New alt diesel fuel?

[Phssthpok]

Planning as I am for remote living, I have aquired a 12KW 1800 RPM china diesel/ST powerhead gen-set.

Now I'm familiar with all the traditional alt fuels for this type of set-up...WVO/SVO, Bio-diesel, and I even read somwhere that some folks were dabbling (with fairly good results) with blending kero or diesel, and filtered WASTE CRANK-CASE OIL (!!) and running that!

So that got me to thinking about petroleum based Hydraulic Fluid. I figure it's thinner than crank-case oil (no need to 'cut it' with thinner fuels) but thicker than 'dino-diesel', so it will probbably need to be pre-heated to thin it out ala WVO, but other than that can anyone think of a reason it wouldn't work?

I currently work in a heavy manufacturing plant with MANY hydraulic bits of machinery. About 90% of which seem to leak in varying degrees. Rather than FIX the leaks (GASP!!! what a thought!) they seem content to simply install 'gutters' and direct the leaking fluid into 55gallon drums, which are then dumped into a large catch-tank. When that's full, this 'waste' fluid (which would be perfectly serviceable if they would just let it drain through a filter to clean out the dust from the air) is then carted away by a hazardous waste company at a signifigant cost to our company!!

I could probbably score 100gal+ every month, and if I could run this stuff through my genny I could actually MAKE money by carting this stuff away since mine is a net-metering state. Free fuel + pumping 10-ish KW into the grid several hours every day = positive cashflow!

Just a thought... heheheh

[mohillbilly]

Yes, you can run hydraulic fluid in your engine, I have done it many times in my truck....

[mangyhyena]

Phssthpok, I read about the generators from China. The article I read in the BWH anthology made them sound like good machines. But (Always seems to be a but, doesn't there?) I read a post on another site from a person who warned to steer clear of them as he has seen them in his shop many times for repairs and he claimed they are all but unrepairable.

Have you or any other members here had much experience with them that you can share?

I'm leaning toward using a generator, in combination with a battery bank, to supply our electrical needs when we make the move to an independent homestead of our own in 3 years or less. And of course, I'm looking to use an alternative fuel to reduce or eliminate our fuel bill.

Until I saw your post I thought my only alternative would be bio-diesel. I have carpet cleaning equipment, steam cleaning PTO equipment that runs of----you guessed it----a diesel engine in my van. Why bring this up, you ask. Well, to make enough bio-diesel to run the vehicles and homestead one needs quite a bit of used cooking oil. To keep costs down one needs to get it for free. Not only do restaurantes have used cooking oil, but most of them need their carpets cleaned. I figured that if I cut them a fair discount on the cleaning I might be able to get them to give me ALL of their used cooking oil for as long as I show up each month to clean their carpets. So, ta da, there's my plan. We'll see how that works.

I'll be watching this thread to see if I now have yet another option of getting free fuel to run a generator. If possible, would you please talk about any preperation needed before one runs hydraulic fluid in the generator? I'm not a diesel mechanic so type V E R Y S L O W L Y so I can understand. ;D

Thanks for bringing up this thread.

[annabella1]

mangyhyena, if you are already cleaning carpets why not add cleaning fryers and the exhaust fans to your list of things to clean. Then you would be hauling away the used grease as part of your business. I once looked into a restaurant exhaust fan cleaning business and the people doing it were making a mint.

[mangyhyena]

Sounds like a good expansion of the business to me. I'll look into it.