Alternative Fuels

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By Susan Hess, 5-18-06

Do fuel prices make you wonder about making your own biodiesel? Maybe see if your favorite restaurant would save their used cooking oil for you?

Gorge-area resident Dick Janz did. Though it might be harder now: Oregon restaurants and kitchens generate about three and a quarter million gallons of used cooking oil a year — and every ounce is spoken for, according to Oregon’s Department of Energy. Officials say the oil gets snapped up for Asian markets, for making soap and by Northwest biofuelers small and large.

(Of course, a person could essentially grow biodiesel, as it can be made from most any oil. Squeezed from canola seeds, for instance. An acre of the seed yields between 100 to 400 gallons of oil.)

Janz got in early and now collects used cooking oil from two local restaurants. Janz lives in Tygh Valley, a village about 25 miles south of The Dalles. Like many garage biodiesel producers, he has no background that prepared him for making fuel. And like most others, he makes it only for his own vehicles: a VW Gulf and a one-ton Dodge pickup. In both vehicles, he’s get the same mileage with biodiesel as with regular diesel. He didn’t have to make any modifications to the vehicles.

It’s the side product that makes Janz’s process different: A self-imposed surtax of sorts to support area science education. For each gallon of biodiesel Janz produces, he donates one dollar to Wasco County schools to improve high school science.

“I wasn’t in it to save myself money,” said Janz, “I did it to help the environment. I hope to inspire others so we can reduce our dependence on fuel from the Middle East . Since my home fuel was inexpensive, I felt I should tax myself, and I wanted to get high school students interested in alternate fuel sources.”

If you’ve ever seen an oil refinery, you know pipes twist and turn and cover acres of ground. Janz’s operation, though, would fit in a dining room and still leave room for the dining table. He bought a Fuel Meister kit that cost him $3,400 and spent another $1,600 in tanks, dollies, and other supplies. And then he started in.

He collects the used oil until he has about 50 gallons and then strains it with a household wire mesh strainer to remove the odd French fry and donut crumbs. The tank he stores it in heats the oil to 125 degrees Fahrenheit. He tests it to see how much lye to add. Then Janz pours a mixture into a plastic vat, consisting of 40 gallons of oil, eight gallons of methanol, and however much lye the test indicates. After stirring it, he leaves the mixture overnight to separate.

The next day, glycerin and residue have sunk to the bottom and the biodiesel floats on top. Janz drains the glycerin off (about six gallons per batch). A mist of water washes the biodiesel to take out any remaining impurities. The water sinks and is drained off. The fuel runs through one final filter as it goes into Janz’s 275-gallon tank. From there he pumps it straight into his vehicles.

Not counting the initial capital expense, Janz’s biodiesel costs him about 80 cents a gallon.

Janz gives the vestigial waste grease to a farmer who mixes it with feed for birds he raises. Janz hasn’t come up with a solution for disposing of the glycerin; some people use it to make soap, but he’s just storing it right now.

Janz has been making biodiesel for only about six months, so the money for schools hasn’t added up to a lot – yet. “The big story,” he says, “is to get farmers to grow something that would make them more energy independent. There is a need for the big (biodiesel) producers and the backyarders.”

At 80 cents a gallon? Maybe Janz is talking to me, or you.

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