Clean Grease

 

 

 

Run your Diesel vehicle on Vegetable Oil

Political

If you want to reduce our dependence on foreign oil then convert your vehicle to run on vegetable oil. A bumper sticker stating “I support Our Troops” is a good gesture, but changing your consumption habits will go a long way to help solve the long term problem of the USA’s dependence on foreign oil.

Economic

You can obtain used vegetable oil from restaurants for free. The sound of free fuel has a nice ring to it with the high price of gasoline in this country. The cost per gallon to filter and dewater used vegetable oil is ~$0.07 per gallon. Also, the vegetable oil you burn as fuel is grown on farms benefiting the farming community.  Factor in the fact that the average motorist spends $2,000US a year in fuel costs, there are compelling economic reasons to use vegetable oil as fuel.

Environmental

Billion of gallons of waste vegetable oil are produced each year. Some of it is recycled by oil rendering companies and is used to make soap, dog food, etc.   Much of it ends up being dumped in landfills. Luckily, since it is a natural product it is biodegradable. Using vegetable oil as fuel is a form of recycling and is earth friendly.

What about emission standards? Burning vegetable oil has similar results to Biodiesel.  The following is from Journey to Forever (http://journeytoforever.org/).

 

NOx and Biodiesel

Nitrous Oxide emissions with biodiesel, taken from various scientific and industry studies.

 

1. "Adjustment of injection timing and engine operating temperature will result in these levels [of nitrous oxides with biodiesel] being reduced below mineral diesel levels." -- Dr Kerr Walker, Scottish Agricultural College, 1994, in "Biodiesel from Rapeseed", Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, Volume 155, p. 43-4.

 

2. "Nitrous Oxides (NOx) are reported by several researchers to be increased with Biodiesel. However, our own data shows a reduction in nitrous oxides, very consistently, throughout all these [dynamometer] tests. NOx started at 6.2 gm/mile for diesel and goes down to around 5.6 gm/mile with 100% ester (Biodiesel), with slightly more reduction with REE (rapeseed ethyl ester) than RME (rapeseed methyl ester)... Emissions results for 100 percent ester compared with diesel control fuel show a 53% reduction in HC (Hydrocarbons), a 50% reduction in CO (Carbon monoxide), 10% reduction in NOx and 13.6% increase in PM (particulate matter)." -- "Toxicology, Biodegradability and Environmental Benefits of Biodiesel", Charles L. Peterson and Daryl Reece, Professor and Engineering Technician, Department of Agricultural Engineering, University of Idaho, 1994

 

3. "Fueling with biodiesel/diesel fuel blends reduced particulate matter (PM), total hydrocarbons (THC), and carbon monoxide (CO), while increasing oxides of nitrogen (NOx). Retarded fuel injection timing reduced NOx emissions while maintaining the other emissions reductions." -- "6V-92TA DDC Engine Exhaust Emission Tests using Methyl Ester [Biodiesel]", L. G. Schumacher (Department of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Missouri), D. Fosseen, W. Goetz, S. C. Borgelt, W. G. Hires (1995) in Bioresource Technology, 1995

 

4. "As the concentration of biodiesel increased, the oxides of nitrogen [NOx] emissions increased. The B20A20 fuel blend effectively reduced the oxides of nitrogen emissions below that of baseline diesel fuel. Retarding the timing was an effective way of reducing NOx emissions when fueling with the biodiesel blends. Oxides of nitrogen emissions ... can be successfully reduced below that of baseline diesel fuel by either retarding injection timing or replacing 20 percent of the baseline diesel fuel of the B20 blend with heavy alkylate." -- "Engine Exhaust Emissions Evaluation of a Cummins L10E When Fueled with a Biodiesel Blend", William Marshall, Leon G. Schumacher, Steve Howell (1995), Society of Automotive Engineers, SAE Paper # 952363

[B20 = a blend of 20% biodiesel with 80% conventional low sulfur petroleum      diesel fuel

B20A20 = a blend of 20% biodiesel and 20% heavy alkylate with 60% conventional low-sulfur petroleum diesel fuel]

 

5. "Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions from biodiesel increase or decrease depending on the engine family and testing procedures. NOx emissions (a contributing factor in the localized formation of smog and ozone) from pure (100%) biodiesel increased in this test by 13 percent. However, biodiesel's lack of sulfur allows the use of NOx control technologies that cannot be used with conventional diesel. So, biodiesel NOx emissions can be effectively managed and efficiently eliminated as a concern of the fuel's use." -- US National Biodiesel Board, Biodiesel Report, April 1998, "Biodiesel First Alternative Fuel to Meet EPA Health Effects Requirement -- Positive environmental and health effects results for Biodiesel"

[Sulphur content of methyl ester biodiesel: less than 0.001 percentage weight.

Sulphur content of low-sulphur conventional diesel fuel: 0.05 percentage weight]

 

6. "There are reliable, proven methods for baselining or even reducing Nitrous Oxides (NOx) produced when using biodiesel. I have certified emissions for the urban bus retrofit program with EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) using this technology. This package included use of an oxidation catalyst to maximize Particulate Matter (PM) reductions (taking advantage of the high soluble organic fraction of biodiesel) and a timing change to give up some PM reductions while reducing NOx to baseline or even past baseline -- the best case was a 28% NOx reduction with a 25% PM reduction." -- (From a personal communication, Ming Tseng, Aiko Associates LLC, USA, biodiesel suppliers)

 

Straight vegetable oil

With SVO you have to start the engine on ordinary petroleum diesel or Biodiesel to warm it up, then switch to the straight vegetable oil, and switch back to petro- or biodiesel before you stop the engine. If you don't do that you'll coke up the engine and the injectors. This means having two fuel tanks -- no simple matter with diesels, which have airtight fuel systems. Using SVO also means pre-heating the oil or it'll be too viscous (thick).

But there's a lot to be said for straight vegetable oil systems -- running on straight vegetable oil while starting up and shutting down on biodiesel can be a clean, effective and economical option.

From Journey to Forever (http://journeytoforever.org/).

 

 

 

 

* Note:  We are calculating the cost per gallon to filter SVO from our own personal experience.  We will continue to track the cost to filter per gallon and update this number frequently and you will be able to find our progress here.  We will need to filter around 1,000 gallons before the number will be accurate..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Political, Economic or Environmental Reasons

Clean Grease

“From the Fryer into the Tank!”