Veggie DatsunIt's raining biodiesel here at GreenOptions. While perusing the 'net the other day, I came across a worthwhile piece of programming: an eight-minute segment on making biodiesel from the Discovery Channel's Dirty Jobs series. What actually caught my eye wasn't the topic so much as the vehicle - a 1982 Datsun 720 pickup truck, the same old beast that I've run on biodiesel and converted to run on straight-vegetable oil (SVO).

If you read my Biodiesel Mythbuster, you may remember me saying that

Over time, because it's such a good solvent, biodiesel can degrade rubber fuel lines and gaskets. Most post-1990 vehicles don't have rubber lines and gaskets, but some older vehicles do. I have driven for a year now on B100 and B50 with no visible deterioration of my rubber fuel lines."

The first of the following videos provides an excellent visual depiction of where these fuel hoses are. You'll see where the rubber fuel lines have been replaced with bright yellow synthetic hose. If you ever considered buying an old diesel and 'converting' it to run on biodiesel, all you need is a screwdriver, some synthetic fuel line, and a little elbow grease.

This video is also a good intro to making homemade biodiesel. As chance would have it, Ryan (of GreenOptions) wrote an excellent introduction to making biodiesel today - check it out for more background. Without spoiling the punch-line, here are the basics: unused or recycled vegetable oil can be turned into biodiesel by reacting it with a carefully measured mixture of lye and methanol in the presence of heat. This can be done in a jar (the shake demo method), a blender (the minibatch method), a 55-gallon drum (the backyard method), or an honest-to-God biodiesel processor, like the one depicted in the video. Be aware, however, that the quality of homebrew biodiesel varies immensely and making it can be dangerous (methanol is toxic and flammable). Other than that it's great fun.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so without further ado:

Courtesy of The Biodiesel Times (April 17, 2007): How Biodiesel is made in your garage