Bio Diesel Crop?

Question

what's the best crop to plant to produce bio diesel oil from?

I live in the south island of New Zealand and anything grows here... you just have to plant it.

I've got 20 acres and am looking to become self sufficient and perhaps have some left over to sell.

What's the ratio of acres to litres production?

Any good web sites on "how to" would be welcome.

Many thanks!

Answer 1

Algea as a bio-fuel source has been identified / reconized in the bio-fuels industry as the up&coming source second to none. The average yield reported to my knowledge exceeds

600gallons  of oil / per acre.  Conventional seed stock is 120-170gal/acre. Go on line to algea boi-feed stock alternative. Best of Luck! Keep me updated.

Answer 2

Expect only 6% of your harvest to be used in a 94% fossil fuel mixture. But, if you're modest, I recommend corn.

Answer 3

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Answer 4

Soybeans are the most commonly used crop used to make biodiesel.  Those that answered corn are thinking ethanol.  For biodiesel you want to plant soybeans.  Soybean oil is the primary raw ingredient used to make biodiesel.

Answer 5

i think you ll find its a non starter but good luck anyway

Answer 6

Any oil seed crop will work.  Rape seems to be very popular, as are sunflowers.  There is no such thing as a canola plant.  It's just a variety of rape.

Answer 7

Any crop where an oil can be manufactured easily from the final crop.

Answer 8

on a small scale it will not be viable, buy the time you have grow it an harvest it you will not make any thing out of it, one bad season and your doomed.

Answer 9

Corn will do the trick.

Answer 10

Well it will depend on the crop U plant. Those like olive oil or peanut oil. there are all kinds of plants that produce oil. Normally u use it for cooking and then filter it for  Bio Diesel. Fossil fuel is just aged plant oil.

Answer 11

It's much better to make alcohol/ethanol using sugar cane like Brazil does. It's much easier to turn it into alcohol than corn and it has a 30% higher concentration of sucrose which is what you care about when fermenting alcohol. Even so, you're turning agricultural land from food to energy crops and that's going to raise prices, just not quite as quickly as corn used for fuel has done.

In your situation that wouldn't matter, but you may need a permit to produce ethanol since it's basically alcohol and governments frown on backyard stills. It lacks most of the negative emissions that gasoline has and it's produced with a renewable source so for your purpose it should be great. With minor modifications you can run any engine on alcohol.

Answer 12

Corn is not a significant oil producer. You can get some oil and use the rest for ethanol, or you can use a pyrolitic process to convert it all to a combustible gas to be burned like CNG.

I agree with other posts that 20 acres, even 20,000 acres would barely justify installing machinery to handle a crop.

If you were to go for an oilseed, canola would be an appropriate choice (That may be called rapeseed where you live). Wild mustard will produce almost as much oil. It just has a bit of an odor.

I could advise you to grow some walnuts, sell them and buy your fuel, if walnuts will grow there.

Answer 13

Biodiesel refers to a non-petroleum-based diesel fuel consisting of short chain alkyl (methyl or ethyl) esters, typically made by transesterification of vegetable oils or animal fats, which can be used (alone, or blended with conventional petrodiesel) in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles. Biodiesel is distinguished from the straight vegetable oil (SVO) (aka "waste vegetable oil", "WVO", "unwashed biodiesel", "pure plant oil", "PPO") used (alone, or blended) as fuels in some converted diesel vehicles. "Biodiesel" is standardized as mono-alkyl esters and other non-diesel fuels of biological origin are not included.

Answer 14

Soybeans come to mind, but any plant that produces large amounts of vegetable oil will work.

I  believe you need about 2 acres to 'feed' your car for a year. at least, that's how ethanol works.

I bet you could sell time on your processing machinery to neighbors who want to do the same thing!

Answer 15

What is native and good for biodiesal?

Try to have a big boarder so that the bugs have their space too.

Answer 16

The production of biofuels on a large scale would be detrimental to food supplies. Palm oil is being produced in the areas where forests are being destroyed which is threatening the survival of endangered species such as the orangutan and the pygmy elephant. There is an oil which is derived from the jatropa plant which can be grown in arid conditions and does not require fertiliser, therefore it does not encroach on food production or rainforest's.

Seeds from the jatropha plant contain approx 40% oil.

Answer 17

Its not efficient enough a way of producing fuel, you would be better off cleaning and reproducing used vegetable oil from restaurants/chip shops etc and planting your land up like a Forest Garden - (Robert Hart would be worth researching re forest Gardens, also Ken Fern and Plants For a Future, both have produced books in the UK), you would be benefitting the planet no end and could be fully self sufficient from your land.  Years ago i bought a book from the CAT (Centre for Alternative Technology) in Machynlleth, Wales, UK, on Bio fuels and it really isnt viable for the planet, its another short term half solution but not possible unless the planets use for fuel reduces by a huge percentage that i wouldnt even pretend to know or guess at.

Theres also a book by John Seymour about self sufficiency worth reading too.