need to justify their existence.

Better to figure out how make em allies instead of how to avoid interacting, which will be impossible. The only way to avoid the regulators is don't say a word & use every drop on your property! Anything you bring on or off is going to increase the chances of running afoul of the powers that be. Make the rules work for you instead of against.