Generator run off of vegetable oil???

Question

someone posted a question of running a generator off of vegetable oil and many people said yes. My question is, at this present time, what would this COST for the equivalent to the Honda 6500, and how much oil would it take to run it for 8 hours.

Answer 1

OK, assuming the generator is 6500 watts and run full bore for the 8 hours, that would be 52 kWhrs or 187 MJ. Assume the generator is about 25% efficient, thus you need 748 MJ worth of fuel. Vegetable oil has an energy density of about 33 MJ/L, so you would need about 23 L of oil, which would cost about $50 at the grocery store.

Answer 2

Only diesel generators can run on oil, and they need some small modification to use oil, which is slightly heavier than diesel fuel.

once modified the generator will have very similar efficiency to a diesel operated generator.

I don't know the parameters of the Honda 6500.

since the oil used for generation will be oil from cooking, it needs to be filtered before used.

Answer 3

I don't know the answer to your question, but it did remind me of when I recently got my heating oil tank filled and it cost everything I had, I jokingly told the guy I was going to start using cooking oil in the tank and he gave me the craziest look, as if I was serious. Anyway,  I hope you get your answer.

Answer 4

You can run a diesel engine on vegetable oil, not a gasoline engine. The rate at which it uses fuel will be the same as if it were burning diesel, but it will smell better.