Hello,

I have found a source (50 gallons per week) of peanut oil.  I live in CT, it gets cold. My research finds that peanut oil based BD gels at 45 degrees - roughly.

I'd like to find a way to use this oil. I will burn it in the boiler that heats the house - a basement tank doesn't go below 50 degrees on the coldest days and is typically warmer. This will be my first winter trying to drive with a BD blend.  Do people blend with regular diesel, or something else? 

Peanut biodiesel is a summer fuel only here in Colorado.  I plugged my filter in the mid 40s Fahrenheit running B100.  I have much better success with soy, which doesn't cloud until close to 32F.  And blending to B40 with pump diesel and antigel will allow me to run to -10F safely.

 Yes, most people blend with diesel in the colder times of the year.
 

biodieseler:

I still have sources of canola and soy. Maybe I should keep the peanut oil separate, and use it as heating oil and summer fuel only....

If you are going to use a high gel temp biodiesel for heating oil, I'd suggest having a 2nd tank holding fuel with a low gel point, along with a way to switch the furnace feeds between them, "just in case". 

That way you can have the best of both.  The high gel temp biodiesels tend to be cheaper- and the low gel point fuel will make sure you can always get the furnace started and get it warm enough to cut over to the "steady state use" cheaper biodiesel.

I just finished my first 50 gallon batch using peanut oil.  While it looks great, the freezer test was an eye opener.  I had a slight fail in the 3/27 test. Not enough for me to reprocess, but a fail none the less. I normally just run that fuel.

In my process, I distill the methanol off after a 5% water prewash and glycerin drain.  I then do a waterless wash process.  The BD tested out at less than 150ppm soap content. and a shake up test produced clear water after settling. 

Anyway when the fuel cooled to 57 degrees, I started to see clouding in the bottom of my sample. By 47 degrees I had solid glop.  I think that in addition to being peanut oil, it must also be partially hydrogenated.  My soy based BD does not react like this.  I was initially considering using it only for heating oil, but my basement may at times get into the 50s, and I don't want this stuff at the bottom of the tank.  I will blend some of my heating oil/soy BD mixture from the heating oil tank with this stuff and see what I come up with as a cloud point temp.  I may run a second batch 50% soy and 50% peanut oil too.  If I had a place to stock pile it, I would feel comfortable using it as summer fuel in the TDIs.