Talking to a guy the other day and he says his fuel is free...so, I looked and sure enough!

Have a look here...http://www.greasel.com

Interesting, if nothing else.

What's your take on this?

 

Running straight vegetable oil requires some modification in the form of heated fuel lines. SVO is thick and needs the heat to get it to flow good. While it will run on SVO, its unprocessed and can have contaminates. I don't think I would run it in my powerstroke. Maybe in an older benz or vw diesel. I would try biodiesel in my truck. Its SVO that has been chemically reacted to break the fattyacids in the oil to glycerine and ester chains. The glycerine is seperated from the esters, the esters polished and viola, biodiesel. The esters are long chain hydrocarbons, just like dino diesel.

I tried to make a small batch once, but I didn't measure out the catalyst and reactants. I eyeballed it, and got a big ole glop of jelly/soap. Never tried it again. Maybe if fuel gets really expensive again.

Check out http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel.html
Pretty cool.

-Shawn

 

Echo the above for svo with one additional statement. Do not use vegy oil in your direct injection psd engine by itself. Verdict is still out on psd DI and heated vegy oil; unless you want to be in on the testing process. Adding some svo to diesel is OK in extremely small quantities for general lubrication, etc qualities. Let me know how it goes if you do the svo.

For BD:
Make sure to read/study and practice the titration to find out the quantity of lye for your BD. Otherwise you will be sticking goo in your engine. Also buy several diesel filters and keep them in PU when you first start running BD. It is a fantastic solvent and will de-gunk your diesel tank. This will clog your filter fairly fast depending on your mileage and PU 'sitting around' time since you have a 99 psd.

Your diesel engine technology was originally designed for vegy oil. Rudolph Diesel's new engine to compete against the gas was run with peanut oil!
Warnings aside; go for it (after investigation, testing, etc)! Two big reasons. Veg oil can be exclusively domestically produced. Keep your money from going to foreign govs that eagerily take it then bash us or we have to fight and die against. Give OPEC the finger in your own way. Environmetally, veg oil burning has drastically less pollutants (some cut by 100%). See if you can claim as alternative fuel in your state for taxes even.

 

Excellent thoughts! I'm going on a trip this weekend and will fill up with BD before I leave to see how the truck runs. I'm curious to see if I can notice any difference in milage or horsepower.

I'm probably not going to invest in the WVO until it has been proven. I don't want to risk damage or expensive repair to a $35k truck.

 

You might want to bring along some cetane booster just in case. BD on average is a little less on cetane ratings. You should notice a little diff in mpg on very long trips. Perhaps 0.2 to 1.0 or so. Would you let me know how the trip went for mpg?

If the BD was made from used fry oil, watch the peoples faces when someone notices the french fry smelling exhaust of yours! It's hilereous!

 

Where'd you get this info? From what I have read, the cetane is a bit better with biodiesel (not wvo). Check it out here.

 

Sorry Oppy, I just now went back and found the post to check on how the trip went. An article was published by a University on the comparing cetane ratings for blends & pure biodiesel, #1 diesel, #2 diesel, kerosene, ..... Of course I can't find it when I need this information! I don't remember if it was in my Home Power mags or the Internet sites.

Your info is good news though. I must have mis-read the data as I don't notice a diff. I mainly do short drives under a 100 miles a day; some stop & go. Perhaps in was BTUs or power factors? I was actually looking for schematics & articles on wiring solar panels since this is my main interest in alt energy.

Thanks for info on my error Oppy. Let me know if you come accross any numbers on this or BTU comparisons. Thinking in the future of biodiesel furnace.

 

There's a lot of good information on biodiesel.org - you can read until you've had more than enough!

I finally have a co-op in the area that carries it, but his prices are just crazy - $2.70/gal for 100% biodiesel. I think it can be had for less than that, and I bet it'll be a lot less once the industry adds capacity for making it.

Good luck!