Waste solid vegatable oil as biodiesel feedstock?

[houdel]

Stopped off at the local BK the other day and asked the manager there what they do with thier WVO. She said they dump it in a tank and eventually it disappears. I asked if I could take some, she said she didn't know if they pay to have it removed or get paid for it and gave me the phone number of her regional manager. He handles that type of business and I'd have to talk to him for any more info or permission to get some.

Then I asked her if they get thier VVO in cubies, she replied they get it in solid blocks! A new one by me, makes me think of Crisco, maybe this stuff is some sort of hydrogenated vegatable oil.

Anyhow, my questions are, has anyone used this stuff in making Biosiesel? Would solid vegatable oil make a suitable feedstock for Biodiesel? Would it be any better or worse than a liquid VO? And, since I didn't get a chance to look at the tank, does this stuff resolidify once it cools off?

 

[vbrescueman]

The best place to get waste oil is chinese restaurants- most of them are using soybean salad oil now.It burns great and smells good, too. The answer to the final question is yes it will re-solidify into a semi/solid block--- not good! Anyhow cranetruck is The Man of Biodiesel and I know He'll leave more info for you.
Doc

 

[vbrescueman]

The best place to get waste oil is chinese restaurants- most of them are using soybean salad oil now.It burns great and smells good, too. The answer to the final question is yes it will re-solidify into a semi/solid block--- not good! Anyhow cranetruck is The Man of Biodiesel and I know He'll leave more info for you.
Doc

 

[cranetruck]

Now, see I don't know about this, I only tell you about the things a do and working with solid grease is not something I have done.
The fryer oil should be liquid (soy, canola, corn etc) and I have not heard of it being solid to begin with.
I have several buckets of semi-solid grease, that I picked up at a different restaurant and it's bacon and sausage grease. I'll probably bring it back one day and dump it into the grease dumpster for somebody else to mess with, since I'm accumulating so much of the good stuff anyway.
I process the used cooking oil at a temp of about 125°F so solidified grease could be added to the oil, but I haven't determined the required formula for that kind of a mix.

If you have oil of unknow quality, you need to do a "titration" procedure to determine how much lye to use when processing.

 

[Ambulancechser]

hydrogenated

It's my understanding that oil in these blocks is hydrogenated veg' oil.(The stuff full of trans fats your not supposed to be eating).Apparently makes good feed stock for bio,but requires more work.Apparently you get more waste(glycerin etc).Non hydro' is said to be the best stuff.
as a news flash...WENDY's is now switching to non hydro' oils in all it's outlets(at least in canada).

 

[houdel]

I live in a very rural area, so my choices for WVO sources are pretty limited. The county I live in is over half State and Federal forests, our phone book is about 1/3 the size of a typical bible, and has the complete white and yellow page and governmental listings for 3 full counties and most of a fourth! The nearest "city", Reed City (pop 2,340) is 10 miles away; the nearest "big city", Big Rapids (pop 10,849) is another 25 miles distant. I talked to the manager of the local grocery store today (they fry chicken & potato wedges for the deli), he said I am welcome to whatever WVO they happen to have. He has no problem getting rid of it, I just have to compete with the local bear hunters and hog farmers for it! There are a couple of small resturants (no Chinese though) in the area, I'll try there also.

 

[houdel]

From what I have read, you can make excellent Biodiesel from WVO with a lot of animal fat content IF you use the 2 stage acid/base process. Higher conversion ratios and much less glycerin, but NOT for the novice Biodiesel maker!

http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_aleksnew.html