# Grow and make your own Biodiesel



## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

Has anyone grown their own crop fuel for biodiesel? Switch grass seems to
be the crop of the future. I would like to put in a field of switch grass but
what is needed to process it for personel use?


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## Old Vet (Oct 15, 2006)

You can make biodesel out of most anything. Soybeans are used along with corn and other oil grains. Any thing that you can get oil out of will make biodesel.


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

We (my employer) installed a bean press. Farmers bring in their beans. We press out the oil, and then buy the buyproduct from the farmer. We store the oil over the winter for him, and he takes delivery of in each spring.

Farmer gets a good deal on the oils, we get a good deal on byproducts, and he is pretty much tied into buying feed from us.

We are in the process of adding a second press to meet future demand.


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## Faith Farm (Dec 13, 2004)

travlnusa said:


> We (my employer) installed a bean press. Farmers bring in their beans. We press out the oil, and then buy the buyproduct from the farmer. We store the oil over the winter for him, and he takes delivery of in each spring.
> 
> Farmer gets a good deal on the oils, we get a good deal on byproducts, and he is pretty much tied into buying feed from us.
> 
> We are in the process of adding a second press to meet future demand.


What kind of beans, what did he use the oil for and what did you use the bean
by product for? Could he mix the oil with his off road diesel?


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

Switch grass is sugar/ startchy stuff, used for ethanol (gasoline use). It does not appear to be a good biodiesel plant, tho I suppose you can squeeze a few drops of oil out of anything....

Likewise corn, has a very low oil content, the starch can be converted to ethanol. Some large-scale 100 million gallon plants are starting to squeeze out the oil for biodiesel as well, but this is a minor component of corn & would not be a good home-owner way to go.

Oilseed crops like milo, soybeans, sunflowers, rape/canola, peanuts perhaps, and the like are much, much better biodiesel crops.

Soybeans are the 2nd most common crop around me, and so it is popular. It is not the easiest to press out I understand, and doesn't yield the most oil, but it is a very common crop and the left over mush makes very, very good high-protien livestock feed so it is probably the most common biodiesel crop today.

I would not try any of the grasses (switchgrass, corn, etc) as they are starch/ sugar crops. Look for oil crops!

--->Paul


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

travlnusa said:


> We (my employer) installed a bean press. Farmers bring in their beans. We press out the oil, and then buy the buyproduct from the farmer. We store the oil over the winter for him, and he takes delivery of in each spring.
> 
> Farmer gets a good deal on the oils, we get a good deal on byproducts, and he is pretty much tied into buying feed from us.
> 
> We are in the process of adding a second press to meet future demand.


Could you pm me about your location & process, if it is open to more folks? My brother in law is terribly interested in getting into biodiesel, he likes to travel, if you aren't too terrible far from MN he'd love to hear about you. 

--->Paul


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

travlnusa said:


> We (my employer) installed a bean press. Farmers bring in their beans. We press out the oil, and then buy the buyproduct from the farmer. We store the oil over the winter for him, and he takes delivery of in each spring.
> 
> Farmer gets a good deal on the oils, we get a good deal on byproducts, and he is pretty much tied into buying feed from us.
> 
> We are in the process of adding a second press to meet future demand.


I would like to hear what the operation is like also. What kind of beans is the best, how much you can get from an acre, and the process it take to get it ready for a fuel tank. Any first hand info would be great for me and probably many others here at HT.

Thanks for anything you can clue us in on.
Dennis


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

We are located aout 1.5 hours east of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. 

Yes, we do it for any customer.

All we do with the oil is dump into fuel trucks, and they deliver to the farms that own the beans they brought in. 

Soybeans and sunflowers are the main grains we press. Right now we are running at 100% (24/7), but the second unit will be up and running in the next 60-90 days.

We use the byproducts in dairy ration feeds.

I dont want to turn this fourm into an ad for my company. For those who want more business detail, please PM me.


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## Jackpine Savage (Jul 4, 2002)

I'm not sure if this has been posted here before. This farmer is pressing sunflower and adding unleaded gas. He claims his fuel contains more energy than #2 diesel, resulting in substantialy better efficiency. 

http://www.oilcrusher.5u.com/


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## Jackpine Savage (Jul 4, 2002)

Travlnusa, just curious, are you the operation that was featured in the Farm Show Magazine? Running a Lister diesel and china oil press?


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## The Paw (May 19, 2006)

Faith Farm said:


> Has anyone grown their own crop fuel for biodiesel? Switch grass seems to
> be the crop of the future. I would like to put in a field of switch grass but
> what is needed to process it for personel use?


There may be some other biodiesel threads here you can search for more info, but here are some basic points:

1. As Travlnusa says, grass will not give you oil. Canola is the second highest in oil per acre, after palm oil. Soybeans are also good. Having a use or buyer for the byproduct helps feasibility.

2. Whenever you are reading or talking about bio-diesel, you have to read between the lines. Some people use the term to refer to a mix of bio-diesel with regular diesel fuel (sold commercially). Some people use it to refer to oil that is processed with methyl hydrate and lye, and is 100% bio-diesel. Others use the term to refer to straight vegetable oil used as fuel.

3. I did a batch of the "100% bio-diesel" with some 4H kids. Given the chemicals involved and the storage of same, I personally would not do this on the backyard scale. Some do, but it is somewhat labour intensive.

4. If you want to run straight vegetable oil, there is a company at greasecar.com that sell kits to convert diesel vehicles for this purpose. You basically have 2 tanks, and need to run normal diesel for 5 minutes at the beginning and end of operating the engine but run on 100% vegetable oil the rest of the time. I think this is the most "user friendly" approach for a do-it-yourselfer, especially if you have access to a crushing service like travlnusa describes. You can also use waste vegetable oil from restaurants if you filter it.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

travlnusa said:


> We are located aout 1.5 hours east of the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
> 
> Yes, we do it for any customer.
> 
> ...


I don't think anyone here thinks you are trying to turn this thread into an ad. The OP ask the question to start with and the rest of here are interested in what you can tell us also. 
At least I for one is extremely interested. I have 20 acres I can use, a small tractor I can buy and change to diesel, chickens that can eat the bi-products , and can build my own press. I actually built up to 100 ton presses in Columbus, Ohio, years ago. 
I think you can put some in site on exactly what the OP ask for. I am hoping you will add more here instead of going to PM's, because this is something many of us needs to learn about.

And Jackpine, that is a very interesting site you posted. Daniel has it going on big time. Well, a little big time anyway, LOL. I believe nearly everything he said. When he got to the part about 18,000 phone calls in two years I had to grab the calculator. That is a phone call for every hour of every day for two years. :bash: I like what he is doing but he is stretching it there a little "I THINK" And that wasn't counting the e-mails he said he's gotten. Just throws a red flag up for me as to what is true and what isn't. A telephone solicitor couldn't take 18,000 calls in two years, I don't think. 
But I do like the idea. 

Please travlnusa, post some more info on your process if you will. 

And Faith Farm, thanks for the thread. Hope I didn't jump the thread by asking him to post more.
Dennis


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

Tonight I am buried in odd jobs, but will post details later tonight, or in the morning.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

travlnusa said:


> Tonight I am buried in odd jobs, but will post details later tonight, or in the morning.


Thanks a lot. I am looking forward to it. Like I said, I built hydraulic presses way, way back in the 70's, but it seems like a simple press to build if you are only looking for 6 to 10 tons. 
I am very, very, very interested in this. I already have about 12 - 500-600 feet rows planed for planting for chicken feed this year if I can afford the seed. If I can't this year I will surely have the seed next year. I guess one flower would plant 600 feet the way they seed. The seeds I have already are supposed to be 12" wide and full of seeds so whether I buy any more seed or not, if they do OK I can more than likely plant all I need to next year and never buy a pack of seeds. 

I am also interested in any pictures you can post if you are allowed and would do so. 

Thanks so much. This thread has got me sparked up to give it a try myself. Especially the site Jackpine posted.

Thanks again.
Dennis


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

> I dont want to turn this fourm into an ad for my company. For those who want more business detail, please PM me.


 Thanks for the PM and please go ahead and post details. I think there's good interest for biodiesel and we'd like to read more and check out some links.


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

When we started to got into Bio fuels, sunflowers were quite cheap. After shopping around, we chose a unit made in Europe. After waiting for it to arrive and getting it installed, the cost of sunflowers went up by a factor of 2.5. Our plan was to run it on our feed delivery trucks. 

After sunflowers went though the roof, we switched to beans. Not that beans are any cheaper, but they produce a touch more oil, and the byproduct is a a key base feed source for out protien blends. 

Our press runs around the clock. One thing we leared is that paying the big money for the one we did was a waste. Our next unit will be high volume, at the lowest cost we can find. Yes, that most likely means China.

We charge $1.00 per gal pr press product. You get about 1 gal from on Bu of soybeans. If you so desire, you can fill out a form, sent it to the federal goverment, and they will sent you your $1/bu back.

If you want to you can keep the byproducts, or we will buy it from customers.

Most of our customers are larger farmers. We press their beans, and store it for them until sping when they pick it up to use in their tractors for spring field work. Two customers want the by byprducts mixed back into their feed, while the rest just want to sell it to us.

This is not a back yard, or homeowner units we are running, you would have to 1000's of gal/yr to make it work. We run our around the clock, thus the need to add at least one more. 

We do not blend fuel and oil. Ater looking into the permits to do all of that, there was no way we would want to play that game. 

You bring us grains, we give you oil.


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## Ross (May 9, 2002)

Got any photos or a website? This won't be a SPAM issue, the topic is so popular and we're very lucky to have an HT member working in the industry. Besides HT has one main rule "Be Nice" TravlinUSA checked with me and that's as nice as it need be.


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

crafty2002 said:


> I am looking forward to it. Like I said, I built hydraulic presses way, way back in the 70's, but it seems like a simple press to build if you are only looking for 6 to 10 tons.


I believe allt he presses I have seen for oil are screw presses. a slow (relatively) spinning cone forces the beans (or whatever) into a tighter space, and the oil squishes out. The heat created automatically creates good bean meal, as if it were roasted.

I'm not sure you worked with screw presses or just a clamping press?


There are several outfits selling turnkey units, or the components to build your own. There are a few different sizes of these presses coming out of China, all seem to be the same light green color, resold by several outfits across the country. Some also sell China diesel engines to power the press, so you can use the fuel made to pwer the press. Use the heat from the engine to heat the building, if you are in cold climate and pressing in winter. Some neat options.

I have a few web sites, but if you google "biodiesel screw press" you will end up seeing most of them, & several others.

--->Paul


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## rambler (Jan 20, 2004)

travlnusa said:


> We charge $1.00 per gal pr press product. You get about 1 gal from on Bu of soybeans.


Are you returning raw soybean oil I'm guessing? 

It needs fruther refining to remove the glyserines so it can be blened with diesel fuel. Need to mix in an odd little alcohol & let the gloppy stuff settle out so it doesn't plug or gum things up.

--->Paul


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## tallpaul (Sep 5, 2004)

for most folks here don't forget that using the biodiesel in an on road non farm vehicle or running to another non farm related run will get ya in trouble with the tax man.... its something most used tobe able to ignore but the state and the feds are more educated and realise they were loosin money. They don't like to loose money!


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## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

A video from start to truck driving sure would be nice to see.I sure would like to understand the complete process.

Great thread,thanks for the info.


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## greg273 (Aug 5, 2003)

Its doable, but youd better have at least 30 acres of canola to make it worth your while, a large seed press, and lots of time and money. Dont expect a small garden plot of soybeans to power your diesel engines for too long.
Josh Tickells book, "from the fryer to the fuel tank' has plenty of charts and graphs that show oil production from various crops.


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## travlnusa (Dec 12, 2004)

Sorry, but we dont have any videos, pics, etc. At this point there is no logic in promoting via a website or anything until we can expand our capacity.

The other issue is that I am on dial-up and uploading a video would take a few weeks (or so it feels).

We are not the only game in town by any means. Call feed mills around your area. Most will not have anything such as we do, but some of you will run across someone. 

As far as do we refine/treat the pressed oil at all, the answer is no. Under the permits we have, we can produce feed, and pressing oil out of beans falls under out state permits. Once we start to refine oils, that is a whole mess of goverment stuff we just dont need in our lives. 

I can tell you that my biggest customer does not treat it at all, he just adds 10-20% (based on temp) to his tractors and hits the fields. Keep in mind, these guys are running this in the warmer months of the year. 

When we buy/install the new press(s), I will take some pics, and start a thread at that time.


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## crafty2002 (Aug 23, 2006)

travlnusa said:


> I can tell you that my biggest customer does not treat it at all, he just adds 10-20% (based on temp) to his tractors and hits the fields. Keep in mind, these guys are running this in the warmer months of the year.


He adds 10 to 20% of what to it. The site that Jackpine listed said the guy added unleaded gasoline. That makes sense to me. If you could get by on only buying 10 to 20% of a tank of gas that would add up right fast. 
How many bushels of soy beans can you get from an acre of land. And let me ask another question. Will sunflower seeds be as good or not ??? 
And what other seeds could be used with a good return oil per acre that chickens can eat the byproducts from.??

Rambler, you are right. The presses I built were like a regular hydraulic press. 
I have no idea how to build a screw press but I wonder if I still couldn't build a regular type press with something like a 20 - 50 ton cylinder and it get the job done. 
I have what I think is a good design in my head but I sure don't want to build it and it not work. 
I guess I will just keep on studying what I can find. 

Dennis


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