Vegetable Oil for Gas (Diesel Engines Run on Cooking Grease)

AOL ^ | Unknown | Eric Peters

[rightwingintelligentsia]

A moped -- or hoofing it -- are not the only answers to the energy crunch. If you own a diesel-powered car, truck or SUV, salvation may be as close as your local greasy spoon.

It's possible to run a diesel engine on used -- albeit filtered and otherwise prepared for internal combustion -- fry oil, also known as Waste Vegetable Oil (W.Va.). There's also Straight Vegetable Oil (aka "SO" and a bit less stinky), a mix of grease and diesel -- or "biodiesel," which is also sourced from vegetable oil or animal fat.

The upside to "going greasy" is liberation from the tyranny of OPEC and $3 per gallon fuel; theoretically, you may never have to visit a gas station again.

The downside -- well, downsides -- are that fry vat fuels only work in compression-ignition (i.e., diesel) engines -- and that there's "some assembly required." You can't just pour "Mickey D High-test" into your tank and motor on.

But it can be done -- and it does, indeed, work.

The fact is that the inventor of the diesel engine -- Rudolf Diesel -- intended his design to run on vegetable oils. But vegetable-based fuels were supplanted by petroleum-based diesel fuel, principally because it was (at the time) a more effective fuel. And of course, at the dawn of the automobile age some 100 years ago, fossil fuels were both incredibly cheap and incredibly abundant. The United States produced more than enough to provide for its own needs; there was no OPEC -- and no worry about Middle Eastern oil barons, terrorism or dwindling supplies.

[Tom D.]

Right now that argument doesn't fly, but it might grow wings if using vegetable oil as a fuel catches on. Most vegetable oils are essentially byproducts and are in high supply.

For instance, soybeans produce two products: soybean meal, which is used mostly to feed livestock, and soy oil, which has some uses, but until now, when you take the soybean crop, press out the oil, and sell the meal, you have more oil left than we have any real use for.

As a result, oil is cheap. If vegetable oil gets hot as a fuel, we may have the reverse situation: meal will become the byproduct. As it is, we are already burning the energy to grow the beans for meal, so there is little marginal cost to producing the vegetable oil.

[Sols]

Dino-diesels produce less CO2 than standard gasoline. Veggie-diesels produce less CO2 than dino-diesel. CO2 emissions are not a viable ojection to bio-diesel.

[Cagey]

Right now the Sulfur regulations are 500 parts per million and the Feds say it must be at no greater than 50 parts per million by June, 06.

I'm not sure what the regs are in Europe.

[Chena]

Wouldn't work in Alaska or other areas that get brutal cold temperatures during the winter. That oil would turn to frozen sludge.

[R W Reactionairy]

"I always liked the smell of a diesel engine. : )"

Any opinions on the smell of napalm in the morning? :

[Constantine XIII]

Biodiesel is alright because there is no net change in the CO2 content of the atmosphere. If you are burning plant products to get CO2, you only replace that which was removed in the growth of the plant. Fossil fuels are different becuase it reintorduces CO2 that has been out of circulation for millions of years.

[RightWhale]

Not practical since the three Wendy's shut down due to the Stryker deployment. One of the McDonalds is also down for reconstruction, and one in Anchorage likewise. At least the Burger Kings are back in business, but the Crisco shortage will continue until the troop withdrawal from Iraq gets serious.

[buwaya]

During the Japanese occupation people in the Philippines used to run diesels on coconut oil without modifying the engines, as was often pointed out back in the energy crisis days.

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

And your exhaust smells like french fries!

And this is a bad thing? ;-)

[NotJustAnotherPrettyFace]

Another downside is that Bio-Diesel fuel is far more expensive the #2 Diesel.

I just saw something about this on TV. There's a guy out there somewhere who makes a regular stop by the local restaurant who deep-fries a lot of stuff. Gets his fuel for free, by helping to drain the machine 2-3 times a week and cleaning it down fully.

[MinuteGal]

I don't know what the future holds for fossil fuel substitutes.... but I do feel good ole American ingenuity will soon come up with something that will work and will be cost friendly.

In the short history of this mighty nation, we've come up with inventions, innovations, substitutes and new applications almost like clockwork......and when needed.

I also feel that some Arab oil potentates are tossing around in their silken-sheeted beds at night, counting Franklins, Edisons, Fultons, Fermis, Marconis, Bells, Salks, Fords, Einsteins, Carvers and De Bakeys jumping over red, white and blue fences.

Leni

[Bubba]

Great stuff if...
you ain't where it gets cold
you want to change the all the seals in the engine
you are satisified with less power

Hell... Mercedes won't go with soybean oil... only rape oil. Cat says they are nut. Who knows? I doubt if they do. BUT... the answer is quit heating/cooling homes and water with fossel fuel and then... guess what.... there will be plenty of cheap diesel. AND... if i'm not mistaken (which there is very little chance of)... Mr. Diesel was trying to get his engine to run on coal dust in the beginning.

[RayChuang88]

Diesel has a HIGH! HIGH! pollutant output compared to the refine octane of the common ICE vehicle.

That would be true in the past but thanks to common-rail pressurized direct fuel injection for extremely precise fuel delivery, a new generation of catalytic converters for diesel exhaust that also double as particulate traps and computerized engine controls, today's diesel engines aren't the smokey, clattering engines of the past. If you've driven the Mercedes-Benz E320CDI you know what I mean...

[Central Scrutiniser]

It works quite well.

There was a great episode of "Dirty Jobs" on Discovery Channel last week where the host, Mike Rowe met with a guy who had a full "refinery" set up in his garage, and they went through every step from collecting oil from a local resturant, through filtering, testing, adding glycerine and refining.

It was very interesting, this guy ran on pure veg oil fuel, not the bio diesel. He said he got about 40 mpg and the gas cost him 50 cents or so per gallon to produce.

[RowdyYates]

I just saw something about this on TV.

Was that on Dirty Jobs on Discovery? If so I saw that and it was quite interesting.

[Chena]

I wasn't aware of all those fast-food joints shutting down. Then again, I haven't been to Fairbanks since last summer. I suppose this means that the Stryker brigades are Wendy's fans?

And I do believe I'm correct in saying that during the winter months, vegetable oil would not work in our diesel engines.

[RightWhale]

That is what Rhonda, the owner, said. I think the restaurants were already operating on the edge of bankruptcy, so the departure of the 3000 was the final straw, and it took only two months from the day they left for Iraq. BTW, McDonalds can't get enough workers to run full staff. In fact, they are short staff all the time now. They pay $7.50 to start. Maybe that just doesn't get it anymore.

[taxed2death]

Diesel engines are more thermally efficient than Gasoline engines. They get higher MPG than their gasoline counterparts. If you figure this into your rant, you'll find out that they are actually more "green" than gasoline engines. Diesel...even the newest ULS diesel slated to come to market needs to be refined less than gasoline, thus there is another energy savings...

They CAN in fact be equipped with catalytic converters to burn NOX off and thus be cleaner....google "diesel catalytic converters". No ones b!tched about it much as of yet so the manufacturers are not required to use them.

The new ULS diesel burns very clean.

The "thickness" of a diesel engine has little to do with it's maintenance.

The newest direct injection engines are very reliable. They are very quiet. They burn very cleanly.

Can you be specific as to what "more maintenance" a....ummmmm "Thin" diesel engine would require as compared to it's gasoline counterpart? I'm just curious.

The byproduct of making 100% biodiesel is lye.

The ONE downside of diesel is it's higher solid particulates expelled out of the exhaust. Technology has lessened this byproduct by a large amount in the last ten years.

[Chena]

Wow, I had no idea. As for McDonalds. Maybe they should consider raising their pay scale. Seems to me those folks behind the counter are their bread and butter (or burger and fries). ;)

[combat_boots]

And 'shine will work, too.......