I didn't have time back in 2005 to build my own reactor so I bought one from a shop near LA. I locked in my oil supply by a written contract on Dec. 2005 with an Indian restaurant near my home. I had poachers taking my oil, so I had a welder make a locking lid. That's when I discovered, he was making more oil than I realized.
I ran my '90 Cummins on B100 until I gave the truck to my son. I currently have a 2007.5, 6.7L, 4x4, single wheel one ton which has been running on B100 since day one.
Older trucks than around mid '90's may have a few natural rubber hoses, gaskets or O-rings. You should be able to run B100 in the older trucks without modification, just take a lap around under the hood every now & then looking for swelling hoses or leaks. Chances are those hoses were due for replacement anyway. You will need to change fuel filters several times since biodiesel is a good solvent & any crud will be dissolved, winding up in your fuel filter. I changed the '90's filter after the first tank, 500 miles, 1,000 miles & last time at 5,000 miles. I used a Dremmel to cut the filters open to inspect the filter media. The last filter came out clean. Yours will vary on how dirty your fuel system is.
I live in LA & it never gets really cold here. We have these horrible hot sun storms
frequently in the winter & I only heat the oil if the days have been cold before brewing. I let any water settle out in two 55 gal drums before filling the reactor tank. I have drum heaters, wrapped with left over duct work insulation if I feel the need to spend the energy to heat the oil.
I fill the reactor tank with 105 gal & let it throughly let water settle out again. I only make biodiesel as I need it, since biodiesel is biodegradable. I have another two 55 gal drums on drum dollys that I can roll out to my truck when I need fuel. When I tap into the second drum of fuel, I make another 100 gal batch.
I drain off the bottom 5 gal of excess oil, looking for any sign of water. I set the reactor pump to recirculate, to mix up the oil for a good representative sample as I get my titration stuff & other stuff set up. The small catalyst tank, (on the right), has a separate, special explosion proof pump to recirculate the methanol. There is a small mesh basket in the top with three spray nozzles over the basket. The pump sprays the lye with methanol until the lye is completely dissolved. The tank is a closed system so there are no sodium-methoxide fume to breath.
By modulating ball valves, I can suck the sodium-methoxide into the reactor tank as it recirculates. I let the pump agitate the 100 gal of oil & 20 gal of catalyst for at least two hours, longer if the day is cool.
Drain the glycerol after a few hours, after the pump has cycled off. Make sure not to let the glycerol sit & gel if it's cold or you will be sorry.
I allow the batch to throughly settle the glycerol out until I empty the second drum of fuel. I used to mist wash my fuel but with the new 6.7L, I bought a ion exchange filtration system to polish & filter the fuel really clean. I have a final standard fuel filter on the pump, to filter the fuel one last time before it goes into my truck. The two yellow filtration tanks are on the left, after the blue pre-filter.
My fuel was costing less than 0.60/gal but the cost of methanol has doubled recently. The 100 gal I made last weekend cost $1.24/gal to brew. I really shouldn't complain with these prices.