Calculating Cost / Gallon of BioDiesel

[Sarasota]

I'm weighing out all the setup costs and processing costs of going with biodiesel but I'm getting conflicting reports on the cost per gallon of actually making the fuel (after all the initial setup). Anyone have hard figures?

[PGreenSVT]

It is dependant on the cost you pay for materials and will vary from brewer to brewer. Costs = wvo+meth+catalyst+elec. If you dry wash you have to add the cost of amberlite or purolite. Buying in bulk and shopping around will obviously reduce your costs.

[Sciulli]

Yeah.. i have a spreadsheet that I use for biopro sales. Its pretty elabrate and is a good selling tool when justifying the cost of a 8,000 machine. Your looking at(for a 50 gallon batch) 10 gallons of methanol, anywhere from about 1lb -3.5lb of Base product(either NaOH or KOH) and then another few bucks for various other supplies. I bought enough caustic to pay off the machine at .40/lb plus a 25 dolalr truck fee. The same place now charges 1.15/lb and 55 dollar truck fee. That was about 1.5 years ago. I get it now for about .90/lb but at a 75 dolalr truck fee, however i also get 55 glalon drums of methanol as well.