WVO from restaraunts..what to look for and stay away from

[MMKS55]

Im in the process of trying to find a local source for WVO. Im in the northern part of illinois and most of what is local is small diners and fast food. Does anybody use fast food restaraunts for a source? I need to know what i can offer the owners before i approach them. I asked one and he said they weren't happy with the guy since he was not taking the whole container. Ideally i know you want to suck off the top, but could you take the whole container and let it sit longer to settle the crap, if so what do you do with all the junk in the bottom. I have a heated garage to do it in. I know you should titrate it first. Thanks for any input.

[Spencnaz]

In my own case, I stay away from fast food places as they cook with the oil longer, forming more FFAs (free fatty acids) which will take more NaOH or KOH to neutralize.

I pick up my oil from a Chinese restaurant. 15 gallons a week.

I had a 55 gallon drum for them, and would pick up the whole lot once a month, but all the pumping and transfer to and from the truck was a real hassle.

What I do instead is have them dump the old oil back into the 5 gallon plastic containers (cubies) and then I stop by once a week and take the oil away for free. Some places may not want that as they have a security issue with bums and vandals screwing around with the oil making a mess. Ask around what they would want for a pickup service to do.

After I pick up the oil, I dump it into a semi truck fuel tank I have on a pallet and let it settle out all the water, crumbs and other crap. The oil that would be used for biodiesel production should be relatively clear with no large chunks or milky in appearance (indication of water in the oil). With the detritus that settles on the bottom, maybe you could scoop it out once in a great while and just throw it on a compost heap, that's what I do with the glycerin I generate.

Hope this helps.

[DevoK12RS]

[ QUOTE ]
Im in the process of trying to find a local source for WVO.

[/ QUOTE ]

Try all the fraternal organizations in your area- Eagles, Moose, VFW, K of C, Woodsmen, American Legion, etc. It seems to me that they like helping 'grass roots movements'- at least on the small scale I'm familiar with. Be prepared to join one of them if you are consistently getting oil from them.

Right now I get my oil from a Moose and one bar. The Moose oil is way better, but the bar oil hasn't presented any problems yet- it's just darker (used more).

I'm running WVO- not BD.

HTH,
Devo

[350 long rod]

Also look for small ehnic restaraunts.The place I get from is a cuban one and they cook very little animal fat mostly veggis.Also try and stay a way from a place with a grill unless you can get them not to put there grill grease in .The first place I had did that and I had a lot of crap to get rid of.Mexiacan places are good too some only use the oil to make chips with.

[Spencnaz]

Ditto on that, I learned that Asian food places change the oil very frequently, if they dont it will change the taste of the food cooked in it.

A real score would be a potato chip plant, by federal law they have to change the oil if the FFAs get to too high above a certain titration. That would be a great score since you would be basically getting the same oil with the same FFAs over and over again.

Stay away from donut places, they use shortening which will make biodiesel that will turn solid at higher temps and is not suitable for winter weather. Also, the donut places dont change the oil very often (I know I worked as an engineer for Belshaw Brothers, the manufacturer of most of the donut making equipment in the world). I wont eat another donut after learning that.

[MMKS55]

Thanks for all the input guys, this helps alot for a newbie. I checked a couple of places today. One hole in the wall had a dumpster with thick white milky crap..Im avoiding that one. The other was a chinese buffet that looked a little dark but no crap on top. Not sure of the consistency..it seemed a bit thin.

[Spencnaz]

It should be dark in color just looking at the side of the plastic cubie. As for viscosity there shouldn't be any pour problems with it.

It will of course get less viscous as temperature increases.

[waterdude]

The chinese buffet is worth looking into. Ask them what kind of oil they are using and how often they are dumping it. I would arrange for them to dump the clear oil into your 55 gallon or 15 gallon drum and then dump the bottom of the barrel stuff and water wash into the other dumpster.

My chinese buffet changes their oil twice a week and they use 100% corn oil. Titration is 3 grams/Liter or less with KOH.

Get a couple of liters of their oil and take it home to titrate and run a 1 liter test batch.

Dark is good, but it needs to be clear,

Hugh

[scottefontay]

I have a couple chinese places that use winterized cottonseed. This stuff is stellar grease. When they winterize it they chill the oil and take off the stuff that solidifies...you don't want creamy salad dressing. Some classier places fry with it.

[kdunton]

I was able to get a test 5 gallons from a local chinese resturaunt (unknown type of oil). I've run two test batches. First batch (2 liter) I botched all up - my own fault - I didn't titrate, I had the oil temp too high when mixing and and I didn't use good methanol. Second batch (again, 2 liters) is looking good, but not the straw-yellow color it should be. Oil titrated at 4 using KOH. I was a little surprised, as the oil is a gel at room temps. Smells really bad too.

Would it be wise to continue getting oil from this establishment..? If the oil is a gel at 70-ish degrees, I'm concerned about getting it from the plastic (HDPE if that makes a difference) container to the appleseed I'm 95% done building. Ideas..? Currently, I have the oil in a 5 gallon pail, and I'm using a large spoon to transfer it to a pan for my test batches.

Back to the first batch that I messed up - can I add that 2 liters back into a larger batch (say 98 more liters for a total of 100 L ) and reprocess..?

thanks
Keith

[waterdude]

Possibly hydrogenated oil that gels at room temp or a mixture with some lard mixed in. As with my chinese restaurant, I can't always communicate with the cooks, so I talk to the manager or servers and they translate for me. Smile a lot or learn to speak chinese.

Simple questions:

1. find out what kind of oil, make sure it is 100% veggie oil. Have them find an empty or full tote of oil to show you, you will also want them to give you their empties so that you can transport the oil home (when you find the best source).

2. make sure that your oil is seperate from the watery mess that the produce when cleaning out the fryer.

The second batch that you produced sounds ok. The unwashed biodiesel is often darker than the finished washed biodiesel. So you can save up the good test batches and wash them together later. As far as the 1st failed batch, I don't know what you can do to save it.

--Hugh

[jesserettele]

Man , this might be the wrong place to post especially since I have no clue as to what you guys are talking about yet, but I want to get started making bio/alternative diesel. Where is a good place to start? I am as green to this topic as they come.

[01stroker]

This forum is a good place to start, read, read and read some more.
Here is another great place. If you are serious about getting into it order this book it will help you greatly.

[Spencnaz]

I second that biodieselcommunity.org posting.

Before I read that site, I was climbing a very steep learning curve. After using their information, I'm making more fuel than I know what to do with.

[waterdude]

Girl_Mark's book is a great place to start, it will explain a lot.

Read, read, read and then join in.

--Hugh