Converting a car to run on Waste Vegetables Oil (Burned Oil)
We converted a diesel VW pickup at our company ( Entity Green ) to run on free waste vegetable oil from restaurant fryers. we get an exhilarating feeling of freedom from going down the road running on this renewable fuel.
When Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, he designed it to run on peanut oil. It was soon discovered that it would operate on cheaper petroleum oil. Today diesel engines will run, with a little modification, on peanut oil as well as on the oils of canola, soy, corn, sunflower, safflower, palm, olive, coconut, hemp, cottonseed, sesame, and many others.
These oils burn much cleaner in a diesel engine than diesel fuel. They emit no sulfur, and thus do not contribute to acid rain. The carbon released is what would have been released naturally from the decay of the plant matter used. Therefore it is carbon-neutral, releasing carbon that was captured a year or two ago, and that carbon will be again absorbed in next year's crop. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, release carbon captured millions of years ago, upsetting the atmospheric balance and causing global warming. Another benefit is that the particulate matter emitted from running on vegetable oil is way lower than diesel fuel. Gone is the obnoxious diesel smell and black smoke, replaced with the smell of cooking oil. So if you are following me as I tool around town and suddenly get hungry for fish and chips, that’s why. Also, any veggie oil spills are biodegradable.
Waste vegetable oil is a very economical fuel to use. It is recycling something that was used up. Restaurants pay to have it removed, so they give it to me gladly. I’m accustomed to smelling fast food—now I smell free renewable fuel!.
Now that you know why we did converted it, here is a general explanation of how we did it. Waste vegetable oil needs to be filtered well before being used. Veggie oil also needs to be heated to run through the injector pump and fuel injectors on a diesel engine. This is accomplished by using heat transferred by engine coolant from the engine. In the trunk we have a separate fuel tank for veggie oil. It’s heated with a copper coil inside the engine cabinet that has hot coolant running through it. The veggie fuel line runs inside the heater hose that delivers the coolant to the tank. It is a hose within a hose, heating the oil as it heads towards the engine. There is a separate fuel filter that’s wrapped in a copper coil that also has hot coolant circulating through it, heating the veggie fuel in the filter.
In order to get the oil hot enough to flow (and run), we need to use diesel from the regular tank and fuel system to warm up the car. After a few miles we switch over to veggie by using an electric fuel selector switch mounted on the dashboard. The car seems to run better on vegetable oil. A few miles before we stop we turn back to diesel to clear out the veggie oil from the pump and lines, so that it does not congeal. Eventually we’ll use biodiesel instead of diesel for warming and stopping, and then we won’t be using any fossil fuels.
Check the photos out
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And here are the steps clearly:
• 1
Install a vegetable oil fuel conversion kit or have a mechanic do it. You should keep the original gas tank to hold regular diesel or biodiesel fuel for cold weather. Install a second tank for vegetable oil; these sometimes go in the trunk. The conversion kit should include hoses from the car's radiator to the vegetable oil tank to heat the oil via a heat exchanger before it enters the final fuel filter and injectors inside the engine compartment.
• 2
Get vegetable oil. New vegetable oil is easiest to acquire but very expensive. Restaurants will often give you their waste oil for free. Chinese and Japanese restaurants are best because their oils comes out cleanest. The oil should be amber in color. Oil from other types of restaurants may also be suitable but could require more filtering to remove food particles. You will need a few containers for transferring the oil from the source to your filtering destination. The five gallon jugs that the restaurants receive the fresh oil in work fine. Restaurants are usually happy to give you these containers since it saves them disposal fees.
• 3
Filter the oil. Use filter bags that are rated to 0.5 microns thick. To increase the life of your filter bags, first allow the oil to sit in a barrel for about a week to let particulate matter settle to the bottom. Then, pump or scoop the oil into a filter bag suspended above a fresh empty barrel from the top of the barrel (since most of the food particles matter and possible water is at the bottom). Start your engine using regular diesel or biodiesel fuel from the normal gas tank. Once the engine and vegetable oil are warm (after about 15 minutes depending on weather), switch to allow the vegetable oil to flow into the fuel source.
• 4
Switch back to diesel or biodiesel a few minutes before you stop your engine for any time (about 10 minutes depending on the temperature) to make sure the vegetable oil is purged from the fuel line and injectors so that they don't become clogged when the engine cools.
Tips & Warnings
• In warm weather, the car can be started and run completely on vegetable oil.
• Make sure to keep your regular diesel tank just in case you may run out of vegetable oil or want to travel to a cooler climate.
• Purge the fuel line and fuel pump/injector with biodiesel or regular diesel every time you stop your engine just in case the weather turns cold unexpectedly.
• It's possible to change the rubber seals on older diesel vehicles so that they too can be converted to run on vegetable oil.
• Consider using a fuel injector/piston cleaner every six months to remove any accumulated carbon deposits. To do this, just pour the 12-ounce bottle into the tank before you drive.
• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that has been tested completely for health effects based on the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
• Biodiesel is sometimes combined with standard diesel and sold under the label "biodiese.l" However, its benefits are relevant to the portion of pure biodiesel used.
• Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is any vegetable oil that can power diesel engines but has not undergone the transesterification process. The major constraint of using SVO is that it thickens at colder temperatures (below 25 degrees Fahrenheit), but it can be warmed up before reaching the engine's fuel injectors.
• It's expensive to buy and use fresh cooking oil, but restaurants are often willing to donate their used cooking oil, which is commonly called Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). Vegetable oil engine conversion kits include a heating system and usually a second gas tank to get around the cold weather issues. Like Biodiesel, SVO produces very low emissions. However, raw vegetable oil does not meet biodiesel fuel specifications and is not registered with the EPA, nor is it a legal motor fuel.
• Converting your car to run on vegetable oil can void any warranty you have on your car. Contact your dealer or manufacturer to find out.
When Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, he designed it to run on peanut oil. It was soon discovered that it would operate on cheaper petroleum oil. Today diesel engines will run, with a little modification, on peanut oil as well as on the oils of canola, soy, corn, sunflower, safflower, palm, olive, coconut, hemp, cottonseed, sesame, and many others.
These oils burn much cleaner in a diesel engine than diesel fuel. They emit no sulfur, and thus do not contribute to acid rain. The carbon released is what would have been released naturally from the decay of the plant matter used. Therefore it is carbon-neutral, releasing carbon that was captured a year or two ago, and that carbon will be again absorbed in next year's crop. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, release carbon captured millions of years ago, upsetting the atmospheric balance and causing global warming. Another benefit is that the particulate matter emitted from running on vegetable oil is way lower than diesel fuel. Gone is the obnoxious diesel smell and black smoke, replaced with the smell of cooking oil. So if you are following me as I tool around town and suddenly get hungry for fish and chips, that’s why. Also, any veggie oil spills are biodegradable.
Waste vegetable oil is a very economical fuel to use. It is recycling something that was used up. Restaurants pay to have it removed, so they give it to me gladly. I’m accustomed to smelling fast food—now I smell free renewable fuel!.
Now that you know why we did converted it, here is a general explanation of how we did it. Waste vegetable oil needs to be filtered well before being used. Veggie oil also needs to be heated to run through the injector pump and fuel injectors on a diesel engine. This is accomplished by using heat transferred by engine coolant from the engine. In the trunk we have a separate fuel tank for veggie oil. It’s heated with a copper coil inside the engine cabinet that has hot coolant running through it. The veggie fuel line runs inside the heater hose that delivers the coolant to the tank. It is a hose within a hose, heating the oil as it heads towards the engine. There is a separate fuel filter that’s wrapped in a copper coil that also has hot coolant circulating through it, heating the veggie fuel in the filter.
In order to get the oil hot enough to flow (and run), we need to use diesel from the regular tank and fuel system to warm up the car. After a few miles we switch over to veggie by using an electric fuel selector switch mounted on the dashboard. The car seems to run better on vegetable oil. A few miles before we stop we turn back to diesel to clear out the veggie oil from the pump and lines, so that it does not congeal. Eventually we’ll use biodiesel instead of diesel for warming and stopping, and then we won’t be using any fossil fuels.
Check the photos out
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
#-Link-Snipped-#
And here are the steps clearly:
• 1
Install a vegetable oil fuel conversion kit or have a mechanic do it. You should keep the original gas tank to hold regular diesel or biodiesel fuel for cold weather. Install a second tank for vegetable oil; these sometimes go in the trunk. The conversion kit should include hoses from the car's radiator to the vegetable oil tank to heat the oil via a heat exchanger before it enters the final fuel filter and injectors inside the engine compartment.
• 2
Get vegetable oil. New vegetable oil is easiest to acquire but very expensive. Restaurants will often give you their waste oil for free. Chinese and Japanese restaurants are best because their oils comes out cleanest. The oil should be amber in color. Oil from other types of restaurants may also be suitable but could require more filtering to remove food particles. You will need a few containers for transferring the oil from the source to your filtering destination. The five gallon jugs that the restaurants receive the fresh oil in work fine. Restaurants are usually happy to give you these containers since it saves them disposal fees.
• 3
Filter the oil. Use filter bags that are rated to 0.5 microns thick. To increase the life of your filter bags, first allow the oil to sit in a barrel for about a week to let particulate matter settle to the bottom. Then, pump or scoop the oil into a filter bag suspended above a fresh empty barrel from the top of the barrel (since most of the food particles matter and possible water is at the bottom). Start your engine using regular diesel or biodiesel fuel from the normal gas tank. Once the engine and vegetable oil are warm (after about 15 minutes depending on weather), switch to allow the vegetable oil to flow into the fuel source.
• 4
Switch back to diesel or biodiesel a few minutes before you stop your engine for any time (about 10 minutes depending on the temperature) to make sure the vegetable oil is purged from the fuel line and injectors so that they don't become clogged when the engine cools.
Tips & Warnings
• In warm weather, the car can be started and run completely on vegetable oil.
• Make sure to keep your regular diesel tank just in case you may run out of vegetable oil or want to travel to a cooler climate.
• Purge the fuel line and fuel pump/injector with biodiesel or regular diesel every time you stop your engine just in case the weather turns cold unexpectedly.
• It's possible to change the rubber seals on older diesel vehicles so that they too can be converted to run on vegetable oil.
• Consider using a fuel injector/piston cleaner every six months to remove any accumulated carbon deposits. To do this, just pour the 12-ounce bottle into the tank before you drive.
• Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that has been tested completely for health effects based on the requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.
• Biodiesel is sometimes combined with standard diesel and sold under the label "biodiese.l" However, its benefits are relevant to the portion of pure biodiesel used.
• Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is any vegetable oil that can power diesel engines but has not undergone the transesterification process. The major constraint of using SVO is that it thickens at colder temperatures (below 25 degrees Fahrenheit), but it can be warmed up before reaching the engine's fuel injectors.
• It's expensive to buy and use fresh cooking oil, but restaurants are often willing to donate their used cooking oil, which is commonly called Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO). Vegetable oil engine conversion kits include a heating system and usually a second gas tank to get around the cold weather issues. Like Biodiesel, SVO produces very low emissions. However, raw vegetable oil does not meet biodiesel fuel specifications and is not registered with the EPA, nor is it a legal motor fuel.
• Converting your car to run on vegetable oil can void any warranty you have on your car. Contact your dealer or manufacturer to find out.
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