@justmatt: I agree that there has to be some form of taxation to pay for infrastructure. But right now alternative fuels need to be encouraged, and applying tax standards meant for large corporations to some guy who just wants to make enough biodiesel to get back and forth to work doesn't make sense. How about doubling the gas guzzler tax and take it from the folks who use the most gasoline?

av8thor

"Me retirement grease!"

homerjay

This thing supplies 1.21 JiggaWatts. Old news. This was available in 1985 after Doc went into the future.

stat321

Now if somebody actually started making diesel cars in the US this would actually be useful. VW is the only manufacturer of diesel cars that I can think of. Does Mercedes still make any diesels?

drewthat

@EQC: What you want is a mulching mower. No bagging and less fertilizing at the cost of sharpening your blades a couple of times a season.

dingus

@av8thor: People doing this need to pay taxes on biodiesel they make because most infrastructure's maintenance is dependent on tax brought in from gasoline sales. This is meant to tax the people who use the roads most because they will be buying more gas. If this were to become more popular you can look forward to either paying taxes on the fuel you make or having a GPS monitor on your car and having the state send you a bill for the miles you have driven.

justmatt

@beetlebailey:
ah-ha! good point.... 1.5 KW = 20 cents an hour to run....
also 1/5th of what you put in it has to be methanol - expensive...

[www.greenfuels.co.uk]

nutbastard

All the fast food giants should install a few of these babies, I'm sure they put out enough grease to fuel hundreds of cars a day (per location, mind you).

Good God, I could not imagine what I would be doing at home to push out enough biodiesel to fuel my car.

Oneon1isto

you're going to have a small challenge earning the overhead back - figure they'll be $5000 when they come stateside, which is the cost of 1428 gallons of gas at $3.50 / gallon, or roughly a hundred tanks of gas. if this thing can really make as much biodiesel as it says it can every day, selling the extra could actually help make some of that back. if you sold it for $2 a gallon, and only used 10 gallons a week for yourself, you could make $160 a week. hey that doesnt sound too bad at all, just need to know people with diesel cars who dont mind going to your house to fill up. just watch out for THE MAN. it would only take 36 weeks to earn the money back, plus you get 10 gal a week free, and you get to hook your friends up with cheap fuel. hmmm....

nutbastard

whats the amp draw of this thing?

beetlebailey

I think it's great idea, but bear in mind that lately the Feds have been going after folks who make and use biodiesel, claiming that they fall under the same regs as Mobil and BP, and have to have (costly) licenses and pay TAXES on every gallon they make FOR THEIR OWN USE.

av8thor

In order to use this at home I would have to convert my diet entirely to fried foods. It's like getting my fried cheese sticks and eating them too.

Mayor McRib

I have land so I'm thinking I could grow whatever crop will be easiest to make into biodiesel rather than finidng it from used resturaunt oil. Any one have some good info on the whole process.

enine

Let me know when somebody invents one of these that'll deal with lawn clippings and other yard waste. That'll be a boon for everybody in the suburbs who mows the lawn once a week...

EQC

Yeah, I can't really see the legislators in North America letting this off the tax hook, for the reasons mentioned by JustMatt and Av8Thor above. Same reason it's illegal to use heating oil or farm fuel to power road vehicles, the road taxes don't get collected.

Mandatory_Field

@enine:
Rapeseed oil:High oil content and growing density.

An Oil press/mill: Can't squeeze those seeds by hand.

And the aforementioned processing unit, although there are kits and plans available as well.

junyo

@NUTBASTARD:

I don't think you can just apply the exchange rate to this device and assume that is going to be the cost in the US. If you do some searches online for home biodiesel rigs you'll see that they run around $1500US. You can even build one yourself for less than $300.
[www.biodieselcommunity.org]

Mind you, the device in the article is a clean, consumer-ready rig that doesn't look like it can make moonshine. That's worth a few hundred right there. I would estimate its equivalent could be constructed by a US company and sold for around $2,500US.

On taxes: Tax the rigs based on capacity or tax the oil. Some people will slip through the cracks, but that will still meet the generally accepted goal of encouraging alternative fuels.

On the oil: You can also process animal fat. However, one lesson to draw from the ethanol market is that using your food for fuel can have unintended consequences.

In the future, look for vegetable oil production in the US deserts using algae as the plant source and municipal sewer water as the nutrient rich (ahem) water source. Output would be inedible vegetable oil, methane, compost, and cleaner gray-water.

shawn_dude

Terrible piece of machinery.

BioPro 190 does it better, cheaper.

though this thing is prettier.

icntdrv

www.goldenfuel.com sells systems that don't need methanol to work. Seems alot cheaper in the long run.

inconel710

If taxes are a problem for home-brewed fuel, how will the government deal with electric cars that can be recharged at home?

EQC

This is great. Also, if you can make a deal with some fast food chain, it'd probably be cheaper to buy used oil than regular gas.
Taxation is a problem though... government will have to find a way to make some alternate taxation on this though. Fuel is cleaner, and also recicles used oil which is a plus.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

Don't just think transportation. A large percentage of the U.S. population uses fuel oil (basically diesel) to heat their homes. We go through a couple hundred gallons in a couple of months. If we could find enough refuse oil we could pay for this in a year. Also fortunately home heating oil is not subject to the bad old road use taxes.

jdorwart