Make your own biodiesel fuel and save a bundle. (Photo Credit: CC BY-ND/Chemistryland)

Gasoline prices are out of control, prompting more consumers to consider alternative fuels. For diesel vehicle owners, biodiesel is an environmentally conscious option that costs less than $1 per gallon. Biodiesel fuel can even be made at home. While there are pros and cons to the process, it’s hard to deny that running a diesel vehicle on biofuel is cheaper in the long run than gasoline.

Biodiesel requires a diesel car and production kit

Your vehicle must have a diesel engine in order to take advantage of biodiesel fuel, and you’ll need some equipment to make biodiesel. Bankrate writes that several companies offer do-it-yourself biodiesel kits, ranging in price from $400 to $5,000, depending upon the quantity of biodiesel you want to produce, pump and store at one time. Thankfully, the Alternative Fuel Vehicle Refueling Property Credit can make up for up to 30 percent of the cost of making biodiesel fuel at your primary residence. Remember that for your 2011 taxes.

Putting the bio in biodiesel

The time required to make the fuel can be as little as a few hours, depending upon the production kit used. The big question is what suitable organic substance you’ll use to make biodiesel fuel. Soybean oil is most commonly used in the U.S., although any old yellow grease taken from cooking oil will work. Get friendly with your local greasy spoon restaurants and they may let you haul away their grease for free.

The only caveat to this path is that restaurant grease may be too dirty to produce the highest-functioning biodiesel fuel. Impure biodiesel can also expose your gas tank to bacteria, mold and fungus and can end up costing thousands of dollars to repair. The more expensive production kits filter out impurities, but of course you have to pay more for the most efficient kits. The purest biodiesel is B100 or B99. That means the fuel is 100 or 99 percent biodiesel, with the rest being petroleum diesel, says Bankrate. However, an 80/20 mix may be less likely to clog your fuel injectors if you live in a colder climate. Consult with your automaker if you’re unsure of which mix to use.

Cost on percentage

How much you save using biodiesel fuel instead of standard petroleum diesel depends in part upon the mix. If you’re able to obtain free soybean or cooking grease, production costs should ideally average out to about 70 cents per gallon for the other required ingredients specified by your production kit. As stated above, equipment will cost extra. But it beats living with high gasoline prices.

Sources

Bankrate.com

How Stuff Works

Journey to Forever

More on making biodiesel fuel

Will the cannabis car be the car of the future? CC by avlxyz/Flickr

The search for alternative fuels and modes of transportation that are environmentally friendly has taken a new, green turn. Motive Industries of Calgary, Alberta, has announced plans to introduce Canada’s first bio-composite electric car, reports Fast Company. Kestrel is the name, and hemp is the green construction material. It’s a cannabis-constructed car.

Every cannabis car needs its Hempcar Manifesto

The Kestrel will no doubt spur clouds of controversy. But Hempcar.org’s 10,000-mile test run of a hemp biofueled vehicle proved that it could work. The Kestrel – at least in early stages – will be made partly from hemp, but won’t run on hemp biofuel. The U.S. has yet to make cultivating industrial hemp legal, though, so they won’t know what it’s like. There are no psychoactive elements to industrial hemp, and it isn’t a drug, so the Americans’ stance is strange, considering the potential benefits.

Hemp from Alberta Innovates Technology Futures

The supply chain for hemp starts at a farm in Vegreville, Alberta, and makes its way to Alberta Innovates Technology Futures. That company then supplies the hemp for the Kestrel. Hemp for body construction is lightweight, renewable and as strong as glass composite, reports Fast Company. Motive isn’t ready to start producing Kestrels on an assembly line just yet, but testing of a prototype should certainly begin before 2010 comes to a close.

Henry Ford knew about hemp fuel back in 1925

“The fuel of the future is going to come from fruit like that sumach out by the road, or from apples, weeds, sawdust — almost anything,” said the prescient Henry Ford to the New York Times during the Great Depression. “There is fuel in every bit of vegetable matter that can be fermented,” Ford continued.

Among the weeds Ford recognized was hemp. This is a safe assumption because he made a car out of resin-stiff hemp fibers. It ran on hemp-based ethanol. Ford could have saved the country’s farmers from the grip of the Great Depression. There would have been mutual benefit. But then came the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. There had been a series of battles leading to that point in Congressional history. Once the DuPont company and newspaper uber-baron William Randolph Hearst had their say, hemp was buried beneath pages of laws. Ford’s path of innovation was closed.

Additional reading

Fast Company:

Hempcar.org:

Wikipedia: