Monthly Archives: November 2008

I don’t purchase fuel very often any more but even I have noticed that the cost of a gallon has fallen significantly in recent weeks from the craziness of the summer.  I have long since abandoned the idea that the general public looks at the world the same way that I do and I wonder the impact of this on the biofuel industry.

I know that people are generally lazy in nature and by and large financially motivated.  Clearly this drop in fuel price is going to allow people that were once very motivated to seek alternative energy sources quietly put it back on the shelf for another day.   I know that we will lose some people but is that really a bad thing?  I heard stories of bidding wars for WVO collection in Florida that topped $2.50/gallon.  I read many forum post advising isolation and secrecy rather than open community involvement. 

Here is an interesting tidbit of a WVO observation.  Mid summer, I put a sample of oil that I ran through the centrifuge next to a sample of oil that I had not.  Both samples where “clear” but you could see particles in the pre centrifuged sample and it had a darker look.  Both of these sample came from the same source restaurant.  Average temperature was mid to high 80s.

The interesting part is when I looked at the samples recently.  Now November, the average temperature is high 50s or so and you can see that both samples have started to solidify but the un-centrifuged oil has solidified much more.  I am interested to hear some theories out there but my thought is it a “snow flake” effect where the solidification or crystals start with a piece of contamination.  Either way, it would appear