Anything is possible if you throw enough money at it.
Practicality is another issue entirely.

Biodiesel is a substitute for regular diesel. It only works in diesel engines. If you have a diesel mower (which I doubt because if you did, you would have called it a tractor), it should work.

-Deerslayer

You are correct I do not have a diesel. I'll have to check out Diesel powered mowers and see if it makes sense. I would like to use less fossil fuels to take care of my five acres. I mow about 3 hours a week.

Thanks,
jb

If you are spending 3 hours in the seat weekly, I suggest you check out the Kubota 2100. Here's a link:

Kubota 2000/2100

The 2000 is gas the 2100 is diesel.

-Deerslayer

One more thing, if you are considering purchasing a new diesel tractor, ask your dealer if running biodiesel affects the warranty.

-Deerslayer

If biodiesel was even close to being economical the trucking industry would be all over it, and the supply exhausted in days.

Giventake, biodiesel is very economical but it's not currently available in the quantities needed by truckers.

Many people that use biodiesel get it directly from restaurants at little or no cost. They simply filter the used fryer oil and viola...they have biodiesel!

The only downside to "fryer oil" biodiesel is that your tractor exhaust will smell like french fries!

-Deerslayer

Here's an article if you think I'm "pulling your leg".

Fill It Up!

-Deerslayer

Alternative energy technology has been along time. 60 Min's" This past Sun. showed how to compress coal, as fuel. but the laws of supply/demand are very real. That's the main reason we are stuck using fossil fuel. Like 'Woodsrunner" said IF you throw enough money at it. That lawn tractor could burn chicken poop. It's just not practical.

To be more accurate i should have said 'stuck' with petrolem based fuel. Also diesel fuel injectors are very sinsative to clean fuel.

Giventake, a very simple way to convert a garden tractor to biodiesel is to add a biodiesel tank. You'll also need shutoff valves on the regular diesel and biodiesel tanks. Start the tractor with regular diesel. After the engine is warm, switch the valves to biodiesel...this can be fryer oil. As I said earlier, it must be filtered.

Do you know that the first diesel engine invented by Rudolph Diesel ran on peanut oil?

Please do some homework before you spew your "knowledge".

-Deerslayer

deerslayer what home work are you refering too? AS for my study's its not pratical to use biodiesel. Do you have a name of someone that makes a biodiesel tank for a lawn tractor? Have you seen one in operation? Seems like someone with your vast knowledge" would enlighten some of the major OPE manf. your vast knowledge, you spout off about triva BS and make it sould like you know some kind of great deal. I can't put it much plainer the technolgy has been around for years,,,,,,you sound like your the first person to hear of it?

Giventake, I'll be happy to support my statements if you support yours.

I first learned about biodiesel while studying mechanical engineering in the 1970s at the University of Illinois.

Here's a recent article that supports much of what I said:

Biodiesel Article

If you add some chemicals and process the fryer oil as the article indicates, you can run biodiesel without dual tanks and without the regular diesel warm-up that I recommended.

I am anxiously awaiting your supporting references.

-Deerslayer

Deerslayer whats you point ? The only thing i made a reference to was that biodiesel wasn't pratical. i think the free market trade has made that obvious.....give it up, or bring your product online and i will convert every petro burning device i own.....Thanks and hurry !!!

Giventake, I agree that your original point was that biodiesel wasn't practical. Later, you also mentioned watching 60 Minutes, that it showed how to compress coal, and running your engine on chicken poop. These are not convincing arguements to me.

I'm saying that biodiesel is practical ... particularly if you collect the spent oil yourself and you are concerned about the environment. Even if you don't want to DIY or give a sh*t about the environment. It costs about the same as regular diesel today.

Remember that the title of this thread is "BioDiesel in my riding mower". There is plenty of biodiesel available for diesel lawn mowers. You're the one that brought up trucks.

Do you have a short attention span?

-Deerslayer

deerslayer-your shot at giventake seemed to be out of the blue. It wasn't clear which of his statements your were attacking. IMHO, one man's "practical" is another man's "pie in the sky".

I think the term biodiesel is construed differently by different people. Some use it to refer only to fryer oil, which has been available free; that is great while it lasts, but when enough people convert, it will approach petrodiesel in price. I'll make a wild guess that all the used cooking oil would only replace a few percent of the petrodiesel, but every little bit helps.

Lot of misinformation washing around this site.

To most of the alternative fuel community, as well as the DOE and EPA, Biodiesel refers to an animal or vegetable oil which has been modified through a process of tranesterification. This means that the triglycerides in the oil are converted to methyl and ethyl esters and glycerine. Methanol and caustic (NaOH or KOH) are the two agents used to cook the raw oil. The glycerine is filtered out and the resulting fuel is Biodiesel B100. It can then be cut with differing percentages of petroleum diesel to create B85, B15, etc.

Filtered, used oil is known as WVO (waste vegetable oil). Some people will burn it using dual tank systems, but a flushing runout of 15 minutes with diesel is normally required. WVO has a gel point of about 40F, and failure to flush usually results in a full fuel system teardown. In colder climes a tank heater, and possibly a fuel line heater are required. Pure, unaltered vegetable oil will also coke injectors if not flushed due to heat soak back. Almost everyone else uses Biodiesel.

Although everything in my shed is currently gasoline powered, my current truck is an F350 with a Powerstroke. This is also my fourth diesel vehicle. Biodiesel is permitted by Ford (IHC), GM (Duramax), and Chrysler (Cummins) and will not affect warranty. The use of WVO, on the other hand, will almost certainly give the manufacturers a reason to void warranty.

To make Biodiesel you need about $1000 investment in a reactor, filters, pumps, etc. Assuming you can get get waste oil free, the chemicals (methanol and NaOH) will cost you about $0.50 a gallon, plus your time and labor. Commercial Biodiesel typically retails at a premium to petro diesel and usually moves in lock-step pricing.

Ggoyeneche, you sound both knowledgeable and experienced. Here's a definition of biodiesel from Wikpedia:

Biodiesel refers to any diesel-equivalent biofuel usually made of vegetable oils or animal fats. Several different kinds of fuels are called biodiesel: usually biodiesel refers to an ester, or an oxygenate, made from the oil and methanol, but alkane (non-oxygenate) biodiesel, that is, biomass-to-liquid (BTL) fuel is also available. Sometimes even unrefined vegetable oil is called "biodiesel".

You made a good point when you wrote that "true" biodiesel is refined and WVO is not. I think that I confused the issue when I injected WVO into the discussion.

Giventake also made a good point when he wrote "If biodiesel was even close to being economical the trucking industry would be all over it". Check out this site (the movie takes awhile to load).

BioTrucker

Biodiesel is clearly a practical alternative to petro diesel. Wide availability is still an issue but that is slowly changing. At last count, there were 119 gas stations in Illinois that sell biodiesel.

-Deerslayer

seems to me that since its a "gas" motor it would be more logical to figure out how to make it run on E85.

BioDeisel is still very much in its infancy, even if it has , in a way, been around since day one.
Its all economics, I do not know the true cost - the proponents tend to "stretch the truth", sometimes even saying " its free" ! The distractors will just look at the worse case scenarios and not even try to seek the truth - which is so damn elusive !
For our nation to survive we must advance, must develop newer technologies including bio-Diesel, nuclear, wind and solar, and conservation.
We are just scratching the surface,IMO, in all of these.
There is a ton of discussion in the Mercedes and VW TDI forums about the use of grown energy(rapeseed oil, peanut oil, soy oil, others).
Right now, I believe these oils can compete against dino-oil on the economical level.
Filters will have to be better/different, heaters may have to be used.
Blends are available now, but only in some places - for now..
If it is true that we are finally running out of "cheap" dino oil, then we must convert- the drilled oil from the earth will just continue to become more expensive, while the "grown fuel" price should slowly drop..

Briggs allows use of E10 in their engines without modification. Has slightly higher octane, which doesn't do anything as these are already low compression engines. E10 has less heat (BTU's) than gasoline, so you'll get poorer fuel economy (maybe 5%-10%).

Briggs specifically does not recommend E85 and states usage could be grounds for warranty denial. To run E85 you would need to rejet carburetor (richer) and replace all elastomers (rubbers) and plastics in the fuel system. Ideally, you would also want to raise compression ratio by milling head or replacing piston with some type of pop-up. Also, advancing ignition 3 to 5 degrees would be necessary.

If you do all of this correctly, you should be able to run E85 with as much or more horsepower than stock. You will own a highly modified engine which means no warranty. Also, your per gallon fuel economy will be down approximately 35% due to the much lower heat content of ethanol. Actual thermal efficiency should be about same as gasoline engine.

Going a step further, I wouldn't even think about running any type of methanol blend. Performance is similar to ethanol, but meth is much more corrosive to aluminum and Zamac components common in small engines. As little as 0.5% meth has been found to be highly reactive with zinc alloy die cast parts.

I've been using E10 for years. It's difficult to find straight gasoline in Illinois...a lot of corn and soybeans are grown here!

Here's a link that lists small engine manufacturers that approve E10.

E10 in Small Engines

-Deerslayer

We make all manner of small biodiesel powered equipment.

www.hugr.com

The photo of our converted (horizontal to vertical shaft) 9hp engine on a Cub Cadet can be clicked to reveal a Sears 42' riding consumer mower. It is 4 years old, tows all sorts of things from SeaDoos to pallets of sod on large trailers.

We have never even replaced the belt.

It can tow a SeaDoo with my three sons astride and mow the lawn - St. Augstine here in Orlando - in third gear without bogging or smoking.

Try that with BS.

JP
JP@hugrsystems.com

Here is a link that might be useful: HUGR

As stated, bio-Diesel is in it infancy.
Many men have converted their vehicles to run on it, successfully, and this is public knowledge....
Yes, it can be used on anything Diesel powered .. Of course, the oil consumption of an ocean-traveling ship is so great that , at least for now, the use of any veggie oil is impractical, for this application..
But, not so with an automobile or a lawn mower, provided that the man has the knowledge and time.

What far too many people do not seem to realize is that the supply of cheap, reliable, oil is running out.

Those who convert to vegetable oil are "doing something about it".
Those who argue that Bio-Diesel is impractical are doing nothing but being negative..
Our nation does not need this !

As stated, bio-Diesel is in it infancy.
Many men have converted their vehicles to run on it, successfully, and this is public knowledge....
Yes, it can be used on anything Diesel powered .. Of course, the oil consumption of an ocean-traveling ship is so great that , at least for now, the use of any veggie oil is impractical, for this application..
But, not so with an automobile or a lawn mower, provided that the man has the knowledge and time.

What far too many people do not seem to realize is that the supply of cheap, reliable, oil is running out.

Those who convert to vegetable oil are "doing something about it".
Those who argue that Bio-Diesel is impractical are doing nothing but being negative..
Our nation does not need this !

"Those who convert to vegetable oil are "doing something about it". Those who argue that Bio-Diesel is impractical are doing nothing but being negative."

Good point earthworm. About 1950, IBM determined that the total market for business computers was 5. They figured that only the largest companies could afford them. As a result, they were late to enter the market and delivered their first computer in 1955. Sperry Univac had several years head start by then and it took years for IBM to overtake them.

It takes time to "move up the learning curve" and gain economies of scale. In its infancy, a new idea can seem impractical because of cost. However, as the learning curve is climbed and volume increases costs drop...sometimes dramatically. We've witnessed this recently with flat panel displays.

-Deerslayer

Sorry about the double post , I do not know how this happened.
One should be deleted.
Deerslayer, you make many good points - I fear that the day is coming when petroleum can no longer be used for combustion nor heat..Even now, the price squeeze is tighter than ever...
Those who convert over to bio-Diesel will be ahead of the game.
Much the same applies to those with solar heated houses..

You never informed us what tractor. You'd need to check with the manufacturer. I'm going by the JohnDeere standards, since JD are fairly common.

I believe that the newer JD diesels can use biodiesel, provided it meets certain spefications.

More info can be found below for JohnDeere tractors using BioD.
Its a PDF file, so you need a PDF viewer like Adobe.

Its stated in the article that to avoide performance loss, use less than 5% biodiesel. It also states the standards needed to use bio in your engine, and what models can use it.

Also, here is a useful link on how to make BioDiesel.

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mike.html

Here is a link that might be useful: JohnDeere standards for BioDiesel.

Biodiesel is definitely on the upswing, as the county in Indiana I live in has just broken ground on the world's largest biodiesel plant.

Here is a link that might be useful: Read about it