Is anyone here producing their own diesel? As in, growing the source plants, harvesting and processing “in-house”?

[KilroyJC]

Got into a discussion with someone about growing things like Canola or Sunflowers and hot pressing to produce veggie oil, then converting that to biodiesel.

wondering about the practicalities of that for the hobby farmer, since I do not see a wind-powered tractor in my immediate future. . .

 

[WranglerX]

I think if you research and figure out what the production level is per acre you will find its not practical...

 

[Liquidsilver]

I worked with a guy that had a process to convert used cooking oil to diesel with a big machine. He would procure the used cooking oil with a route from local restaurants. There was so much waste to deal with that he couldn't ever make it revenue positive. I hope he was able to sell that machine for something after I lost contact with him.

 

[etpm]

Years ago, maybe 10, I got curious about Lister diesel engine copies coming out of India. Here is a link to one company making Lister engine copies: Lister Type - Vidhata India Folks were buying the engines for running generators and anything else on their homesteads. Some folks were growing oil seed plants and then were using the engines to power the oil extracting machines. After the oil was extracted they would connect the engine to a generator and run the engines on the straight vegetable oil. Some folks were treating the oil to make biodiesel. They would then either start the engines with biodiesel and once warmed up switch to straight vegetable oil or just use the biodiesel. Apparently the Lister type diesel engine was able to run well on many different types of oils.
I don't know how practical it was but these folks were in places where power was not available and they were trying to be self sufficient.
Eric

 

[Smokeydog]

Hobby farm, something that’s fun to do.

Know three people and one company who have tried using “free” used cooking oil. Only one made an appreciable amount of biodiesel. All had injection engine troubles and quit.

Think it can be done but there is an economy of scale issue against small amounts.

Hobby farmer 100-200 gallons of diesel per year? Whole lot of work and risk for little return. Selling extra crop or livestock to buy supplies usually the better economic and environmental solution.

 

[KilroyJC]

I think if you research and figure out what the production level is per acre you will find its not practical...

Just wondering what the threshold is between “practical” and “necessary”, when SHTF

 

[KilroyJC]

Years ago, maybe 10, I got curious about Lister diesel engine copies coming out of India. Here is a link to one company making Lister engine copies: Lister Type - Vidhata India Folks were buying the engines for running generators and anything else on their homesteads. Some folks were growing oil seed plants and then were using the engines to power the oil extracting machines. After the oil was extracted they would connect the engine to a generator and run the engines on the straight vegetable oil. Some folks were treating the oil to make biodiesel. They would then either start the engines with biodiesel and once warmed up switch to straight vegetable oil or just use the biodiesel. Apparently the Lister type diesel engine was able to run well on many different types of oils.
I don't know how practical it was but these folks were in places where power was not available and they were trying to be self sufficient.
Eric

I still want one of those “air compressors” because you are forbidden from buying Listeroid engines here in The Land Of The Free. . .

 

[WranglerX]

Just wondering what the threshold is between “practical” and “necessary”, when SHTF

I think that if commercial diesel is $5-6 a gallon and it costs $15-20 a gallon to grow and process your own fuel (at this point) you should see the difference from hobby to necessity...

Might want to ask Willie Nelson about the practicality of producing biofuel from fryer oil...