The high cloud point of biodiesel made from tallow has been a big problem for users because it has meant that the biodiesel needs to be pre heated before it is used as a fuel. The following article reveals a big break through where an additive can significantly lower the cloud point making the biodiesel useable at temperatures as low as 21 degrees Fahrenheit.

Web exclusive posted Oct. 28, 2008 at 9:45 a.m. CST

By Ryan C. Christiansen

Researchers at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, have developed an additive that lowers the cloud point temperature for biodiesel made from animal fats, which are high in saturated fats. The additive lowers the cloud point for animal-fats-based biodiesel from 50 degrees to 21 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees to minus 6 degrees Celsius), which increases the potential for using biodiesel made from animal fats in colder climates.

The $1 million research project to develop the additive was largely funded by Meat and Livestock Australia, which provides marketing and research services to its 43,500 livestock producer members. MLA has secured a provisional patent for the technology and is partnering to commercialize the additive with The Midfield Group, an Australian meat processor, and Food Processing Equipment, an Australian food processing equipment company.

According to the MLA, the Australian industry currently produces about 600,000 metric tons of animal fats per year, which is primarily used in the manufacturing of soap and synthetic rubber. “There is a huge potential market for tallow-based [biodiesel],” said Dr. Stephen Clarke, the research team’s leader and lecturer at Flinders University’s School of Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences. “The additive that Flinders has developed removes one of the major impediments to the use of tallow-based [biodiesel].”

tallow-based biodiesel

Web exclusive posted Oct. 15, 2008 at 9:57 a.m. CST

The fourth edition of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s Biodiesel Handling and Use Guide is now available. The publication provides direction for those who blend, store, distribute, and use biodiesel and biodiesel blends.

The guide, which contains information on the proper and safe use of biodiesel products in engines and boilers, is intended to help those involved in the biodiesel industry understand procedures for handling and using biodiesel fuels.

The last edition of the guide was published in March 2006. According to Robert L. McCormick, NREL’s principal engineer for fuels performance, the new edition contains significant new information on storage stability, low temperature blending and operability, and on the new biodiesel blend specifications.

McCormick said the guide is designed primarily to benefit marketers, blenders and commercial users of biodiesel. However, private users could also find the information interesting.

The 56-page document includes basic information on biodiesel blends to B100, and the BQ-9000 program for supply chain management.

Engine warranties, taxes and incentives, safety, health and environmental issues are also covered. The document can be downloaded from the NREL Web site, www.nrel.gov/vehiclesandfuels/npbf/feature_guidelines.html.

Adding Value to Biofuel Waste

What do you get when you cross E. coli with biofuel waste products?  A new process that may revolutionize the economic development of the growing biofuel industry.

Biofuels represent the best sustainable, secure, and renewable alternative to fossil fuels. Unfortunately, biofuel production is beset by the same problem as traditional petroleum refining – excess waste. In traditional refining, only about 60 percent of the crude oil becomes gasoline, the rest is used to make other products. Similarly, as biofuel production increases, the market is being flooded with its waste byproducts, specifically glycerin, also known as glycerol.

Glycerin is cheap and abundant in the current marketplace. Although there are many potential uses for the substance, it is difficult to break it down into products with greater economic value.

With funding from USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES), Ramon Gonzalez and William Akers at Rice University developed a new fermentation process that uses E. coli to convert glycerin into high-value chemicals, like succinate.

Succinate and its derivatives have an annual domestic market of more than $1.3 billion. Succinate is used in a variety of products including flavoring agent in food and beverages, an intermediate compound for dyes and perfumes, and medical applications. Another product, formate, is principally used as a preservative and antibacterial agent in livestock feed.

Most of the waste glycerin comes from the production of biodiesel, one of the two types of biofuels (the other being ethanol). Biodiesel is converted from a variety of oils, including rapeseed and soybean oils, mustard, flax, sunflower, and palm oil, waste vegetable oil, animal fat oil, and algae.

About one pound of glycerin is produced for every 10 pounds of biodiesel. According to the National Biodiesel Board, U.S. companies produced about 450 million gallons of biodiesel in 2007. With 60 new plants capable of producing 1.2 billion gallons of biofuel slated for operation by 2010, an answer to the glycerin question cannot come soon enough.

"Biodiesel producers used to sell their leftover glycerin, but the rapid increase in biodiesel production has left them paying to get rid of it," Gonzalez said. "The new metabolic pathways we have uncovered pave the way for the development of new technologies to convert this waste product into high-value chemicals."

Technologies based on Gonzalez's work have been licensed to Glycos Biotechnologies Inc., a Houston-based startup company that plans to open its first demonstration facility within the next 12 months.

The research team is now working to further understand the biochemical pathways used by the organism to break down the glycerol so new organisms can be engineered for the production of fuels and other chemicals from glycerol.

"Our goal goes beyond using this discovery for a single process," Gonzalez said. "We want to use the technology as a platform for the 'green' production of a whole range of high-value products."

CSREES funded this research project through the National Research Initiative Biobased Products and Bioenergy Production Research program. Through federal funding and leadership for research, education and extension programs, CSREES focuses on investing in science and solving critical issues that affect people’s daily lives and the nation’s future. For more information, visit www.csrees.usda.gov.

Media Contact:
Jennifer Martin, (202) 720-8188

By Stacy Kish, CSREES Staff
October 20, 2008

Soybeans, coconuts to power jets WASHINGTON: Scientists in the US have turned oil from plants like soybeans and coconuts into jet fuel that is equivalent to kerosene derived from oil. According to a report in the Scientific American, working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), scientists at the Energy and Environmental Research Center (EERC) at the University of North Dakota turned these plant oils into fuel that had a similar density, energy content and even freezing point. "It's got a freeze point of –47 degrees Celsius (–52.6 degrees Fahrenheit). Anyone familiar with biodiesel can tell you that's no small feat," said chemical engineer Chad Wocken, EERC environmental technologies research manager. "It's processed so that it contains only the same hydrocarbon molecules present in petroleum fuel," he added. Wocken said that the process is thermocatalytic. In other words, the engineers heat the plant oils in the presence of an undisclosed catalyst to create a slew of petroleum products. In fact, the process is not unlike conventional oil refining in that it produces everything from the kerosene used as aviation fuel to regular gasoline. "The processing costs would be similar and comparable to petroleum oil refining, and perhaps even less expensive, because you're not dealing with contaminants like sulfur," said Wocken. Of course, the biofuel's ultimate price tag is yet to be determined as only "gallons" of it have been brewed compared with the more than 60 million gallons (225 million liters) of jet fuel consumed daily in the U.S. But, it will in large part depend on the price to grow the crops themselves. All have been fluctuating in recent months due to newly volatile global commodity markets. Virgin Atlantic has flown a jumbo jet on a combination of conventional jet fuel and biofuel made from palm oil, and a jet powered solely by biodiesel has stayed aloft for more than 30 minutes-albeit with a special device to keep its fuel from freezing at high altitude.

source

Creating biodiesel from seaweed is the latest way in the quest to find alternative feedstock for making biodiesel. It also helps overcome the myth that biodiesel from food sources is forcing up food prices. Read more about this below.

All it takes to get on the road to making your homemade biodiesel is a strong desire and the motivation to find a source of used cooking oil and the equipment to process it into biodiesel. The rest is easy when you know how.

Midland man uses do-it-yourself device for biodiesel

High gas prices lead Matt Nelson into great idea.

by Courtney Bacalso
Midland Reporter-Telegram

Matt Nelson lives contrary to his career. The independent Midland landman hasn't really been thinking much about petroleum outside of his day job.

Instead, the 28-year-old has grown to be more green conscious -- using homemade biodiesel to fuel his Chevy Silverado truck, instead of the stuff he spends hours researching and negotiating leases for all day.

"With the gas prices so high, I just wanted to save money," he said. "I do get some flack about it since I work in the oil industry."

Nelson spent at least $600 a month for diesel fuel until he started using his own concoction -- researched thoroughly with the help of the Internet.

He always thought it was a great idea, but he never acted on it until a few months ago. He was driving around town when he suddenly decided to stop at a local restaurant -- whose name Nelson wouldn't disclose. Biodiesel homemakers keep their suppliers a secret to protect their stock.

"The restaurants were happy to give the used oil to me for free," Nelson said. "It saves them money too, because they do not have to pay to dispose of it."

He provided them with a 50-gallon container, which usually takes the cooks about two weeks to fill up. When Nelson picks up the containers, he swaps it for another one.

And then it's off to his laboratory -- the side of his parents' house -- to put the vegetable oil through his homemade processor.

His device -- comprised of a water heater, valves and pipes placed atop a thick wooden platform -- cost him $600 to make. But Nelson said if people look hard enough, they could probably find the parts for free.

"I wouldn't recommend it though," he said. "It's better to get it brand new."

Right beside it are the chemicals needed to clean the used oil: lye and isopropanol.

The whole process takes 24 hours to do 50 gallons. Of that at least 1 1/2 hours is needed of Nielson's time, he said.

Instead of $4.75 a gallon for diesel, Nelson now pays 40 cents to a gallon for biodiesel.

And his truck still runs just the same, he said.

"Actually, I think it runs better," he said. "The vegetable oil actually helps lubricate the engine which makes it last longer."

The only downside to biodiesel is in the winter when the temperature drops to 30 degrees. The vegetable oil can freeze easily. And when it does, you just have to mix in real diesel fuel with the vegetable oil, he said.

And since he is his sole supplier, traveling great distances can be challenging.

"The solution to that is to figure out how to put an extra tank in my truck bed," he said smiling. "Either way, I'm saving so much more."

Courtney Bacalso can be reached at c.bacalso@mrt.com.

As a maker of homemade biodiesel I have noticed that it is becoming increasingly hard to find supplies of used cooking oil at a reasonable price.  Competition for the commodity is growing rapidly leading to a rapid increase in its cost. Gone are the days when you could get it for free. Thieves are taking advantage of used cooking oil too, mainly because it is not hard to find buyers who will pay a high price. The following article illustrates this well.

Dirty greasy money

Toronto — Vern McArthur was driving his unmarked van through Toronto's back alleys last month, vacuuming out 55-gallon drums of used fryer grease.

But when Mr. McArthur, the owner of VMC Disposal Services of Halton, stopped for a regular pickup at a downtown diner, the containers were mysteriously missing, with only a trail of grease covering the nearby pavement.

The grease bandits had struck again. Days later, the containers were found in a back alley two blocks away, where thieves had evidently stashed them before siphoning out more than 400 litres.

“I see it all the time now,” said Mr. McArthur, the latest entrepreneur to smell eco-profit in the dirty business of grease collection. “Thieves are beating us to a lot of our grease. We're showing up and they're empty.”

On the surface, it might seem absurd: Grease is waste, not liquid gold. But, increasingly, grease is the word: Processed fryer oil, commonly known as yellow grease or waste vegetable oil, has grown valuable in a world desperately searching for fuel alternatives. Its value has doubled in the past year, driven by the ever-escalating price of oil, making it a popular form of biodiesel to fuel vehicles.

In Toronto, the grease industry is thriving like nowhere else in Canada, Mr. McArthur said, because of the competition from biodiesel startups and the high number of restaurants in the city.

There are at least 10 companies fighting with each other to get contracts with restaurants for their waste oil, and more grease-collecting biodiesel startups coming on board each month, he said. In Western Canada, by contrast, one company owns virtually the entire market.

The demand for grease is also driving collection companies to new ends to win over businesses and smother competition.

“It's cutthroat out there,” Mr. McArthur said. “I'm afraid I'm going to show up at one of my restaurants and there's going to be cement in my barrels.”

Restaurant grease is another trash-turned-treasure in Canada's thriving underworld economy.

Recently, manhole covers have been pried off the holes with picks or crowbars, then allegedly resold for scrap metal. Toronto's enterprising metal thieves have been reselling copper wire to scrap-metal yards for decades.

The grease industry, an offshoot of the rendering and biodiesel industries, has become so competitive that all the major local grease-collection companies complain of a spate of used-cooking-oil heists from their waste-oil containers. Mr. McArthur suspects that the thefts may be coming from black-marketeers or a minority of drivers who use filtered grease to fuel their converted biodiesel vehicles.

There are a growing number of such do-it-yourself environmentalists getting into the grease game: Anyone with a diesel vehicle can buy kits on the Internet, starting at around $1,000, to convert their engines to run on filtered fryer oil.

Jim Long is vice-president of rendering for Rothsay Biodiesel, a subsidiary of Maple Leaf Foods, one of Toronto's main grease collectors, with contracts for major fast-food chains and restaurants. He said the company has “several” investigations under way and has retained the services of a private surveillance team to find the thieves in some of the grease dumpsters hit most often.

“There has been a noticeable impact [on] volume,” Mr. Long said. “Theft of any kind will not be tolerated, and we continue to investigate incidents and work with the authorities. … Thieves are not only stealing from the approved service provider but also from the restaurant owner.”

Yellow grease comes from soy oil, canola oil and other oils used for cooking. In the past, its value has been as an additive to help manufacture soap, makeup, clothing, rubber and detergents. But its main use, historically, has been as a livestock-feed additive because it makes the food less dusty and more appetizing for farm animals.

In 2000, yellow grease was trading for around seven cents a pound. Last week, its price was more than 39 cents a pound, or around $3.60 (U.S.) a gallon. In Canada, that amounts to around $1 a litre. That would make the 5,000-gallon haul from a fast-food court, for instance, worth around $18,000 if the grease were pure. Even one of Mr. McArthur's 55-gallon drums would likely net $200 or more.

In this lucrative market, grease-collection companies are doing their best to stifle competition.

Last year, just after Mr. McArthur made his move into the grease market, his phone rang. The call was from another grease-collection company and the message was clear: Watch your back.

“They asked what I thought I was doing treading on their territory,” Mr. McArthur said. “They told me, plain and simple: ‘We're out to get you. You won't survive.' ”

The owner of another Toronto-based grease-collection start-up, who asked to remain anonymous, said he believes that he has been targeted by other companies since entering the industry. He converts the grease to biodiesel at home. His efforts to get oil have been stifled by other companies. In mid-July, he scoured downtown Toronto for restaurants willing to give him their oil. Within a day of striking deals with some family restaurants, a second company had moved in, paying as much as $45 per barrel, effectively pricing him out of the market.

But he has adapted. He said he has been stealing business away from other companies by intercepting the waste oil before it gets dumped in their containers. There's a loophole in contracts signed with restaurants, he said, so he has struck side deals with owners to get the grease in what he considers a “legal” way.

“It's not theirs until it gets into the collection bins,” he said. “The gloves are off, all bets are off, they'd have no problem slitting my throat, metaphorically speaking, for the grease, so I have to do what I can.”

Mr. Long, though, balked at that practice and said it's an example of another unregulated company capitalizing on the hot market. They'll soon fizzle out, he said.

“I don't think companies like that are going to last,” he said. “Our expectation is that when the markets recede, which they have historically done in the past, we will see a decline in the number of smaller collectors.”

Toronto's big grease players deny trying to intimidate smaller start-ups. Joel Ste-Marie, the vice-president of restaurant services for Montreal-based Sanimax, which owns a large share of the Toronto market, converting grease to biodiesel, animal feed and soap, admits that the business is becoming increasingly competitive, but he said his company has not changed its practices.

“A lot of these new companies are taking a street-fighting-type approach,” he said. “The competition is putting pressure on the industry, but we're not doing anything different out there.”

Mr. Ste-Marie said the company has considered several options to deal with increased theft. But it is nearly impossible to prove, barring setting up cameras in back alleys, staking out fried-chicken restaurants at 4 a.m. or hiring a private investigator.

Those on the front lines said restaurant owners are still amenable, for the most part. Chantale Doyle, a long-time waste-vegetable-oil driver from Toronto, who recently drove her Volkswagen van across North America on biofuel, said she has not experienced much resistance from restaurants, which are usually happy to get rid of their grease.

“When I have been turned down, it is usually because the person who collected the grease before me left a mess at the grease dumpster,” she said.

Restaurateurs, for their part, have noticed the increased competition. Rob Erlich, co-owner of Toronto's Duff's Famous Wings, said he switched companies last month to a local start-up biodiesel firm. Grease was being spilled over the back alley because the previous company was neglecting the drums.

The new company pays him by the litre for the oil. His two Duff's Wings locations, one on Bayview Avenue and the other on College Street, create some of the most sought-after grease in the city because of the high-quality oil they use, Mr. McArthur said. Mr. Erlich estimated that they create 1,400 litres of used cooking oil each week and require frequent pickup.

Mr. McArthur is stockpiling the oil, removing excess water and gunk, turning it into biodiesel, and beginning to sell it to farmers and agricultural firms who use it to fuel their tractors. He has had inquires from companies in Pakistan, India and Africa, which are scouring the globe for bulk yellow-grease supply. The grease can also be sold on Internet trading websites, he noted.

Some companies, such as Mr. McArthur's, don't pay restaurant owners for the grease, but play up the environmental benefits of using it for biofuel. That's changing, however. Two years ago, restaurants paid to have their grease hauled away, but most companies now offer them five to 10 cents a litre for it. Earlier this year, Mr. McArthur said, a Toronto restaurant-chain owner looking to capitalize on the grease market began attempting to process the oil at his uncle's farm, then sell it to biodiesel firms in bulk. A week later, the owner called him back.

“He just couldn't handle the smell,” Mr. McArthur said. “At the end of the day, you're covered in grease and you can't get rid of the smell of French fries. … It's a disgusting business, it really is.”

Posted by John Davis

With the price of gas rapidly rising and with no end in sight there is a dire need for a solution. Hopes are high that the common Algae plant could provide the answer. Reseachers are making headway in converting algae into biodiesel and with predictions that biodiesel couild be produced for as little as $2 a gallon relief could be in sight. The following article explains why. A blooming solution to gas crisis? An Anoka company turns algae into biodiesel fuel. By PAUL LEVY, Star Tribune A solution to $4-a-gallon gas could be floating in your neighborhood pond. Algae -- that green, oil-saturated substance that can double in size overnight and is ever-present in this land of 10,000 lakes -- is being touted in an Anoka lab as a potential answer to the fuel crisis. Scientist Clayton McNeff says algae-based biodiesel fuel can be sold for $2 a gallon. Mark Rasmussen, a microbiologist who works for McNeff's SarTec Corp. in Anoka, says algae's potential is vast. Using just 3 percent of our current crop land, algae could be used to produce 63 billion gallons of the diesel fuel currently used annually in the United States, he said. More than 35 countries have contacted SarTec, asking how they, too, can capitalize on this algae-based formula that was developed, in part, by an Augsburg College student, who explained the process to Congress in the spring. SarTec's owners are so dedicated to this algae formula that they will open a two-towered fuel producing plant, to be called Ever Cat Fuels, in Isanti in October. But the algae formula also has provided fuel for skeptics. "Algae will grow faster than a forest or a cornfield, but how much of it is actually available?" asked Lanny Schmidt, University of Minnesota Regents professor in chemical engineering and materials science. "I know about algae and I think it's great stuff, but there's a lot of chemical engineering that goes on before algae can be converted to fuel. And if you can't produce it for less than $3 a gallon, will people be interested?" Schmidt has been a critic, yet admits he is "captivated" by algae's possibilities and says "our nation needs to support stuff like this." The attraction of this green plant goes beyond going green to collecting green. Because it isn't a food-producing crop, algae generally wins high praise, particularly from critics of corn- and soy-based fuels. And while an acre of soybeans will produce only 70 gallons of biodiesel fuel, an acre of algae can produce up to 1,200 gallons, said McNeff. Other reports say as many as 9,000 gallons can be produced. The genesis of the idea The genesis for this potentially revolutionary fuel formula began with an Augsburg College research project two years ago. Student Brian Krohn asked his adviser, Arlin Gyberg, if he could research making biodiesel from waste cooking oil. Krohn found that using solid acids as catalysts could convert plant oil to biodiesel, said Gyberg, now in his 42nd year at Augsburg. When Krohn's initial experiments failed, he realized that much of the technology used to convert plant oil to fuels was developed before World War II. Enter McNeff, who grew up in Wayzata and whose dad, Larry McNeff, was a longtime Cargill employee. Twenty-five years ago, Larry and Marie McNeff decided to start their own plant, which develops yucca plant-based natural products. Young Clayton, an only child, was 14 when he began working for the family company. "I loved the work ethic I saw in my parents," Clayton McNeff said at the plant, where his parents are found most days with 40 other employees. "You couldn't help but being absorbed by what was being done here. I fell in love with science." So much so that he became a world-renowned expert on zirconia, the metal oxide of zirconium. Krohn recalled how six years ago, McNeff had given a seminar on zirconium, which McNeff says is a "catalyst that can speed up chemical processes by thousands of times." Krohn, who is currently vacationing in Greece, and Gyberg visited McNeff at SarTec, where they and SarTec scientist Bingwen Yan developed what they call the Mcgyan Biodiesel Process (named after McNeff, Gyberg and Yan). Here, in simplest form, is how it works: Start with an oil or fat -- from pine trees, hamburger grease, French fries, algae, almost anything. The oil or fat is combined with an alcohol. The mixture is then pumped through a tube filled with a catalyst -- in this case, zirconia. The end result is a liquid that's about 60 percent alcohol and 40 percent fuel. "We're using zirconia to separate the compounds," McNeff said. "But in separation science, you don't want to change the molecule you are trying to analyze. You do not want things to react in separation science. " The companies and countries that have contacted SarTec love the process because, McNeff says, it can be cost-effective and environmentally friendly -- and it's portable. On the parking lot outside SarTec's Anoka office are four trailers. In each are homemade contraptions that take algae through the process of becoming fuel. When prospective clients see the trailers, they realize how quickly and efficiently a makeshift plant could be set up. To scientists and academics such as Schmidt, it all makes sense. "Algae's a hot topic right now," he said from his University of Minnesota office. "We need a next generation of biofuels. "Nobody knows if these things are going to work, but that's the way it should be. We need radically new fuels. So we've got to keep on hunting." 'An innovative process' In the SarTec plant, Rasmussen stood over two vats of homegrown algae. Converting the green stuff into fuel is a lot like growing bushels of tomatoes and converting them into sauce. Just as it takes a ridiculous amount of tomatoes to make a jar of sauce, it takes a lot of algae to produce the hardened algae flakes from which oil is extracted. It's worth the effort, said Douglas Root, a senior scientist of biomass and renewable products technologies with the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute in Marshall, Minn. "All biodiesel fuel fans should be watching with high hopes," he said of the new Ever Cats Fuels in Isanti. "I think Dr. McNeff and the SarTec team have discovered an innovative process for producing biodiesel." McNeff is confident that the Ever Cats Fuel plant will produce 30 million gallons of biodiesel fuel within three to five years. For his family, the past two years -- since the advent of the Mcgyan Process -- have been a whirlwind. "But think about the 1970s, when there was a gas shortage and people panicked at the pumps," said Larry McNeff. "Then, once the lines at the gas pumps went away, people forgot about the crisis. But that was the time that something should have been done. "This is the time for this." Paul Levy • 612-673-4419

I think with rising fuel costs we are going to witness a huge surge in home brewed biodiesel mainly because it costs a minimal amount to manufacture as the article below explains.

Gabe Schwartzman, a tall, lanky high school senior, can fill up the tank of his 1980 Volvo sedan for less than $20.

And he's happy to share his secret: "I take what would be thrown away and turn it into fuel."

Over the last several months, Gabe has been hunkered down in the basement of his parents' suburban Maryland home, converting used fryer oil from a restaurant up the street into fuel for his car.

Brewing biodiesel, once a quaint hobby for green-minded citizens and budding chemists, is becoming more mainstream. The spike in gas prices is making fryer oil, the messy aftermath of super spuds and mozzarella sticks, a hot commodity. It has even spawned a crime wave. Law enforcement officials have reported a surge in fryer oil thefts. Officials suspect the culprits are finding a ready market for the waste oil.

"It's the cool fuel," said Montgomery County (Md.) Councilman George Leventhal, D-At Large, a biodiesel enthusiast. "Just think: You can turn bacon grease into fuel to drive a tractor."

Biodiesel is an alternative fuel made from combining vegetable oils or animal fats with other substances, most commonly lye and methanol. It can be used on its own or mixed with regular diesel fuel to power any vehicle that runs on diesel. Although the fuel is nontoxic, the chemicals used to produce it can cause nerve damage and even blindness if handled improperly.

Environmentalists like biodiesel because it burns cleaner and because some versions recycle what is essentially a waste product. A study conducted by the Department of Energy and the Department of Agriculture found that using biodiesel in place of diesel reduces carbon dioxide emissions by 78 percent.

According to Joe Jobe, chief executive of the National Biodiesel Board, about 500,000 gallons of biodiesel were sold in 1999 by commercial producers nationwide; in 2006, 500 million gallons were sold. But it is still a tiny part of the fuel market. In 2007, U.S. consumers used more than 142 billion gallons of gasoline.

There are no official statistics on the number of home brewers. About two years ago, Graydon Blair, a home brewer who sells biodiesel brewing supplies online, did his own survey and estimated there were about 20,000. With the spike in diesel prices in March, he expects that number to grow.

Before, his customers were "hippies and greenies," said Blair, president of Utah Biodiesel Supply. Now they're "desperate business owners — mom-and-pop operations who are dying with all these fuel increases."

Lately, Dan Goodman, a senior fellow for renewable energy at the University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business, has fielded calls daily from people seeking information on making biodiesel. Goodman is head of Biodiesel University, a mobile education lab aimed at getting students interested in science.

Goodman cautioned that making biodiesel can be time-consuming and tricky. He said it's critical for home brewers to do their homework and take safety precautions.

Gabe, who said he spends 50 cents to $1 to make a gallon of biodiesel, spent several months poring over "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank," a book some call the brewer's bible, before attempting his first batch.

Finding used fryer oil, however, was trickier than he expected. Local restaurant owners weren't quite sure what to make of the lanky, long-haired teen when he showed up offering to cart away their used fryer oil for free.

"I got a lot of weird looks," Gabe said.

Eventually he struck a deal with a local restaurant Red Ginger specializing in Chinese food. Every couple of weeks, Gabe carts away up to a half-dozen five-gallon containers of used oil.

In his basement "laboratory," Gabe, clad in a rubber apron, apologized for the sticky floor, explaining that while biodiesel is a clean-burning product, its processing is quite messy. Of the three main ingredients Gabe uses, lye burns the skin on contact, and methanol can cause nerve damage if absorbed through the skin or blindness if it gets into the eyes. Gabe always wears goggles and keeps a fire extinguisher close by.

"It comes with all the glop — whether it's peanut sauce or chicken," Gabe said as he used what looked like a giant turkey baster and a pair of pantyhose to separate out chicken pieces and stray cashews. The next step was to make a test mixture. Because each batch of oil is different, depending on what it was used to fry and how long it was in service, the amounts of lye and methanol must be calculated each time.

Once that was done, it was time to brew. Gabe added a mixture of lye and methanol to the used oil. Then he attached a super-sized version of a hand blender, flicked it on and stood back. At the beginning, it looked like brown gravy. After about 15 minutes, it darkened to resemble chocolate sauce; after a few more minutes, it took on a reddish tint and smelled of chemicals.

Gabe poured it into a holding container, where it sat for several hours. Eventually, the biodiesel rises to the top, and glycerol sinks to the bottom. The glycerol is drained, and the biodiesel is rinsed with water. When ready, what was once gloppy brown oil is a clear, amber-colored liquid.

The real test comes each time Gabe fills his tank. Even though he has completed several batches, he still admits being a little nervous when filling his gas tank.

"The first time I tried it, I messed up terribly and ended up with a giant vat of soap," Gabe confessed, noting that glycerin, the main ingredient in soap, is a byproduct of the brewing process. "Really, really greasy soap."

He pried open the tank cover and poured the home brew into the car.

He climbed into the driver's seat and turned the key. The car slowly rumbled to a start and promptly spit out a sizable cloud of exhaust. He hit the clutch, shifted into first, and his green Volvo chugged away, leaving the unmistakable scent of fried egg rolls in its wake.