Vegetable oil in diesel cars????

Question

so, I've been doing lots of research for a project for earth day...and did anyone know that a diesel car can run on nothing but pure used vegetable oil?!!!!! If it's that easy, why is no one doing anything about it!? like, why aren't a ton of peple jumping on this bandwagon.....it's probably 99% of a price reduction to regular fuel....all you really have to do is stop at a place to get their scrap oil!!!!! it's basically free!!!!!!!!!! i don't understand!

Answer 1

I can tell you of a couple reasons....

Pouring pure vegetable oil in your car can damage the engine since it is much more viscous and burns differently.

Also vegetable oil costs around $5.50 for 32. fluid onces. Which equals 1 quarter gallon, which = $22 per gallon

Answer 2

you need a heated tank and a modified engine. sorry to back your enthusiasam

Answer 3

This is not an answer but another question. If the big problem with vegetable oil is it needs to be heated then use two tanks. One has diesel fuel that is used for the first five minutes of any trip. Have a radiator type thing in the vegetable oil tank to heat it up. Once the vegetable oil heats to the right temperature switch over to tank two.

Answer 4

I just have to comment that all the answers to this post were so enlightening. My eyes are as wide as saucers! LOL And here I thought cars running on water were amazing. I found this other site recently so I thought I'd share. It's funny to watch.

Answer 5

There are a few challenges with this.

First, if you live in a cold climate, you need to be able to preheat the vegetable oil.  It will congeal and not flow in cold weather.   So you do need to do some engine modifications for this to work.  And of course you need to contact all the local restaurants, collect the oil, and strain out the tiny french fry pieces.  It takes work, time and energy to do this.

Second, you need a LOT of vegetable oil for this to work.  There just isn't enough veggie oil for a "ton" of people to do this.   All the used veggie oil available would only supply a small small percentage of the total number of cars.  The other cars would need to by new veggie oil - which would only drive food prices higher and higher.

Of course, you also need a diesel car to start with - one that you are willing to dump vegetable oil into - which undoubtedly viods any warranty on the car.

It is a very nifty idea.   And I've seen caterers that USE veggie oil covert delivery vehicles to this kind of system.   I'm not sure why there aren't more hobbiests doing this.   But it will never work on a large scale.

Great question.

Answer 6

Alot of pre 1985 Benz owners do and already know.

Answer 7

The first Diesel engine ran on peanut oil. so this knowledge has been around since the beginning of the engine design . and the diesel engine has been around since before the gasoline engine.

Ask any old bootlegger about running straight alcohol in their car and any dragster or circle track racer about how alcohol runs

it's not the same as the oil companies are saying that you can run only a small amount mixed with gasoline

There are many crops that produce more oil than corn per acre such as caster beans , rape seeds , flax seeds etc. they can even squeeze oil out of cotton seeds

Answer 8

Dear B Bott,

Ja-Sure---Ya-Betchum!!!  You are on the right track.  The waste oil can be used in a diesel engine, so can lard, tallow, corn oil, peanut oil, and many other things.  Modern diesel trucks often are equipped with heaters in the fuel systems because even "normal" diesel oil will thicken up when it gets cold.   On occasion we smell a "french fry" smell from truck exhaust in my neighborhood  All of the restaurants here have recycle bins for the cooking grease, and it all gets taken.  The oil does need to be filtered to remove crumbs and water, and some needs refining.  but it's being done.   There is just not enough to supply everyone.   WE do need more bio-fuel, and in the future I believe that we will see all kinds of things being used.   Even Hemp (a dessert plant) can be used for fuel.

Answer 9

It is a great alternative to use SVO (straight vegetable oil), but it would not be able to be used on a large scale just too many people. Although you can use any organic oil not just used cooking oil, if you do a search on yahoo or Google for green fuel or valcent, these companies are producing oil from algae. They have species of algae producing over 10,000 gallons of oil per acre, so no impact on the current food market. You can use this oil in SVO systems in diesel cars, but for the most part they are refining it into biodiesel. So the idea of an SVO is sound and should be utilized a different source of oil is needed and algae I think is the answer.

Answer 10

I too have been looking into this having just acquired a diesel car and it is not that simple. I either need some set up to make the veg oil warm before it is added or some gizzmo fitted in the engine. There is probably more to it than that but I would need to search through a load of paperwork to find the website address I was given.