| Alternate Fuel
References/Guides |
| EERE Alternative Fuels Data
Center
www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/altfuel/altfuels.html
|
 The
EERE's alternative fuels site. A wealth of information on alternative
fuels: properties, incentive programs, models, infrastructure... |
|
BioDiesel |
| Getting Started Making Biodiesel
Graydon Blair
Energy Self Sufficiency Newsletter
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
|
 Good
article on how the process of making biodiesel fuel works. An easy to
understand explanation of the chemistry involved and the processes used to
go from vegetable oil to biodiesel.A good starting point. |
| Mike Pelly's biodiesel method
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mike.html
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library.html
Part of the Journey to Forever site:
http://journeytoforever.org |
 Nice
clear explanation of how to make biodiesel, and some of the chemistry behind
it.The Journey To Forever site is very interesting, with a good
collection of information on biofuels and many other fine projects. |
| The BioDiesel Community
http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/
|
 A
good site for getting started with BioDiesel. Lots of free tutorials, equipment
building,
etc.How-to on making the Appleseed Biodiesel processor.
Some good links to other Bio Fuel resources. |
Homebrew Biodiesel and Biodiesel
Equipment Building Classes,
Maria 'Mark' Alovert
http://www.girlmark.com/
|
 Classes
and a biodiesel guide book from the inventor of the Appleseed biodiesel
processor described just above. |
| The New B100-WH Biodiesel Reactor
http://www.b100wh.com/
|
 Quite a
detailed how-to on making biodiesel from fryer oil (vegetable oil).Lots
of detail. |
Green Myth-Busting: Biodiesel,
Clayton Bodie Cornell -- From Green Options
www.greenoptions.com
|
 A good
and detailed article dispelling some of the myths surrounding biodiesel
fuel. |
| Getting Off the Petroleum Grid with
BioDiesel Scott Durkee
http://www.watermotor.net/indexflash.htm. |
 Home
Power Magazine -- Issue 93.Good how to article on making biodiesel. |
| Utah
Biodiesel Supply
http://www.utahbiodieselsupply.com
|
 Some
good good detailed tutorials on biodiesel, including a series of videos and
pages on everything from biodiesel chemistry to making biodiesel.There is
some obvious commercial slant to the videos, but also lots of good and
helpful information.
(Thanks to Karen for suggesting this)
|
| Bozeman Bio-Fuel
http://www.bozemanbiofuels.com/index.htm
|
 This
is the site run by Paul, our own Bozeman biodiesel powerhouse. Helpful
information on biodiesel, EV's, and conservation.
Paul even offers a renewable energy cottage to rent while visiting the
Bozeman/Yellowstone area. |
|
Vegetable Oil (WVO) |
| Frybrid -- Vegetable Oil for fuel
Forum:
http://www.frybrid.com/forum/index.php?
Much Vege Oil Conversion Info:
http://www.frybrid.com/test.htm |
This site has a wealth of information on conversion of diesel vehicles to
run on straight vegetable oil.
The site also hosts a very active
discussion forum on vegetable oil for fuel, conversions, etc. |
|
VW Jetta Conversion to
Vegetable Oil Jeff
|
 Jeff
describes his conversion of a 1998 VW Jetta Diesel to burn straight
vegetable oil. VERY detailed.
Thank you Jeff! |
| The Fry Guys
http://www.green-trust.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fry_Guys
|
 Quite
a bit of information on WVO. Collecting it, converting cars to use it,
heating homes with it, ... |
Heating with veggie oil,
Posted on the Fieldlines.com forumDetails ... |
 A
posting on Fieldlines.com explaining how the poster uses veggie oil and
other oils to heat his home. |
| Generating Power From a Lister
Engine using Vegetable Oil
www.geocities.com/wastewatts/listers.html
|
 A
project in work to generate electricity and heat from a Lister diesel engine
using waste vegetable oil as fuel. |
| Source for Lister Type Diesels
Central Maine Diesel ...
|
 One
source for Lister type diesels in Maine.Information on powering
generators and running on vegetable oil.
(Thanks to mark for finding this) |
| How do BioDiesel and straight
vegetable oil compare?
|
There is a bit of a controversy between the BioDiesel folks and the WVO
folks. Here is one assessment from Journey To Forever:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html If you know of other
good and factual material on this area, please let me know:
Gary |
|
Making Veggie Oil |
They're Doubling The Value Of Their
Soybean Crop, Walder Mfg.
From Farm Show Magazine
www.farmshow.com/issues/30/05/300506.asp
|
 Fairly
good description of a farmer made press that extracts about 1 gallon of oil
per bushel of soy beans, and leaves a high quality protein meal. The
system uses two presses to get a better oil yield and higher quality meal.
From Farm Show Magazine |
|
Making Ethanol |
| Make Your Own Fuel
http://running_on_alcohol.tripod.com/index.html
|
 A
wealth of information on all aspects of making and using Ethanol (alcohol)
as motor fuel. |
| Ethanol as a fuel
http://journeytoforever.org/ethanol.html
|
An assessment of Ethanol as a fuel for vehicles from Journey To Forever. |
|
Making Methane |
|
Picture from
Auto Blog Green ...
-- a great green auto news site. |
Utilizing Natural Design Parameters
for Methane Digesters, Al RutanEnergy Self Sufficiency Newsletter
http://www.rebelwolf.com/essn.html
|
 Article
in ESSN Newsletter by Al Rutan covering the basics of methane generation
with information on a small scale methane generator. The ESSN has
carried a number of good articles on bio-fuels. |
Collection of Methane Articles
Home Power Magazine, issue 26Al Rutan, the Methane Man
www.HomePower.com
Search the Home Power article archive for issues 26, 27, 28, 30, and 40,
and order them.
How to
get articles from Home Power ...
Some of this material may be available here:
http://www.green-trust.org/2006/11/self-reliance-in-troubled-times-al.html |
 More
from Al Rutan. Home
Power Magazine articles, Issues 26, 27, 28, 30, and 40.
A very good collection of articles from Home Power by Al Rutan.
|
Cows Power Plan for Alternative
Fuel,
USA Today
www.usatoday.com
|
 Dairy
farm uses cow manure to make methane that power a generator producing
electricity to sell to grid.
Reduces green house gas emissions, provides some added income, and "green"
electric power. |
Turning Waste Into Fuel -- Methane
Biodigester Basics, Ilan Adler
How to
get articles from Home Power ... |
Home
Power Magazine article, Issue 116.
Good practical article on how designing biodigesters that produce methane
fuel. Details on how to build a simple one from poly tubing. |
Anaerobic Digestion: Biogas
Production and
Odor Reduction from ManureJeannie Leggett, Extension Assistant
Robert E. Graves, Professor of Agricultural Engineering
Les E. Lanyon, Associate Professor of Soil Fertility
Penn State Agricultural Extension
Full Paper (85K pdf) |
 An
overview of methane production from manure on farms. Covers how it
works and the major issues involved. |
| Methane Generator Calculator
http://biorealis.com/wwwroot/digester_revised.html
From Biorealis Systems |
 A
calculator to estimate methane production based on various organic materials
inputs. |
| Biorealis Methane Generator
http://biorealis.com/digester/construction.html
From Biorealis Systems
|
 Complete
plans for a small methane generator. |
| Small Biogas Plant Plans
Nepal Biogas Plant -- Construction Manual |
 Another
farm size biogas plant with full construction plans. |
| 3 - Cubic Meter BIOgas Plane -- A
Construction Manual VITA -- Volunteers in Technical Assistance
Full Plans |
 Very
interesting paper on making a family scale BIO gas plant that produces
methane from manure.Lots of detail on the design, construction and
operation. |
How to Build a 100 cu. ft./day
Methane Gas Plant,
Mother Earth News, November, 1971
http://www.motherearthnews.com ...
|
 Fairly
detailed instructionfs for building a 100 cubic ft per day that runs on 100
lbs of manure. |
How to Generate Power from Garbage,
By the Mother Earth News editors,
Mother Earth News, May 1970
http://www.motherearthnews.com ...
|
 Building
and operating methane producing digesters fueled by manure. |
| Methane Generation in China
Mother Earth News
http://www.motherearthnews.com
|
 Interesting
article from 1981 Mother Earth News on the use of home scale methane
generators in China.
Wonder what the story on this today is? |
| The Marvelous Chicken-Powered
Car Barry Grindrod
www.green-trust.org/2000/biofuel/batesmethane.htm
|
 Article
on converting a gas IC engine car to run on methane that was produced from
chicken and pig manure.
The article is fairly detailed, and the car has been running for years.
Other useful methane generation and use information here:
http://www.green-trust.org/methane.htm |
|
Wood Gas for Internal Combustion Engines
Please be careful!! -- There is a Carbon Monoxide poisoning hazard with all
wood gasifiers |
| Wood Gas as Engine Fuel -- Design
Manual Food and Agriculture Organization --
UN
paper 72 (pdf)
|
 A
very complete 1986 design manual for wood gas generators to run IC engines.
Includes design, construction, and operating experiences for a number of
types of wood gas generator applications.
Both vehicle and fixed applications are covered.
|
| Plans for a Wood Gas Generator to
Power IC engines
www.gengas.nu/byggbes/contents.shtml
|
 Very
complete set of plans for building a wood gas generator. The gas
produced by this generator can be used to power internal combustion engines.
A picture of it
WARNING -- One of the components of wood gas fuel is Carbon Monoxide -- a
highly poisonous gas. |
| Alternatives To Fossil Fueled
Engine/Generators Clifford W. Mossberg
How to
get articles from Home Power ...
.
|
 Home
Power article in issue 21 covering how to produce wood gas, and how to use it as a fuel
to power internal combustion engines. |
| The Gas Producer - Science and
Construction
members.tripod.com/~highforest/woodgas/woodfired.html
|
 Some
material on constructing and using a trailer mounted wood gas generator to
power a car. |
| Some Interesting
Wood Gas Generator Experiments
Preheated air gasifier:
http://allpowerlabs.org/ ...
GMC Truck:
http://whatiamupto.com/gasification/woodgastruck.html |
 Some
interesting experiments on various kinds of wood gas generators made from various
materials.All Power also offers various levels of kits for building their
gasifiers as well as detailed free downloadable plans.
There is also a
Wiki and a
User Forum
-- so much stuff its a little hard to keep it all straight, but lots of
interesting stuff.
(thanks to Les for sending this in) |
|
Wood Burning
& Masonry Heaters |
| Hearth.com
http://hearth.com/info.html
|
 Very
extensive collection of articles, FAQ's, and a searchable data base of
questions and answers. |
Wood For Home Heating,
FNR-79, Purdue University
http://www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-79.pdf
Residential Wood Stove Installation,
FNR-100, Purdue University
www.ces.purdue.edu/extmedia/FNR/FNR-100.html |
 Lots
of good information on wood burning. Heating value compared to other
fuels, payback, wood burning and cutting hints.
Installing wood stoves. |
Design,
Construction and Performance of Stick-Wood Fired Furnace For Residential and
Small Commercial Application,
Richard C. Hill, University of Maine, 1977Download this paper here:
http://hotandcold.tv/wood furnace.html
|
 A
research paper on the development of a fairly simple, clean burning,
efficient wood furnace.
Quite a bit of good practical experimental work and measurements leading to
this furnace design, as well as a number of variations that did not work and
why.
The design shown is a water heating furnace.(Thanks to Tom
for suggesting this) |
| Advance Combustion Wood Fireplaces
Natural Resources Canada
Advance Combustion Fireplaces
|
 Overview
of advanced design fireplaces that achieve 50 to 70% efficiency and cleaner
burning through the use of secondary combustion air and other features. |
| Masonry Heater Association of North
America http://www.mha-net.org/index.htm
|
 A
great site for learning about and building Masonry Heaters.
Information, pictures, plans, newsletter, ...Note that the
"bookstore" at MHA offers detailed plans for 5 masonry heater designs
that they have built and tested. A good sequence of pictures on
how a Masonry Heater goes together.... |
| Masonry Stove Builders
http://www.heatkit.com/index.htm
Construction and planning info:
http://www.heatkit.com/html/guide.htm
Helpful doc:
http://heatkit.com/docs/Man00.PDF |
 Quite
a bit of construction information on masonry stoves and ovens. The
"gallery" pictures are good.
|
| Hybrid Masonry Stove
http://geopathfinder.com/9597.html
|
 "we
used a style common in Germany, the hybrid masonry stove. It uses a steel or
cast iron stove for the firebox but wraps masonry around the metal on 4 or 5
sides, excluding the loading door and, optionally, a cook-top. We added a
large masonry chamber behind the stove to allow flue gases to circulate
through some extra mass, boosting the total masonry weight to 2 tons."
|
|
Masonry Heaters from Gimmie Shelter
http://www.gimmeshelteronline.com/masonry/
|
 Gimmie
Shelter is a Wisconsin home builder that often includes masonry heaters in
their homes.
Their website section on masonry heaters provides a lot of good detail on
masonry heaters, including a pretty detailed construction series. Lots
of examples of heaters they have dome -- some works of art. |
|
Doug's Masonry Stove ... |
 This
is Doug Kalmer's version of the traditional masonry stove. Doug
constructed this massive and beautiful stove (along with the rest of his
house).
It provides many of the advantages of the traditional masonry stove with
less somewhat less mass, cost, and labor.
See all of Doug's solar
projects ... |
Building a Tiled Masonry Heater,
Vladimir Popovac,
Fine Homebuilding, January 1992How to get
articles from Fine Homebuilding ... |
 A
nice and detailed Fine Homebuilding article on designing and building a
masonry heater.These heaters provide a very clean (hot) burn and the
masonry retains heat and radiates to the room for hours. |
| Sawdust Burning Heater Mother
Earth News
www.motherearthnews.com
|
 Plans
for a sawdust burning heater from the Mother Earth News archives.
Cautionary feedback on the sawdust heater:
www.motherearthnews.com - feedback |
| Heating Water With a Wood Stove
http://www.woodheat.org/dhw/dhw.htm
|
 This
excellent article on domestic water heating with a wood stove provides
descriptions of several good systems, and covers the features a good system
should have.
It also provides safety information which is MANDATORY READING for anyone
adding water heating to a wood stove. |
| Preheating water with a Wood Stove
http://www.michigan-horse.org/preheater/
A similar arrangement from Mother Earth News:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/... |
 A
design for a system to preheat water with your wood stove that does not
require major surgery on the wood stove.
Be sure to read the material on safety in the article above -- especially on
placement of valves and pressure relief. |
| Outdoor Wood
Furnaces
www.ecy.wa.gov/ ...
http://www.vtwoodsmoke.org/index.html
www.motherearthnews.com/...
|
 Outdoor
Wood Furnaces burn wood in a furnace located in a separate enclosure away
from the house. They heat water, which is piped to the house for space
heating.
Its an appealing concept, but unfortunately the current generation of these
furnaces are half as efficient and 20 times more polluting than certified
indoor woodstoves.
There is some effort underway to offer cleaner versions. So, if you
are interested in one these, do your homework on certified versions, and
think about impacts on your neighbors. |
| BioMass Cooking Stoves
www.repp.org/discussiongroups/resources/stoves/
|
"This site exists to help people develop better stoves for cooking with
biomass fuels in developing regions"
Especially good section on efficient stove design. |
| Woodstoves for Tub Heating (or for
heating thermal storage tank?)
Chofu: supplier (one of many):
http://www.thesolar.biz/Chofu.htmMother Earth News article:
www.motherearthnews.com
describing the Chofu
www.revolutionearth.com/download/ChofuDataSheet.pdf
Snorkel and Scuba Underwater Woodstoves:
http://snorkel.com
|
 Chofu:
This
is a simple, wood fired heater for soaking tubs.
It uses a simple thermosyphon system to circulate heated water (no pumps, no
electricity). The full stainless steel case is a water jacket for
efficient heat transfer.
 Snorkel
& Scuba: These wood stoves for heating tubs actually live in the tub
water, so heat transfer is directly from the stove walls to the water.
It seems like this might be a simple, and
greenhouse gas friendly way to add heat to a solar heat storage tank
when there is not enough sun? |
|
Corn Burning |
| Ontario Ministry Of Agriculture
Burning Shelled Corn
as a Heating Fuel
|
A very good paper on the basics of burning corn as a heating fuel.
Covers the equipment, process, and economics. Well written. |
| Burning Shelled Corn As Fuel Penn
State Agricultural and Biological Engineering
http://energy.cas.psu.edu/burncorn/shellcorn.html
|
 Some
good and reliable advice on burning shelled corn as a heating fuel. |
| "I Burn Corn"
http://www.iburncorn.com/
|
 "I
Burn Corn" a fine personal site on the practicalities of burning corn
for fuel. Great source of practical, hands-on corn burning
experience.
Also provides a number of good links, references, and a discussion forum. |
|
Corn Storage, Cleaning and Burning
Pictures
|
 Pictures
of some of the odds and ends you need for a complete corn burning system. |
|
Yahoo Corn Fuel Group |
This is a good Yahoo discussion group for getting the latest on using corn
for heating, and for asking questions. |
|
BioDiesel and Waste Vegetable Oil Burning |
|
Journey to Forevers's Forced-Air BioFuel Heater
http://journeytoforever.org
More material on waste or veggie oil burning:
http://journeytoforever.org/...
(includes material on Mother Earth News burner) The original Mother Earth
burner that above are based on:
http://www.motherearthnews.com ... |
 From
Journey to Forever: Plans and design information on burners that will burn
biodiesel and/or WVO.Quite a bit of design information and experiences
with prototypes. |
Heating with Compost
While often associated with greenhouse heating, these heat from compost
schemes can and have been used for space or water heating. |
|
The Composting Greenhouse At New Alchemy Institute - A Report On Two Years
of Operation and Monitoring, Bruce Fulford Heating a greenhouse with
compost
The Report (pdf)
|
 Very
extensive and detailed report on heating a greenhouse with compost.
Two years worth of testing on design and type of compost issues. |
Heating from Large Wood Chip Compost Piles
Jean PainThe Methods of Jean Pain: Or another kind of garden, Ida Pain, 1980.
This book is out of print, and I was not able to find any used copies of
this for sale --
a pdf copy can be downloaded here... (thanks to Ken for
finding this)
Mother Earth New article:
www.motherearthnews.com/ ... Journey To Forever on Jean Pain:
http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/methane_pain.html A good
two part video showing details of a large compost to heat and biogas pile
and more:
http://www.youtube.com/... (part 1)
http://www.youtube.com/... (part 2) |
The book covers Jean Pain's research in using compost for both
agricultural and energy production. There is some good, practical
information on building large compost piles for the production of heat for
water or space heating.
One example 50 ton pile provided the equivalent of 200 MBTU over a 6 month
period -- enough to heat a house.
Picture from the video -- finely shredded wood with plastic pipe to capture
heat and fermentation vessel in middle to make biogas.
(Thanks to Curbie for finding the video!) |
|
Heat free (nearly) with a compost furnace
http://energymd.wordpress.com/...
|
 This
is a very nicely thought out space heating scheme that uses a large compost
pile to generate heat.Marc has worked out a design that provides for
aerating the pile, keeping it moist, collecting the heat, and insulating the
pile for greater efficiency. More from Marc and his results for the first
year of operation... |
|
The mb-soft compost heating schemes
Details here... |
 This
is an interesting set of concepts that use the heat generated through the
decomposition of organic mater for space and water heating.
Details... |
|
Composting Greenhouse with Straw Bale Foundation, From Experiments in
Sustainable Urban Living
www.appropedia.org/ ... This uses surplus heat from a large compost pile under the greenhouse
floor to heat water for the house. You get water heating and
greenhouse space with the same structure! |
 This
is a pretty slick idea for heating water with heat generated from compost,
as well as providing greenhouse space.
The thing that intrigues me is that you can apparently have working
greenhouse space above the heat generating compost pile?
I'd like to hear from anyone with composting experience on how workable
this all seems?
Gary |
