Biodiesel run cars?

Question

I would love to have a car run on biodiesel but I have a few questions:

1. About how much does it cost to make a car able to run on biodiesel?

2. Will normal garages do it for you?

3. Will all cars run on biodiesel?

4. Does biodiesel really work good or are there lots of complications?

5. Are places willing to give up there used oil for a small price?

6. Is there alot of maitinece involved in having a biodiesel car?

Answer 1

various kits are available on the net, which all seem to basically consist of a seperate,heated fuel tank or an inline fuel pre-heater (because veg oil/bio diesel is thicker when cold than diesel) prices vary from £100 upwards.

I can't see why a garage would not fit it for you, although they may not guarentee the work as its not a manufacturer approved modification.

Any diesel car has the capability to run on bio, however modern common rail engines (DCi, TDCi etc)are known to have problems, also fuel hoses/seals can perish. anything with lucas  components in the fuel system will not tolerate bio.

There are numerous websites that can tell you if your specific car is capable of running on this.

Yes bio really does work, the diesel engine was originally designed to run on pulverised coal dust (yes really) and can burn anything with a flashpoint triggered by its compression.

You used to be able to obtain waste oil free, it was a waste product that people were happy to get rid of. with the surging popularity of bio, this is no longer the case.in any case it's better to buy it ready processed from a bio-outlet.

No more maintenance is required apart from regular fuel filter changes. A lot of people don't run their cars on neat bio, prefferring to mix it 50/50 or more with pump diesel.

Answer 2

The car has to be a diesel car.  As far as I know you can not convert a gas car to bio-diesel.  The cost of the car, is what it costs to have a car run on bio-diesel.  Diesel cars are usually cheaper than gas cars to buy because diesel is more toxic than gas, they take off much slower than gas cars, and they don't pass other cars as well on the highway.  The bio-diesel that you get at the pumps are a very low % of bio material in them, so it is not worth it to buy a diesel car for the environment, because they still mix a lot of the diesel fuel with a small amount of the vegetable oil.   You can put in used vegetable oil yourself but in many new diesel cars this will void the warranty.  Diesel fuel is much more toxic than gas, so it is not that great, but if you use mostly vegtable oil in it, it should be not too bad.  Really, I would recommend a hybrid car, they are better for the environment in every way.   The biofuel comes from crops and chemicals and pesticides are used to make the corn oil to be mixed with the diesel and the farmers use tractors on their fields right, and guess what is in their tractor?  That's right, it's toxic diesel (it has been known to cause breathing problems)  Diesel cars do get better mileage than gas cars, that is the only plus I can think of.

Answer 3

1. About how much does it cost to make a car able to run on biodiesel?

-If you're serious about a bio-diesel car first you should buy a car that already is diesel powered and convert it as you can't just run your gasoline powered car on bio-diesel.

2. Will normal garages do it for you?

-It depends on how qualified the mechanics are in your area but any competent mechanic should be able to do the necessary conversion work.

3. Will all cars run on biodiesel?

-No, only cars with diesel engines can operate efficiently on bio-diesel.

4. Does biodiesel really work good or are there lots of complications?

-Yes it works very well, in fact Mr. Diesel (for whom the engine is named) originally designed the engines to operate on vegetable oil.

5. Are places willing to give up their used oil for a small price?

-Yes there are many places where you can acquire used cooking oil for free.

6. Is there a lot of maintenance involved in having a biodiesel car?

-There will be no more maintenance than on a typical diesel powered car.  Just remember that if it breaks down that some mechanics not familiar with bio-diesel might have difficulty doing repairs as you will have some modifications to consider:

-Will the vehicle run solely on bio-diesel or will you have a 'dual-fuel' system.  Some systems require a separate fuel tank that is heated and a separate delivery system for the bio-diesel.

-Will you be doing any of the modifications yourself?  This might be a good idea for you to put in 'sweat-equity' to understand the complexities if there are ever problems.

-you also need to consider extra space in your garage that will accommodate a small bio-diesel factory.  You'll need at least two 55 gallon drums, hand crank pumps, filters and some rather caustic chemicals (NaCl/KCl) to remove water and other contaminants from the fuel oil before you run it in the car.

Overall I'd say go for it, with the price of regular diesel rising it is making more and more sense to have a vehicle that is cheap to operate.

Answer 4

1. Nothing to do.  All diesels can already run biodiesel.

2. There's almost nothing to do.  Old style rubber fuel lines should be replaced (but they should be replaced anyway!) and because biodiesel is a good detergent, it may flush junk in your fuel lines into your fuel filter, so just for prevention, change that once.  That's about it.



3. Only diesel cars.  

4. If it's cold (below 40 degrees) you might want to use fossil-fuel diesel or add anti-gelling additives because biodiesel is slightly more likely to gel than regular diesel.

5. Now you're talking about a whole different thing, "WVO" or waste vegetable oil. That's a lot harder.  WVO must be filtered to remove particles from the oil, and it should also be neutralized (remove acid) and dried (remove water). By the time you do all that stuff, you might as well convert the fuel to biodiesel, so you don't have to also heat the fuel to use it.  Your other option for running WVO is to put a second fuel tank in your diesel car, so you can switch between normal biodiesel and WVO (running WVO only when the engine is warm). You still need to filter it though.  All of which is serious modification and serious ongoing messing with grease.

6. Nope, aside from the one-time replacement of filter and fuel lines (if old).  And whatever else you decide to do for WVO, if you go that way.