Calculating Savings with Biodiesel

Part of the Video Series All About Biodiesel

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Biodiesel fuel, even if you're making it yourself, can save you money down the line; learn how to calculate savings with tips from our biodiesel expert in this free alternative-fuel use video.

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Video Transcript

Calculating Savings with Biodiesel
GRAYDON BLAIR: My name is Graydon Blair from Utah Biodiesel Supply, and on behalf of Expert Village, it's time to figure out how much making biodiesel really is costing us. To do that, we're going to calculate something using an ROI analysis, is what I call it. First thing we want to do is figure out how much each of the quantities are costing us. First of all, we start out with our methanol. In an example that I did, my methanol was running three dollars a gallon. I had a 50-gallon batch, so $50 or $30 for my methanol. That came up to 60 cents per gallon. The next thing is my catalyst. Remember I used lye, I used potassium hydroxide. It was $65 for a 50-pound bag which came up to about $6.96 per batch, 50-gallon batch, or 14 cents a gallon. Our next one is electricity. You got to heat it somehow and electricity is the best way to do it. We used 25-kilowat hours at 10 cents a kilowatt. I figured it was going to take 25 so it cost me two $2.50 for that batch, came out at five cents a gallon. Next one, in one of the processes, an advanced topic of biodiesel is using sulfuring acid. I used that and so it ran me about five cents a gallon to do my sulfuric acid. Water, because we have to wash it. It's going to run me about a cent a gallon. I add all of that up together and that equaled 85 cents a gallon. So, to make this biodiesel, it cost me 85 cents a gallon. That's how you calculate your ROI or your return on investment. You figure out how much it cost your equipment and then you add all these together and find out how many gallons you've got to make to get your money back. By the way, it's not much.

About the Expert

Expert: Craydon Blair has been involved in producing biodiesel since 2003. Read More