I drive this crazy new thing called a 'bicycle' all over the place. Best part? It runs on beer.

The latest Motor Trend magazine had a long article on diesel and bio-diesel. The caveat to bio diesel is it has to be very clean and free of water, or it will harm the fuel injection on even the oldest diesels. The fuel also has to be warmed to flow through the engine, which in the case of bio-diesel conversions, requires the engine first run on regular diesel before switching over to the tank that holds the bio diesel. The process is repeated when shutting down the engine to clean the grease from the fuel lines.

Personally, I think bio-diesel is very cool. But one has to be careful, it seems.

Ethanol may take on a whole new definition very soon. Some guy here in L.A. evidentially invented an ethanol processor for home use that can process cane sugar and old booze into fuel. He says he can create 35 gallons a week, which is enough for most commuters. The best part, when you tire of Chivas Regal and want something more like Jameson's, you don't feel like you've wasted money on the Chivas. :D

According to the inventor, this concoction supposedly burns hotter than traditional corn-based ethanol.

As to the potential strain on cane sugar supplies, who knows?

DD74,

A few misconceptions in that article:

" it will harm the fuel injection on even the oldest diesels" The thing that screws older diesels is that they were designed to run with a certain level of sulphur in the fuel which served as a lubricant. Take that away and you start having fuel injection pump problems.

"The fuel also has to be warmed to flow through the engine, which in the case of bio-diesel conversions, requires the engine first run on regular diesel before switching over to the tank that holds the bio diesel" That would be used veggie oil, which has not had the glycerine removed. It is true that biodiesel will gel at a higher temp than winter-spec diesel, but until you get a few degrees below the freezing point you aren't going to notice.

You don't have to do anything to set up the engine for biodiesel if it has already been engineered to run on no/lo-sulphur fuels. Just pump it into the tank and go.

If you want to burn veggie oil (new or used), you will have to think about dual-fuel set-up, starting on diesel and switching back before shutting down, etc.

Have a good one.
Les

This is a timely topic for me, as I am involved in a project at work to use WVO. For us, it comes down to opportunity, availability and basic economics.

We run a small fleet of four Freightliner rigs that we use to transfer product between four stores in the southern CT - NY area. For FY07, our diesel bill was over $200K. Based upon current trends, we expect that bill will be around 20-25% higher for '08.

We also use a considerable amount of vegetable oil for food production in each of our stores. In each store, we have separate production areas that make: fried chicken; chicken wings; french fries; potato chips; donuts; Chinese food. Our VO is changed at least daily at each fry station, so we generate a lot of WVO every day. Another factor to note is that we saw that cost of VO increase about 18% least year.

In the past, we paid a renderer to come in and take away our WVO. Then, we got to the point where the renderer would take it away for free. Now, we are paid for our WVO. Our used oil is considered to be very high quality for use in diesel vehicles. We use only non-hydrogenated oil; each one of our fry stations produces one product only; the used oil from each production area is collected and stored separately.

We know that using WVO will not completely eliminate our need to purchase diesel. However, right now, the economics favor that the cost of conversion and the cost of collection, filtration and processing can easily be recouped by the cost-avoidance of purchasing diesel fuel. Perhaps if the commodity price of WVO increases to the point where it is more economical to sell it, we'll revisit our position. But, using our own WVO has significant PR benefits that also needs to be factored into our decisions.

BTW, Jake and I have been having an exchange on this topic via PM. He is very knowledgeable and experienced in this area. There is so much bull***** being peddled about this on the Internet, it is nice to have a someone that can comment and speak from experience to guide you.

What do they do with all the used motor oil? Is it recycled as motor oil?

I've seen oil fired furnaces designed to take engine oil, anyone converting it for use in a diesel?

And, yes Danny, I am aware that this will not end oil imports.

Does it have to be WVO?

I read a story that the guy who invented the diesel engine originally meant it to run on vegetable oil so rural farmers could grow their own fuel.

When the diesel engine was invented peanut oil was cheaper than petroleum so people ran with that.

I looked up bulk vegetable oil but I could only get prices in MT?

If you were buy vegetable oil in five or six digit gallon quantities how much does it cost per gallon?