Vegetable Oil Diesel

Running a car on vegetable oil is not a new idea. In fact, when Mr. Diesel himself (Rudolf Diesel) introduced his engine at the 1900 Paris Expo, the explained it ran on ‘peanut oil’. The first diesel engines ran on vegetable oil until the 1920s when the petroleum industry started promoting what became standard diesel. With the rise of ecological awareness, there’s been ea renaissance of vegetable oil diesel going on. The stuff is more viscous than conventional diesel or biodiesel and the car needs to be adapted to run on this type of vegetable oil diesel. Otherwise, it could damage the engine.

But first, let’s answer the question: why is vegetable oil diesel different from biodiesel? The latter is produced through a chemical process called transesterification which converts oils and fats of natural origin into fatty acid methyl esters (FAME). Combustion of vegetable oil without conversion to biodiesel will lead to soot accumulation and deposits that will cause power loss and engine failure. That’s why the adaptation is necessary (recent diesel models can run on biodiesel without any conversion, though).

The conversion means installing a two-tank system where the oil is pre-heated. This means the driver starts up and shuts down on conventional diesel or biodiesel. The cost of converting will vary and it can be up to $2,000 or so. The good news is that these conversions enable the vehicle to run on several types fuels which include SVO (straight vegetable oil), diesel or any mixture of the two fuels. Therefore the driver will not be stuck if vegetable oil is unavailable.

One of the advantages of using waste vegetable oil diesel (oil used for cooking) is that it produces less greenhouse gas emissions than traditional diesel. Another advantage is that it is cheaper. While petrol prices continue to rise, you’re likely to be paying $1 per gallon of waste vegetable oil fuel. There’s one important setback, though. In cold weather it will crystallize. When that happens it forms solid was crystals that block fuel filters. One recommendation is to blend winter diesel and vegetable oil when temperatures approaching -10°C to allow for normal operation. If the temperature is likely to go down to -15°C then the vegetable oil should be completely switched to winter diesel. Can vegetable oil diesel give a whole country independence from fossil fuels? No, it can’t. It would be hard to match the 140 billion gallons of gas consumed in the United States each year – waste vegetable oil adds up to a paltry 100 million gallons. But to those for whom this is a feasible option, it is definitely a viable way to fuel vehicles. There’s a place for it in the energy mix.