Biofuels Help Power Kentucky Operation

Superintendent offers a practical guide to converting vegetable oil to biodiesel to use as an alternative fuel

When I started using vegetable oil to make biodiesel three years ago, it was mainly due to my staunch environmental principles that I've applied to my career in golf course management. I feel biofuels are the best option, environmentally, for fueling my diesel equipment. The economics of using vegetable oil to make biodiesel was never my primary motive for developing and implementing my alternative fuel program. But three years later, while experiencing the highest diesel fuel prices on record, these alternative fuels are helping me keep my maintenance budget in line.

Biodiesel is the leading alternative fuel, environmentally speaking. In 2000, biodiesel became the only alternative fuel in the country to have successfully completed the EPA-required Tier I and Tier II health effects under the Clean Air Act. What this means is that biodiesel significantly reduces all regulated emissions while posing no threat to human health. Biodiesel also provides a positive net energy balance. According to the National Biodiesel Board, "for every unit or energy that is required to produce a gallon of biodiesel, 3.24 units of energy are gained."

Quick Tip

Biodiesel is a fuel that can be used directly in any diesel engine without physical modifications to the engine. This characteristic alone makes this alternative fuel very attractive. It does, however, require that vegetable oil (new or used) go through a chemical process called transesterfication, where the glycerin is separated from the oil by replacing the glycerol bond with alcohol. When the process is successfully completed, the viscosity of the base vegetable oil has been significantly reduced to the point of being similar to that of petroleum diesel fuel.

Rather than purchase biodiesel from a local supplier, I found it much more cost effective to produce my own in my maintenance facility. After much research and tweaking my recipe, I have become rather efficient at it. It's really a much simpler process that you might expect.

The mixture

My recipe for making biodiesel will produce about 35 gallons to 40 gallons, depending on the quality of the oil used. This recipe will work for both new vegetable oil as well as waste vegetable oil from the clubhouse's deep fryer or other local restaurants. If waste vegetable oil is going to be used, it must be filtered through a 1-micron filter to ensure all the little bits of French fries and such won't clog your injector pump or injectors.

Photo 1: Marvel Golf Club Superintendent and General Manager Christopher S. Gray Sr. says making your own biodiesel likely will void your warranty, so experimentation should be conducted on older equipment.

When brewing biodiesel in your maintenance facility, there is one piece of equipment that is absolutely necessary: a processor. Before you start thinking about how much one of these processors will set you back, let me ease your mind and tell you there is a very economical solution: a hot water heater. You will need to add a couple things to the hot water heater to make it into a fully functioning processor, including an additional few holes on the top and a mechanical stirring device. These additions are very simple and inexpensive to implement. I have been using a hot water heater since the beginning, and it has worked perfectly. The size of the hot water heater is the limiting factor on the recipe production of 35 gallons to 40 gallons. The larger the processor you use, the larger the batches of biodiesel you can produce. You can always upgrade after becoming more comfortable with the production process.

Obtain and place 40 gallons of either new or filtered waste vegetable oil in your processor and use the processor to heat the oil to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Allow proper time for all the oil to reach the correct temperature. By heating the oil, you are reducing the viscosity of the oil to allow for a better chemical reaction to take place.

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