Homemade diesel fuel

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Has anyone made their own diesel fuel from vegetable oil,(french frie oil)?

-- Herb Buckingham (mtairy@bealenet.com), January 30, 2000

Answers

Yes, a small (I don't have any experience with big ones) diesel will run on stuff like liquid vegetable oil and the like but there is a down side. The vegetable oil you buy from the store will work fine, but have you compared the per-gallon price? Fry oil from your local fast-food outlet will work fine too. Problem is, you'll spend more time running it through a filter or changing filters in your Volkswagen Rabbit (what I used) that it won't be worth it. You won't believe how dirty "clean" oil can be. Save yourself the aggravation. Buy it at the pump. Good luck, John and Pat

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jCenter.com), January 30, 2000.

Should have included in my first reply: Before any of these "alternative" diesel fuels will work, your engine of choice has to have been started and warmed up on conventional fuel. That means that you have to have some sort of fuel transfer switch. That means that you have to let the sucker idle for 15 - 20 minutes (full operating temperature) and then switch fuels. Open the hood and do it manually? Just wait 'till you try to rig some sort of solenoid valve to do it from inside the car. You will also have to rig some sort of auxillary fuel tank. Sorta sounds like fun don't it? Good luck, John and Pat

-- John and Pat James (jjames@n-jcenter.com), January 30, 2000.

Herb, another drawback is getting the used oil-buying fresh is too expensive. In small towns/rural areas, there just isn't all that much used oil available. Maybe a cafe or two, maybe a school, maybe just maybe an institution which use frying oil. Many times they already are selling it to a used frying oil dealer. And the frying oil producers strongest selling point is the length of time their oil will survive in the fryers. I don't even know what it is up to anymore. So places aren't changing oil all that often.

If you have a large and steady supply of used oil, then it may well be worth looking into it. Have you tried searching the 'net with the terms bio diesal and alternative fuels ? I don't think you can really switch back and forth easily between bio diesal and regular diesal. Perhaps someone has overcome that problem. Wasn't there someone who just drove across the US in a bio diesal bus? Perhaps there is some way to duplicate the bio/regular diesal fuel that is being used now in some places. I know Sioux Falls SD is running at least one mass transit bus on the combo fuel. Gerbil

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), January 30, 2000.


This doesn't pertain to vegie deisel but I thot you might be interested in this. A buddy of mine was dinking around with drain oil from semis. He basically boiled a covered 5 gal bucket of drain oil. On the cover he soldered a copper nipple to which he attached a simple condenser coil of copper tubing. The distillate was diesel. Lots of diesel drain oil around and a lot less dinking around than veggie diesel.

-- john leake (natlivent@pcpros.net), January 31, 2000.

Don't get discourged by the other posts. It is possible to make, buy and or run a diesel engine of off veggie oil. In Europe a 5 gal. of oil has a road tax on it. true an unmodified engine won't run of of 100% oil until it is running hot, but if you have one of those trucks that have two tanks, fill one with diesel and the other with oil. Diesel engines were invented to be run of off oil so farmers could produce their own fuel to power the farm. Someone modified them to run on diesel. Want more info http://www.veggievan.org this is a couple who traveled across the states on used french fry oil. they tell you how to make your own. good luck and STAY ENERGIZED

-- Aur Beck (power@midwest.net), February 03, 2000.


It seems to me that the direct start deisel is the problem if the engine has glow plugs it would start on the bio-diesel. As a kid we had a Farmall 560 that had glow plugs to start it because it didn't have a ultra high compression. That may be the solution to starting on veggie oil

-- Steve palmer (cableman02@home.com), October 09, 2000.

Has anyone in the UK tried this?????Am working on a TV prog about alternative fuels

-- as above but without the topical bit (simon.whittaker@topical.co.uk), April 17, 2001.

Does anyone know anything about making diesel from kerosene and motoroil?

-- sue gianstefani (ukteam@yahoo.com), September 14, 2001.

The website for the Veggie Van is www.veggievan.org

-- GT (nospam@nospam.com), September 14, 2001.

Can some one please send me a full breakdown on how to make Bio- Diesel. From use oil (vegetable) to the end product. I need to know how to clean, degum, and wash the diesel. I need the process from start to finish in detail, (eg,what chemicals Quanty Etc)It must also be a simple system and easy to follow.Looking forward to a reply.

-- Graham London (www.pridon@isat.co.za), February 06, 2002.


Talk to any sobean association. They are really pushing bio-diesel. Here in Minnesota the legislature almost passed a measure to have 2-5% veggie oil (soyoil) added to diesel, much like ethanol is added to gasoline here. Lots of places are already blending some. I'm sure searching the web for biodiesel will give you more web sites & recipes than you can use. :)

As to used motor oil, many big old diesel engines allowed you to put in a certain % of used (filetered) motor oil into the tank. Said so right in the owners manual. With today's emissions controls I don't think that's allowed by any any more, but older engines could. No processing needed.

--->Paul

-- paul (ramblerplm@hotmail.com), February 07, 2002.


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