Fuel for thought Biodiesel for the Small Producer

1. Fuel for thought: Biodiesel for the Small Producer
While the price at the pump continues to spiral upwards and drivers curse the multinationals, a small community of
Melburnians is turning to the fish'n'chip shop as a cheap, green alternative.
Paul Martin isn't a chemical engineer; nor is he a research scientist. In fact, offering me a seat in the front room
of his Brunswick home, the 30-year-old seems a pretty average bloke. He firmly shakes my hand; asks how my
day was; insists I sample his home brew.
"I used to be a chef, mate," he says, when asked about his background. "I've never been to uni."
Yet the unassuming Martin, who can't help but admire his own brewing skills ² "Not bad, eh?" he imparts after
a healthy quaff from his stubby ² is perhaps the country's most experienced biodiesel engineer, and the author
of the 2005 instructional manual Biodiesel for the Small Producer.
"Since 2000, I've spent about $70 on fossil diesel, and I've run a car the whole time," he says proudly. "I get
literally all my fuel from a little co-op I set up north of Melbourne, where essentially we just come together and
make biodiesel. It's just between five guys and one girl, and for about 40 cents per litre it makes enough fuel for
us to run all our vehicles."
These days they're not alone, as a growing number of drivers bypass the bowser to manufacture their own
biodiesel in backyards, sheds and small co-operative set-ups throughout Victoria, utilising used cooking oils as
their base ingredient.
Indeed, what was once frowned upon by motoring groups as a potential risk to your engine and shunned by the
mainstream as a novelty is gaining some small-scale momentum.
While the biodiesel industry gradually creeps into the wider marketplace (there are now up to 69 commercial
biodiesel outlets nationwide), a host of non-industry organisations have just as quickly emerged to share their
own home-grown product.
The Melbourne Biodiesel Club and its interstate equivalents, the Sydney Biodiesel Users Group and Brisbane
Biodiesel, host regular meetings, information seminars and educational events, and boast rapid membership
growth.
Martin, who taught himself the production methodologies in the late '90s after researching biodiesel's successful
application in Austria and Germany, is an active member of the Melbourne club, and believes it's time for
people such as himself to share their knowledge. "It's about the dissemination of information," he says. "Instead
of just supplying biodiesel, people who've got the knowledge on how to do it, like myself, can teach others the
processes."
The processes he refers to, in essence, consist of filtering contaminants from used cooking oil ² "rubber
gloves, chips, dim sims", he says with a laugh ² before removing the glycerine from the oil (usually by adding
methanol and caustic soda), with the resulting substance being biodiesel. "It's pretty damn easy if you're taught
the right way," he says. "If you can make homebrew beer, then you can make biodiesel."
"That was the main thing I realised when I started ² that making biodiesel isn't rocket science. At the end of
the day, a chef can do it."

2. Keith Jesse, of CERES Community Environment Park, has been running the park's Toyota Hiace diesel van
from vegetable oil-based biodiesel since 2002.
"We purchased it with the aim of running it on biodiesel, and we've run it ever since then on almost nothing but
biodiesel," he says proudly. "It's a working van ± it gets all our market produce from Footscray market every
week; it works for our nursery, picking up and dropping off plants and so on; it also works for our horticultural
and landscaping business.
"It runs extremely well ² it's smoother on biodiesel, there's less injector noise and it's much lower on
emissions. It probably has a little less power than on petroleum diesel, but in general we think it runs better and
smoother."
There are plenty of motorists utilising means other than biodiesel. While Warrnambool's Murray Adams has his
petrol motor running rudimentarily on wood gas, Marc Peckham, 32, of Melbourne hip-hop group Combat
Wombat, has managed to run his previous three vehicles from straight vegetable oil.
"Essentially they're dual-fuel vehicles which I've converted myself," he says. "It's like having a gas and petrol
car ² you know, two tanks ² except that I've got a vegetable oil tank and a diesel tank."
The machinations seem simple enough. "You start your car on diesel in the morning, and after a couple of
minutes what happens is that you have a system installed in your car whereby once the water heats up in you
radiator, it pumps the hot water through copper pipes all the way through to the vegie-oil tank. The water then
heats the oil in the vegetable oil tank so that it thins down to a combustible consistency, and after five minutes I
switch it over, then bang ² off I go."
Peckham ² who, with his partner, Izzy Browne, has also managed to run a sound system from solar power and
an outdoor cinema from a wind turbine ² reckons he can run his car, at present a diesel Holden Gemini, for
virtually nothing.
"Realistically, it's cost me nothing for my vegetable oil ² all the shops are just really happy for you to take it
away ² but if I was to do, say, 1000 kilometres, within that 1000 kilometres I would probably use between two
and five litres of diesel. So between Melbourne and Sydney it might cost me five bucks."
But using unrefined vegetable oil isn't without its troubles.
While clogged fuel filters are a regular inconvenience, tests have shown that, in time, the oil's glycerine content
builds in the motor, eventually causing damage. "I've never seen one report where they've run a straight vegie-
oil vehicle to the end of its life, or for any great proportion of it, without adverse effects," says Martin.
"If you've got yourself a vehicle that's only got about 50 or 100,000 kilometres left in it, then sure, do it then,
but don't do it on a new vehicle."
Martin clearly sees biodiesel as the most effective alternative.
But despite the fact he runs a business that consults to the industry, he doesn't necessarily believe the industrial
expansion of biodiesel to be the best way forward. Running his 2003 Peugeot 307 purely from coop- produced
fuel, he sees the community and backyard model as a step in a positive direction.
"To be honest, some of the commercial plants that are making biodiesel have a poorer-quality biodiesel than
people that I know make in their backyards," he says. "It'll cost you about 500 bucks to set up properly, but with
that you'll be able to produce everything you need. We've had lab tests done on the fuel we produce in our little

3. co-op, and it exceeds the spec. In the backyard, you're more like a winemaker ² you know it's for your car and
you become a perfectionist."
Jesse agrees. "It is a bit of a paradigm shift, in a way ² that if you produce your own fuel, you're very
conscious of using the fuel and the kilometres you drive, and how much fuel you've got, and how much effort
that went into making that fuel. I would never portray backyard production of biodiesel as a kind of panacea,
but I think it's a really important step in learning about the fuels we use and learning how to use them cleanly."
There are a couple of other pleasant advantages. "In a normal diesel motor your exhaust will just smell just like
a fish' n'chip shop. Dogs will literally sniff the air as you drive by," Martin says with a laugh. "You can
certainly get the munchies while you're driving."
The Melbourne Biodiesel Club meets at CERES Community Environmental Park, 8 Lee Street, Brunswick
East, on Saturday, July 29.
See Plant Drive
http://plantdrive.com
VEGETABLE OIL Cars and Converting Your Car to VEGETABLE OIL
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4. http://vegetablepowersystems.com
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http://www.bebioenergy.com
http://www.instructables.com/id/Biotour.org-Waste-Vegetable-Oil-Conversion-Diesel-/
DVD LIQUID GOLD 2
Learn the Do͛s and Don͛t's of Gathering and using Waste Vegetable oil as a fuel. Perfect for anyone who is currently
using, or planning on using SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) or Bio Diesel as a fuel!
These questions and more are answered on this DVD:
ͻ The legality of collecting waste vegetable oil and burning it as a fuel.
ͻ Overview of how diesel engines burn waste vegetable oil as fuel.
ͻ How to identify good waste vegetable oil.
ͻ How to identify bad waste vegetable oil.
ͻ How to ask a restaurant for their waste vegetable oil.
ͻ How to fuel up on the fly with the automated One Shot Filtration Unit.
ͻ How to setup your own waste vegetable oil accounts.
ͻ How to collect large quantities of oil for later filtration at home.
ͻ How to filter waste vegetable oil using filter bags.
ͻ How does salt, sugar and animal fats affect waste vegetable oil for fuel?
ͻ How to tell if there͛s water in the oil?
ͻ How to filter the oil once it͛s been gathered.
ͻ Cold Weather gathering techniques and tips.
http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com
DVD S.V.O. Seminar 2006
Lately there's been a lot of talk about the effects of Global warming due to our love of gas guzzling vehicles and our
dependency on foreign oil. Scientists and entrepreneurs around the world are busy developing what they hope will be
our answer to cleaner burning vehicles. What many people don't realize is that this technology already exists and it's
been around for quite some time now.
This DVD was Shot during a seminar on Straight Vegetable Oil at Ecoversity in Santa Fe, New Mexico and is packed with
2.5 hours of valuable information. Listen along while many of the most frequently asked questions about this technology
are discussed and answered.
These questions and more are answered on this DVD:

5. ͻ The History of Straight Vegetable Oil
ͻ Different Alternative Fuels
ͻ Straight Vegetable vs. Biodiesel
ͻ Straight Vegetable Oil Facts and Fiction
ͻ Diesel Engines vs. Gasoline Engines
ͻ How a Straight Vegetable Oil System Works
ͻ The Importance of a Vehicles Air Filter
ͻ Increase Power and Economy/Computer Mods
ͻ Oil Gathering 101
ͻ Filtering on the Fly with the One Shot
ͻ Using Filter Bags
ͻ What to do with leftover Nasty Oil
ͻ Diesels Available in the USA
http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com
DVD GREASY RIDER
Picture a cross-country road trip powered by vegetable oil in a 1981 Mercedes-Benz. Greasy Rider follows the two
filmmakers, Joey Carey and JJ Beck, as they meet with fellow Greasecar drivers, friends, and critics. Traveling as far south
as New Orleans and as far north as Seattle, the car is fueled by used cooking grease collected at restaurants along the
way.
Interviews include Morgan Freeman who is opening up a Biodiesel plant in Mississippi. Political analyst Noam Chomsky,
͞You're supposed to believe we would have liberated Iraq even if its main product was pickles,͟ appears along side Yoko
Ono, ͞This whole world is now ruled by corporations and their greed,͟ and Tommy Chong, ͞You guys figured it out. You
got your little bio-car, and there you go.͟ Additional interviews include the founders of the four major vegetable oil
conversion kit companies, Greasecar, Greasel, Neoteric, and Frybrid, as they discuss the reality of vegetable oil as a fuel.
The heat is felt in this political documentary as America's energy consumption continues to grow. With gas prices on the
rise and the reality of global warming setting in, Greasy Rider points to vegetable oil as one part of the solution to our
energy problems.
http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com
JOURNEY to FOREVER
http://www.journeytoforever.org
The Film: FUEL
http://thefuelfilm.com

6. FUEL is an insightful portrait of America͛s addiction to oil and an uplifting testament to the immediacy of new energy
solutions. Director, Josh Tickell, a young activist, shuttles us on a whirlwind journey to track the rising domination of the
petrochemical industry Ͷ from Rockefeller͛s strategy to halt Ford͛s first ethanol cars to Vice President Cheney's
petrochemical company sponsored energy legislation Ͷ and reveals a gamut of available solutions to "repower
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Tickell and a surprising array of environmentalists, policy makers, and entertainment notables take us through America͛s
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sustainable living is not only possible, it͛s imperative.
DVD : Biodiesel #2
Filmed at the National Biodiesel Board Conference and Expo in Palm Springs, CA, this 45 minute video helps qualify the
emissions benefits of biodiesel and illustrates how biodiesel can reduce cancerous diesel emissions.
http://fryertofuel.com
DVD: Biodiesel 101
In this 45-minute presentation, biodiesel author Josh Tickell provides an economic, social and practical context for
biodiesel. "Biodiesel 101" goes deep into the technical world of the biodiesel production, showing how the fuel is
chemically formed. This video also examines current data and trends within the biodiesel industry to illustrate growth
patterns and future potential.
http://fryertofuel.com
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book: Convert It; by Michael Brown and Shari Prange
DVD: Convert It http://www.electroauto.com
`
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Electric MOTORCYCLES
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TAX CREDITS
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HOME POWER
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SOLAR TODAY
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Solar Industry NEWS
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Solar Industry MAGAZINE
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Recharge your Electric Auto with RENEWABLE ENERGY
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Do not bend over and allow Big Oil to molest your Family, Friends and Community
VOTE SOLAR
VOTE SOLAR
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http://www.seia.org
http://www.blackboxvoting.org
http://valparaiso.indymedia.org/news/2006/09/8723.php
DVD: Uncounted; Director: David Earnhardt
DVD: Hacking Democracy; Director: Simon Ardizzone
book: What Went Wrong In Ohio; by Congressman John Conyers
book: What Happened in Ohio; by Bob Fitrakis
IS YOUR CONGRESSMAN IN BED with BIG OIL?
How much bribes (campaign contributions) did your congressman take from the sleazy OIL Companies?
CAMPAIGN FINANCE INFORMATION CENTER
Where does the money come from?
http://www.campaignfinance.org/states
CENTER FOR PUBLIC INTEGRITY
stop the Fat Cats from BRIBING your politicians
http://www.publicintegrity.org
POLLUTION and RACISM, INJUSTICE
book: Confronting Environmental Racism; by Robert Bullard
book: Environmental Injustices; by David Camacho
book: Environmentalism and Economic Justice; by Laura Pulido
book: Pollution and the Death of Man; by Francis Schaeffer
book: From the Ground Up, Environmental Racism; by Luke Cole
book: Struggle for Ecological Democracy; by Daniel Faber
book: No Safe Place, Toxic Waste and Community Action; by Phil Brown

9. FREE eBook on Oil Spills: Not One Drop
http://www.scribd.com/doc/31483843/Not-One-Drop
Big Oil¶s Dirty Secrets
http://bigoil101.insanejournal.com