Mr Biodiesel

[andygates]

Here's an interesting new product: GreenFuels' FuelPod2. 

It's a sort of Mr Biodiesel which you feed with waste oil and methanol and it chugs away making a 50 litre batch of fuel. Kinda like a bread machine for recycling fuel. This sort of consumer-grade processor's a great idea and I think it will have a big market.

Comments

[thudthwacker.livejournal.com]

Wow. That, right there, is awesome. I know I could just follow the link, but that feels like a lot of effort just now -- I've finally come down with whatever has been making the rounds here, and my head hurts even more if I try to think too hard (I am, even now, ditching my leg workout, and no matter how crappy I feel, I always feel like a slacker if I do that; never mind the fact that, with the current state of my sinuses, a set of heavy squats could possibly cause my head to explode and take out anyone unfortunate enough to be on the incline bench at the time). Anyway: what does one of those cost?

Between this sort of thing and the recent improvements in solar, I'm beginning to wonder very seriously whether, in 20 years, homes that *don't* have mostly self-contained power generation will be in the minority. And that's even considering that the power industry is doing its level best to avoid that (example: in the state of New Jersey where I reside, you get fined for feeding too much back into the power grid, and are therefore required to pony up large wampum to hire a licensed specialist to investigate your power usage and recommend a system that will allow you to just barely squeak by; I somehow doubt that this is the kind of law that gets passed because the folks who live in the state think it's a good idea).

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

It's a rather whopping £2500. Plus VAT at 17.5%. Would take a while to pay for itself, to be sure.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

"I'm beginning to wonder very seriously whether, in 20 years, homes that *don't* have mostly self-contained power generation will be in the minority."

That's what I'm hoping. Frankly I'd like to see stuff like Nanosolar's carbon buckytube PV being used in ordinary roof tiles, that sort of stuff. It would be very good to see a future in which a house that purely consumed energy was an anachronism. Like electricity is now, or indoor plumbing was by the post-war period.

Diesel here is costing £1.10 a litre. In England you register with Excise and sign the de minimis note meaning that you will produce less than 2500 litres of fuel a year, and are therefore due to pay no fuel tax. They then forget about you :)

Ballparking £1.00 a litre for diesel, and £300 for a 1000l drum of methanol, and free waste oil, you'd get 5000l of biodiesel with a "street value" of £5000 for an outlay of £2800 + electricity costs. In certain limited circumstances it'll pay for itself VERY quickly. That's a good return, especially as you can sell the stuff - or loan the machine - to your mates.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

My parents keep saying renewables won't work.

On a large scale I agree.

Micro-renewables have to be the way to go. That will work. I just wish home design was already doing it.

[andygates.livejournal.com]

Very few people know how to go about microgenerating. Only a couple of electricity companies make it easy - it's one of the reasons I chose Good Energy (they have a pack n'everyfink). Granted, I currently have no means of doing it, but that's a trivium.

On a large scale, biomass doesn't scale up well, nor does hydro. Wind can. Tidal is like fusion, permanent Future Tech. I think it's pretty clear that the govt want to go towards nuclear + renewables.

[ravenbait.livejournal.com]

And of course, finally, at least in Scotland, small scale fuel production from waste oil comes under a Waste Management Licensing Regulations exemption (Schedule 3, Paragraph 5) that doesn't cost anything to register.

Just occasionally we manage to do something right with the legislation.