BioFuels are made from plants or manure, and have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as well as reducing the dependence on imported oil and all the turmoil that seems to come with the imports.
Page Directory: Information on making and using
BioDiesel, Vegetable Oil, and Ethanol as a replacement for petroleum fuels in
vehicles: Information on burning bio-fuels such as wood, corn and methane as fuels for heating, cooking, power generation, and other uses: |
Alternate Fuel References/Guides | |
EERE Alternative Fuels Data
Center http://www.afdc.energy.gov/afdc/
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BioDiesel | |
Getting Started Making Biodiesel,
Graydon Blair Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html In the Nov 2005 issue |
![]() A good starting point. |
Mike Pelly's biodiesel method http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mike.html http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html Which is part of the Journey to Forever site: |
![]() The Journey To Forever site is very interesting, with a good collection of information on biofuels and many other fine projects. |
The BioDiesel Community http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
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![]() How-to on making the Appleseed Biodiesel processor. Some good links to other Bio Fuel resources. |
Homebrew Biodiesel and Biodiesel
Equipment Building Classes, Maria 'Mark' Alovert
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The New B100-WH Biodiesel Reactor
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![]() Lots of detail. |
Green Myth-Busting: Biodiesel, Clayton Bodie Cornell -- From Green Options
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Getting Off the Petroleum Grid with
BioDiesel Scott Durkee |
![]() Good how to article on making biodiesel. |
Utah
Biodiesel Supply http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com
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![]() There is some obvious commercial slant to the videos, but also lots of good and helpful information.
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Bozeman Bio-Fuel http://www.bozemanbiofuels.com/index.htm
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![]() Paul even offers a renewable energy cottage to rent while visiting the Bozeman/Yellowstone area. |
Vegetable Oil (WVO) | |
Frybrid -- Vegetable Oil for fuel
Forum: |
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This site has a wealth of information on conversion of diesel vehicles to
run on straight vegetable oil. |
VW Jetta Conversion to
Vegetable Oil Jeff
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Thank you Jeff! |
Heating with veggie oil, Posted on the Fieldlines.com forum |
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Generating Power From a Lister
Engine using Vegetable Oil http://groups.yahoo.com/group/wastewatts/
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Source for Lister Type Diesels
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![]() Information on powering generators and running on vegetable oil. (Thanks to mark for finding this) |
How do BioDiesel and straight
vegetable oil compare?
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There is a bit of a controversy between the BioDiesel folks and the WVO
folks. Here is one assessment from Journey To Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html If you know of other good and factual material on this area, please let me know: Gary |
Making Veggie Oil | |
They're Doubling The Value Of Their
Soybean Crop, Walder Mfg. http://www.farmshow.com/view_articles.php?a_id=201
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Making Ethanol | |
Corn to Ethanol a bad idea? Cars and People Compete for Grain...
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There appears to be a consensus emerging that the large scale use of corn to make ethanol for motor fuel is a bad idea because: 1) the energy balance is poor -- that is, the energy you get out of the corn based ethanol is little more than the fossil fuel energy that went into making the ethanol, and 2) the use of corn to produce ethanol puts it in competition with petroleum, and results in price increases in corn when petroleum goes up. |
Make Your Own Fuel http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/index.html
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The Manual for the home and farm
production of Alcohol Fuel, Stephen Mathewson, 1980 |
![]() 202 pages, 1980. Out of print, but available at Amazon and the like used books (if you hurry). |
Ethanol as a fuel http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html
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An assessment of Ethanol as a fuel for vehicles from Journey To Forever. |
Making Methane | |
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Utilizing Natural Design Parameters for Methane Digesters, Al Rutan Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
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![]() While ESSN is no longer published, all of the issues are still available as a free download. |
Collection of Methane Articles Home Power Magazine, issue 26 Al Rutan, the Methane Man Search the Home Power article archive for issues 26, 27, 28, 30, and 40, and order them. How to get articles from Home Power ... Some of this material may be available here: |
![]() A very good collection of articles from Home Power by Al Rutan.
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Cows Power Plan for Alternative
Fuel, USA Today
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![]() Reduces green house gas emissions, provides some added income, and "green" electric power. |
Building a
Poly Bio Digester, University of Adelaide
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![]() (Thanks to Dave for suggesting this) |
Turning Waste Into Fuel -- Methane
Biodigester Basics, Ilan Adler |
![]() Good practical article on how designing biodigesters that produce methane fuel. Details on how to build a simple one from poly tubing. |
Anaerobic Digestion: Biogas
Production and Odor Reduction from Manure Jeannie Leggett, Extension Assistant Full Paper (85K pdf) |
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Methane Generator Calculator http://biorealis.com/wwwroot/digester_revised.html From Biorealis Systems |
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Biorealis Methane Generator http://biorealis.com/digester/construction.html From Biorealis Systems
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Small Biogas Plant Plans |
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3 - Cubic Meter BIOgas Plane -- A
Construction Manual VITA -- Volunteers in Technical Assistance |
![]() Lots of detail on the design, construction and operation. |
How to Build a 100 cu. ft./day
Methane Gas Plant, Mother Earth News, November, 1971 Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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How to Generate Power from Garbage, By the Mother Earth News editors, Mother Earth News, May 1970 Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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Methane Generation in China Mother Earth News Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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![]() Wonder what the story on this today is? |
The Marvelous Chicken-Powered
Car Barry Grindrod
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![]() The article is fairly detailed, and the car has been running for years. Other useful methane generation and use information here: |
Wood Gas for Internal Combustion Engines Please be careful!! -- There is a Carbon Monoxide poisoning hazard with all wood gasifiers |
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Wood Gas as Engine Fuel -- Design
Manual Food and Agriculture Organization --
UN
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![]() ![]() Both vehicle and fixed applications are covered.
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Plans for a Wood Gas Generator to
Power IC engines www.gengas.nu/byggbes/contents.shtml
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![]() A picture of it WARNING -- One of the components of wood gas fuel is Carbon Monoxide -- a highly poisonous gas. |
Alternatives To Fossil Fueled
Engine/Generators Clifford W. Mossberg How to get articles from Home Power ... .
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The Gas Producer - Science and Construction www.angelfire.com/ak5/energy21/woodfire.htm
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Drive On Wood! Wayne Keith's Woodgas Site |
![]() There is a forum, an extensive resources section, and rundowns on many woodgas projects, as well as plans both for sale and free. |
Some Interesting
Wood Gas Generator Experiments
GMC Truck: |
![]() All Power also offers various levels of kits for building their
gasifiers as well as detailed free downloadable plans. (thanks to Les for sending this in) |
Wood gas vehicles: firewood in the fuel tank, |
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Wood Burning & Masonry Heaters | |
Hearth.com
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Heating With Wood Safely and Efficiently, Alex Wilson, GreenBuildingAdvisor.com |
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A good place to look before you choose what kind of wood burning applicance to go with. |
Wood For Home Heating, FNR-79, Purdue University http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-79.pdf Residential Wood Stove Installation, |
![]() Installing wood stoves. |
Design,
Construction and Performance of Stick-Wood Fired Furnace For Residential and
Small Commercial Application, Richard C. Hill, University of Maine, 1977 Download this paper here:
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![]() Quite a bit of good practical experimental work and measurements leading to this furnace design, as well as a number of variations that did not work and why. The design shown is a water heating furnace. (Thanks to Tom for suggesting this) |
Masonry Heater Association of North
America http://www.mha-net.org/index.htm
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![]() Note that the "bookstore" at MHA offers detailed plans for 5 masonry heater designs that they have built and tested. A good sequence of pictures on
how a Masonry Heater goes together.... |
Masonry Stove Builders
http://www.heatkit.com/index.htm |
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Hybrid Masonry Stove from GeoPathfinder...
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Masonry Heaters from Gimmie Shelter http://gimmeshelteronline.com/?page_id=925
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![]() Their website section on masonry heaters provides a lot of good detail on masonry heaters, including a pretty detailed construction series. Lots of examples of heaters they have dome -- some works of art. |
Masonry Heaters: Planning Guide for Architects, Home Designers and Builders, Alex Chernov |
Lots of good detail on detail on designing, building and locating the MH. Also covers heat output from an MH and how to size the heat output to your home.
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Doug's Masonry Stove ...
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![]() It provides many of the advantages of the traditional masonry stove with less somewhat less mass, cost, and labor. See all of Doug's solar projects ... |
Building a Tiled Masonry Heater, Vladimir Popovac, Fine Homebuilding, January 1992 |
![]() These heaters provide a very clean (hot) burn and the masonry retains heat and radiates to the room for hours. |
Improving the
Efficiency of an Older Wood Burner -- Retrofitting secondary combustion and a
Catalytic Combustor
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![]() ![]() He also goes over a simple way to measure wood burner efficiency and the before and after measurements -- which lead to a substantial improvement in efficiency. All the details... |
Rocket
Stove Mass Heaters
Building Rocket Stove Mass Heaters...
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Two
Rocket Stoves from RootSimple The backyard brick version... The portable version from a 5 gallon bucket... |
![]() ![]() The stoves appear to work well, and both have good build instructions. RootSimple.com has a ton of other interesting material. |
Sawdust Burning Heater Mother Earth News Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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![]() Cautionary feedback on the sawdust heater: |
Outdoor Wood
Furnaces
http://www.vtwoodsmoke.org/index.html Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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![]() Its an appealing concept, but unfortunately the current generation of these furnaces are half as efficient and 20 times more polluting than certified indoor woodstoves. There is some effort underway to offer cleaner versions. So, if you are interested in one these, do your homework on certified versions, and think about impacts on your neighbors. |
BioMass Cooking Stoves http://www.bioenergylists.org/
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![]() "This site exists to help people develop better stoves for cooking with biomass fuels in developing regions" Especially good section on efficient stove design. |
Woodstoves for Tub Heating (or for
heating thermal storage tank?)
Chofu: supplier (one of many): Mother Earth News article: Wood-fired Hot Tub, Stocking Finding Mother Earth News articles...
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![]() It uses a simple thermosyphon system to circulate heated water (no pumps, no electricity). The full stainless steel case is a water jacket for efficient heat transfer. ![]()
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Woodstove Water Heating Coils A metal pipe loop or coil can be placed in the firebox of most woodstove and connected to a water storage tank to provide "free" hot water. "Free" is always nice, but the main thing to keep in mind for these systems safety. Steam explosions are literally like a bomb -- they can be deadly. Its very very important to do these installations safely. I strongly recommend the "Hot Water From Your Woodstove" booklet listed just below not only because it provides good information on designing and sizing a system, but also because it covers what you need to do for a safe installation. |
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Hot Water
From Your Woodstove Go to the Lehman's website for the title "Hot Water From Your Woodstove" |
![]() It has quite a bit of detail on both thermosyphon and pumped systems, including a lot of advice on troubleshooting and adjustments when things don't work quite right on the first try. It also has a lot of emphasis on safety, which is very important for these systems. |
Heating Water With a Wood Stove http://www.woodheat.org/heating-water-with-a-wood-stove.html
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![]() It also provides safety information which is MANDATORY READING for anyone adding water heating to a wood stove. |
Preheating water with a Wood Stove http://www.michigan-horse.org/preheater/
A similar arrangement from Mother Earth News: Build a Woodstove Water-Heating Attachment |
![]() Be sure to read the material on safety in the article above -- especially on placement of valves and pressure relief. There should be a pressure/temperature relief valve mounted in the line closer to the stove. |
Water
Heating Heat Exchanger Coils for Wood Stoves http://www.hilkoil.com/product.htm
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![]() Be sure to read the article just above on how to do this safely.
Installation instructions... (pdf)
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Corn Burning | |
Ontario Ministry Of Agriculture Burning Shelled Corn as a Heating Fuel
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A very good paper on the basics of burning corn as a heating fuel. Covers the equipment, process, and economics. Well written. |
Burning Shelled Corn As Fuel Penn State Agricultural and Biological Engineering http://energy.cas.psu.edu/shellcorn.html
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![]() The Penn State Extension section on shelled corn as fuel has been recently updated, and is quite helpful. |
"I Burn Corn"
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![]() Also provides a number of good links, references, and a discussion forum.
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Corn Storage, Cleaning and Burning
Pictures
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DIY Mini Corn Cleaner Plans to build the corn cleaner... |
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Yahoo Corn Fuel Group |
This is a good Yahoo discussion group for getting the latest on using corn
for heating, and for asking questions.
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BioDiesel and Waste Vegetable Oil Burning | |
Journey to Forevers's Forced-Air BioFuel Heater
More material on waste or veggie oil burning: The original Mother Earth
burner that above are based on:
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![]() Quite a bit of design information and experiences with prototypes. |
Heating with Compost While often associated with greenhouse heating, these heat from compost schemes can and have been used for space or water heating. |
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The Composting Greenhouse At New Alchemy Institute - A Report On Two Years
of Operation and Monitoring, Bruce Fulford Heating a greenhouse with compost The Report (pdf)
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![]() Two years worth of testing on design and type of compost issues. |
Heating from Large Wood Chip Compost Piles Jean Pain The Methods of Jean Pain: Or another kind of garden, Ida Pain, 1980. Mother Earth News has some articles by/on Jean Pain -- search for Jean Pain Journey To Forever on Jean Pain: A good
two part video showing details of a large compost to heat and biogas pile
and more: http://www.youtube.com/... (part 2) |
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The book covers Jean Pain's research in using compost for both
agricultural and energy production. There is some good, practical
information on building large compost piles for the production of heat for
water or space heating.
(Thanks to Curbie for finding the video!) |
Heat free (nearly) with a compost furnace http://energymd.wordpress.com/...
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![]() Marc has worked out a design that provides for aerating the pile, keeping it moist, collecting the heat, and insulating the pile for greater efficiency. More from Marc and his results for the first year of operation... |
The mb-soft compost heating schemes |
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Composting Greenhouse with Straw Bale Foundation, From Experiments in
Sustainable Urban Living
This uses surplus heat from a large compost pile under the greenhouse floor to heat water for the house. You get water heating and greenhouse space with the same structure! |
![]() The thing that intrigues me is that you can apparently have working greenhouse space above the heat generating compost pile? I'd like to hear from anyone with composting experience on how workable this all seems? Gary |