I'm right there with ya KC. I brewed my own for just about a year, and it was a great year. I had some messes, but learned a TON in the process, including what materials can handle the solvents. (hint, not the cheap ones!)

Where I'm at right now, I have access to a commercial kitchen. They will be changing the oil in the fryers sometime during the summer, and I have already been given permission to collect the oil. It won't be that much, but it should be good for a tank or maybe two on the way home. I will also be visiting some local oil change shops and drawing from the top of their sump to get some WMO. None of this will be converted to biodiesel sadly, but it WILL be mixed 60/40 with regular diesel to thin it. I'm not at all worried about the temperature, it will all be used up within 2 days. Sad, isn't it? I'm gonna burn 60+ gallons in 2 days b/c I have to get my happy self back home from New Hampshire, and it will take all summer to get the fuel to do it!

But I'm going to put my trailer on the market and get a bigger one, that I can build a small 20 gallon reactor in. That will be my project for the winter.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but most biodiesel is being exported to Europe... at least most of what is produced in Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois. I have a biodiesel production facility 8 miles from my front door, and over 90% of their production goes on a train and heads to the East Coast.

There may gradually be some change in this practice, as Illinois is ramping up it's tax credits for stations to sell biodiesel blends of 11% or more (however, no mandate to do so). Minnesota is currently mandating 2%, but that will increase to 5% in 2010 and then 10% in 2015. Iowa isn't doing anything to encourage local use of locally produced biodiesel, so it is a hit and miss situation as to where you can get the product.

Regarding "money trails", where most of the public should vent about all of this is the "spash and dash" process that is costing Americans hundreds of millions of dollars a year. A tanker loaded with foreign produced biodiesel pulls into a U.S. harbor. A limited amount of dino diesel is "splashed" or mixed into the tanker load. Now the entire tanker qualifies for the biodeisel blenders tax credit of $1 per gallon. They pocket the money and "dash" to Europe, which is now threatening a trade war with the U.S. over these practices. U.S. producers can get the blenders tax credit, then ship the product to Europe and sell it at an increased profit over the U.S. market, due to our weakening dollar value.

I personally am against Government subsidies, but if they are going to be a fact of life, then they need to be limited to only U.S. production used in the U.S. Of course, engine manufacturers are not really helping the process. Most large diesel engine manufacturers are against blends greater than 5%. Only a limited number of engine manufacturers are approving higher blends, with New Holland being the leader in allowing biodiesel at up to 100% be used in its currently manufactured engines. John Deere can't seem to get past 20%, and the truck engine manufacturers are digging in at the 5% level for the near future. They are considering higher blends, but no real progress so far. And since these class of engines use the lion's share of diesel fuel in this country, they are, by default, limiting the amount of biodiesel available at retail level. Heck, I can't get my local farmer's coop to blend more than 5%.

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Environmentalist Green + Socialist Red = Facist Brown

2006 Liberty CRD, Frankenlift II, Al's A Arms, Moog LBJ's, GDE tune, Etechno GX3123 Glow plugs, Fumoto drain valve, Elephant hose CCV mod.

I think the reason for this has to do with the quality of the fuel.
I've heard many stories how such and such city/county/fleet switched all
their busses/trucks over to 100% BD and shortly there after wound up
with a bunch of failed injectors. But this was probably like five years ago.
I would hope that by now all the major BD makers have adopted some
"standards" to ensure the quality of the fuel and prevent component failure.

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U.S. Army Retired

The problem with those news stories isn't that 'such and such city switched to bio and had problems' it is that they always leave out the sentences that would explain the problem:

'Anycity switched their transit system to biodiesel use 6 months ago, and has been experiencing some problems with the changeover.' (Now the missing sentences) The engines and fuel systems are being cleaned out of hundreds of thousands of miles of contaminants by the biodiesel, which is a much cleaner fuel and an excellent solvent. Once the fuel filters were replaced, the engines began performing much better.

See, it's better newsmaking to create a false panic - that sells papers. By actually reporting the NEWS, that this is only a temporary problem that can be cured by some simple maintenance... Thats boring, and the oil advertisers won't want to pay for more ads in a paper that endorses their replacement.