Kettle Moraine, WI | kipps - 6/18/2022 16:51
What's involved in doing this? Is it feasible at all on a farm level? Every google search I do for DIY biodiesel just tells me to collect all the "throwaway" (yeah, right!) cooking oil from restaurants. I want to know how I can control the process from the field to the tractor, without relying on the generosity of restaurants.
I doubt we're quite to point yet where every farm should have their own canola patch and processing capabilities. But it's something that should be looked into a bit to see if it could be feasible.
The reason for used oil is cheap input. Using on farm grown and pressed oilseed is pressing a potential food grade direct market oil product and breaking it down to make fuel. Have the right press and meet any food manufacturing requirement, bottle it and sell food grade canola oil for couple bucks a pint. Use the same oil and your double digit per gallon biodiesel price over alternate market.
With onfarm feed needs and no desire to direct market, your focus will be on the crush margin. Subtract the meal value from the grain price and your oil cost might be low or negative. Commercial value is made by the crush. (The whole is worth less than the sum of the parts)
The little onfarm presses will get about half the oil out of soybeans. Canola at higher oil content will get better extraction iirc because of easier squeeze like squeezing water out of a wet cloth or a dry cloth analogy.
Then comes the costs of chemicals to make the biodiesel. That is a volume game so small producers buying small volume pay more.
A question I don't know the answer to is "is biodiesel ultra low sulfur to meet new engine requirements?" Your engines may need to answer to that criteria.
And at the end of the day you wonder if it is worth the time versus buying commercial. Know your growing costs, your grain farm gate price, access to biodiesel chemicals, your willingness to pay a premium, and your time value and commitments.
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Plant canola, convert it to diesel fuel?
