Diesel engines were originally designed to run on peanut oil by Rudolf Diesel in 1892. Now, in 2009, the properties of the diesel engine haven’t changed much and it is still possible to run these engines on all types of fuel, from normal diesel, to home heating oil, to peanut oil and general vegetable oil. The three major fuels used in diesel engines are petrodiesel, biodiesel and vegetable oil. Many people don’t know that biodiesel and vegetable oil are different fuels. Biodiesel is made from vegetable oil, but the properties of the fuel are very different. Here is a quick summary:
Petrodiesel or Fossil Diesel
- Hydrocarbon based oil
- Extracted from crude oil
- ~138,000 BTU per US Gallon
- 10%-20% less greenhouse gases than gasoline [EPA.gov]
Biodiesel
- Made from transesterification of vegetable oil or animal fat
- Works in many unmodified diesel engines
- ~130,000 BTU per US Gallon [NDSU.edu]
- Estimated 80% reduction in greenhouse gases versus normal transport fuels [CSIRO.au]
Vegetable Oil (SVO)
- ~130,000 BTU per US Gallon [NDSU.edu]
- No production required other than filtering
- Requires modifications to diesel engines
- Waste vegetable oil can be obtained free from restaurants
- Very little greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (Considered carbon neutral)
Hundreds of people all over the world have run diesel engines on biodiesel, vegetable oil and a combination of the two. All across the United States gas stations are starting to offer mixtures of petrodiesel and biodiesel. If you have ever seen fuel advertised as B20, that is 80% petrodiesel and 20% biodiesel. It has been shown that even slight mixtures of petrodiesel and biodiesel have dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas output in vehicles.
Vegetable Oil and Direct Injection Engines
There is a lot of talk online about how running a vehicle on vegetable oil will damage direct injection engines. The vehicle The Smart Drive works on had engine damage from the former owner running SVO for over 40,000 miles. Take a look the page titled Vegetable Oil and WV TDI engines for more information on running SVO in a modern diesel.
More Information:
The Smart Drive is home to an SVO vehicle project! Follow the SVO project posts at http://thesmartdrive.com/category/project/svo-car/ or visit the project page at http://thesmartdrive.com/svo-car-project/
US National Biodiesel Board: http://www.biodiesel.org/
HowStuffWorks.com Biodiesel: http://auto.howstuffworks.com/biodiesel.htm
Grease Works Page on SVO: http://www.greaseworks.org/svo
Greasecar SVO Kits: http://www.greasecar.com/