Biodiesel for Home Heating Oil?

Question

I would think that the methyl ester of fatty acids from restaurant fry baths would work as well in home heating oil units as it does in diesel engines. A blend up to 30% with the petroleum distillate should work fine, the pure stuff with minor modifications to the burners. The price advantage would not be nearly as good as with vehicles because of the motor fuel taxes, but I don't see any technical reason that it would't work. Has anybody tried this? Comments, please.-Jitney

Dominique Cormann · Accepted Answer

People run Biodiesel for convenience. To make it cheaper its better to run straight used vegetable oil. In a car the oil must be heated to reduce its viscousity, but you may be able to get away with not doing that in a furnace ( though I'd look into that first ). If not you could preheat the oil to solve the viscousity problem too.

jbuch · Answer

As I understand it, Mr. Diesel intended his engine to run on a wide variety of fuels, including coal dust.

When he demonstrated his engine at the world's fair in 1900, it has been wtitten that the engine ran on peanut oil.

I suspect that simple burners as in your home heating application would be more fuel tolerant than the diesel engine. And what you suggest is quite likely to be feasable.

What we could need for the coming fuel shortage may be more restaurants and fast food places and then we can forget about dirty oil in the ground.

Perhaps exporting frozen precooked fried fast food to the world would be the solutin to Bush's push (and several other past US Presidents pushes) for the fabled "Energy Independence".

Jim

Steve Spence · Answer

Yes, many do this. It works fine. See  SpenceDir., Green Trust wrote:

Steve Spence · Answer

If you all start burning waste veggie oil in your home heating units, what will I use for my diesels? ;-)Steve SpenceDir., Green Trust wrote:

Steve Spence · Answer

Using WVO in a beckett type burner takes heat, and burner modifications.Steve SpenceDir., Green Trust

Joel M. Eichen · Answer

Got to filter out the excess French Fries that might be at the bottomof the bin though ......

Steve Spence · Answer

Yep, the BCB's (Burnt Crispy Bits). For diesels, Pour used veggie oil through 5 layers of increasingly fine screen wire into a heated tank, then pump through a 20 micron culligan water filter into a coolant heated tank, and off you go. For heating furnaces, make into biodiesel and use at B20 strength, or modify your burner.Steve SpenceDir., Green Trust M. Eichen wrote:

Joel M. Eichen · Answer

We use this and the family room smells way-y-y-y-y yummy.Like Wendy's French Fries ......Joel

Terry Harper · Answer

With industrial burners, they are usually set to use fuel at a maximum 100 SSUs viscosity. If you adjust the fuel temperature to give this, and set the fuel/air ratio to the correct value, the burner should run correctly.

Biodiesel for Home Heating Oil?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?