One of the largest challenges facing biodiesel producers is finding affordable and reliable sources of feed-stock and alleviating our time to collect our feed-stock. Many homebrewers are using WVO (waste vegetable oil) as an affordable option. Feedstock currently looks to be one of the largest challenges at this time in this industry. I have placed together some ideas for homebrewers to simplify collection of WVO after securing there suppliers.
It is helpful to keep at least two 275 gallon totes available for storage, one for used WVO, the other for Biodiesel. The totes can be picked up at reasonable prices from as low as FREE up to around $200.00. I have a truck so transporting these totes if needed is not a problem, if you have a car it maybe difficult unless you have a trailer (or a friend with a truck). After negotiating with the oil owners (please don't steal oil - dumbster diving is illegal) you can leave a 55 gallon barrel with a collection lid (www.b100supply.com) that closes to make it easier for restaurants to drain the oil into the drum and deter vandalism. It maybe in your best interest to label the barrels with your contact info and what is inside the barrel such as these labels (www.ebay.com). Leave the 55 gallon labeled barrel at the location until about 75% full. Then use another closed top 55 gallon barrel with a pneumatic Vacuum/Pump such as (www.fillmorefuels.com) to vacuum out the used oil. After you fill-up the 55 gallon vacuum barrel, use the pump feature to pump the WVO into your 275 gallon tote.
This is a very effective system and will save you many hours of labor. You can easily drive-up behind a restaurant and suck up a full 55 gallon barrel and be on your way in less than five minutes. A list of effective equipment is: (1) pneumatic Vacuum/Pump, (1) closed top 55 gallon drum, (1) air compressor, and as many barrels as you can find restaurants for. This system is well worth the investment due to the time and energy saved. With the price of fuel going up WVO prices are going up. This system can easily turn a profit in a short amount of time. For example if petro diesel is going for over $3.30, high quality WVO could easily sell for almost $2. That could provide you with almost a $110 for every 55 gallon barrel you collect. When you get a couple of barrels in a day, say for example 5 barrels (275 gallons) the potential to make over $550 dollars for less than a days worth of work is very likely not to mention if the price of petro diesel goes up.
I am currious what other systems people have in place that could help save time and money. If you have a better system for the smaller collector of WVO please let me know. I would like to know what others are using. I have not been to happy with using smaller jugs such as 5 gallon buckets but I guess it is a cheaper solution if you don't need to collect that much oil. I have come to the conclusion it is more cost efficient if you can collect at least 55 gallons at a time and reduce the amount of trips between collection intervals, not to mention more professional looking.
