Vegoil destroys engines?

[poppop]

RE: WVO

I had a meeting today with a bunch of political people who are pushing alternative fuels. We were there to see about funding to build an extraction plant at our cotton gin. There were several University Of Ga and Ga tech engineers there. The UGA guy told me if we run straight VO that we will have to go through our engines every twenty to thirty thousand miles. I asked him if he meant the fuel injections systems and he said yes, it would destroy the fuel systems even if heated. Any comments from the real experts here? I value your comments more than these college boys.

 

[wreckerman893]

Sounds like they are educated beyond their intelligence.

I've seen too many people with college degrees that couldn't pour piss out of a boot with the directions printed on the heel.
Did they have hard data and proven test results? If not they were just blowing smoke and trying to educate the "unwashed masses".
The Veggie oil forums that I have been on have members that have tested and retested engines on WVO and logged many thousands of miles on them.
I would take everything those "experts" spout with a large grain of salt.

 

[poppop]

Wreckerman, I agree with you, I just wanted to hear some more opinions. We had a Universcity guy show up on the farm 20 years ago and tell us we could not make money raising hogs without concrete. Two years later when the farm economy went to the sewers he was back with his camera calling our operation a low investment hog operation and was destined to save the family farm.

 

[cranetruck]

Lloyd, realistically, there will never be enough for everybody to run 100% VO.
A small amount (5-10%) added to the regular diesel is a good thing, it adds lubricity, improves combustion (it contains oxygen) and reduces emissions.
WVO is acid and will erode away metal in time. Biodiesel is neutral if made to ASTM standards.
"Conversions" like the Elsbett system designed to run on straight VO requires the use of fresh VO only, which is not acid.
My dual heated tank system was for use with biodiesel generally, so that below freezing temps would not be a problem.

 

[poppop]

Bjorn, good to hear from you. If we can make this work, when we process the seed generated from our gin we will have 168.000 gallons of oil from a small year like last year when yields were down. One ton of seed will yield 42 gallons of oil. Last year we did 4000 tons of seed. The College boys today suggested we trade our oil to a bio plant for bio-diesel.

 

[cranetruck]

If the fresh VO (not WVO, which is used/waste) is available at a good price, that's the way to go. I believe some "gas" stations in Europe now sells straight VO, farmers like yourself with their own gas stations.
In truth, the biodiesel making process is not that environmentally friendly.
My 1982 Benz 300SD has an Elsbett conversion (google it) and straight VO is recommended. It has special injectors, preheated fuel filter and can start and run on VO even at a little below freezing temps. They probably borrowed some multifuel technology, being a German product and all.
If we could get VO at a low cost, we'd come down and get a few hundred gallons from you. My partner in crime is PhD Wetzel, who wrote the technical page addition to my biodiesel article in MVM a couple of years ago....

 

[poppop]

I have checked some of those systems out on the inter-net. There were a couple of EPA and EPD guys at the meeting on the other side of the table. I pushed the idea of not converting to Bio-diesel as enviromently friendly and everyone there liked the idea. We just had the College boys piping up and saying it would destroy our fuel systems. As a side note I mention my military trucks and two of the college guys came over to visit. The one from Ga Tech fired up his lap top and showed me pictures of military trucks he had taken at a muesum in Europe. The moderator finally had to tell him it was time to move on to the next person and we had to break off our conversation.

 

[oifvet]

RE: WVO

don't actually fly...

Now... If you had been sitting in the left seat and said that, I would have been worried!

Toying with the idea of getting a deuce??? That's where it allll begins!! Welcome to the sickness. Just read these posts, look at some of these pics (like 5tonpuller's avatar), and you'll get what I mean.

Listen to these guys! They know their stuff!

 

[cranetruck]

RE: WVO

Lloyd, any update on your veggie oil production, if any?

 

[JDToumanian]

"black gold". A special mix of diesel fuel mixed with filtererd mootor oil.

I'm saving up mootor oil, too! I'm filling my deuce's old (dented) fuel tank with it, and I want to filter it and cut it with diesel... up to maybe 25% mootor oil. I'm tired of giving fuel to my local AutoZone's recycling tank!

 

[poppop]

Hey Bjorn. Have'nt done much on the technical side but are proceeding in talks with State agencies on funding. Our Governor is pushing renewable energy and says Ga. can be the Saudi Arabia of the US. There is quite a bit of assistance out there and a lot of money, some in the form of grants and other in low interest loans. They also like our project because it generates no hazardous waste. We start with cotton seed and end up with a cellulose product, oil and cattle feed. Nothing is left over. I will probably need to call on you for advice from time to time. I have used you as an example to the college boys and others several times, not by name of course, just this guy I know who runs on Veg oil. There is no way to get anything done for this season but we hope to have it up and running by next season.
We have been offered $1.50 per gallon for the oil by a bio-diesel plant but we are more interested in using it to displace $2.50 diesel.

 

[cranetruck]

Sure Lloyd, let me know about any questions you may have, I'll be glad to try to help.

 

[yesplease]

An older diesel/multifuel should safely take just about any oil with the right characteristics provided it's heated to the proper temperature before injection, totally devoid of water, and filtered within an inch of it's life. The are business' selling conversion kits who have customers with upwards of 50,000 miles on grease.

 

[poppop]

Yesplease, if you have more to add, I am lisenting. We are proceeding with this project and I need all the help I can get.

 

[cranetruck]

.......
We have been offered $1.50 per gallon for the oil by a bio-diesel plant but we are more interested in using it to displace $2.50 diesel.

Like I stated in a different post, a cubie (4.6 gallons), now cost $20.00 and some cents for restaurants, that's $4.35/gallon. I paid $13.76 last year, which is $2.99/gallon.
There is a difference between oils, restaurant fryer oil is usually soy bean, Canola (rape seed) is supposed to have better cold flow characteristics, palm oil is the worst in that respect.

Wil you be required to filter the oil and/or produce it to certain standards? If so, what are they? Probably filtered to 1 micron, has something to do with bacteria size....

My 300SD has an "Elsbett conversion" and can run 100% veggie oil, but the manufacturer voids any warranty if used cooking oil is burned, they want to see nothing but fresh, neutral oil. I burn a little of everything, mostly diesel, since there are still cold weather issues. The engine has different injectors and a heated fuel filter as part of the "conversion".
Nothing beats the heated dual fuel tank system, though.

 

[Flatlander]

I did a search on the Department of energy's website for WVO and found nothing negative on the site. I'd be interested to see where the document in the original post of this thread actually came from. www.energy.gov

 

[CCATLETT1984]

the biggest thing seems to be the choking that can take place in the injectors when you shut down on VO, and the fact that it can solidify in the lines. thats why most systems have a small diesel tank and start/stop on regular diesel to avoid VO being left in the lines at shutdown.

 

[stump]

I have ben using wvo cleaned with a centrifuge and have had no real problems. I did get some water in my system once. the top on my tank was not on and it rained . I just changed the filter and kept on going.I use 20 gallons of wvo mixed with 5 gallons of gass. This is in a 1983 chevy blazer with 6.2 and over 148000 miles. my cost is about $0.40 per gallon and its running fine. I drive this truck 80 miles a day now for over a year and its a one tank system no heat to tank or filter. Ps the box filter on a chevy is junk use a fram ps3080 easier to change because you can fill it up then install.

 

[stampy]

Hi I have been running blended WVO for over 3 years in my Benz and now my M1009. I had excellent success. Engine maintenance= 0$ (ok I did change my oil and filter a few times in 3 years!) My reccomendation is ! Dewater in a heated barrel and 2 filter the crap out of it and 3 blend with diesel or (shudder) gasoline I do 80/20for diesel or Kero and 95/5 for gas. I have a centrifuge and it is awesome! takes it down to about 5 microns and removes boatloads of crap.

Understand, ALL of my diesels are over 25 years old most are indirect injection. I would NEVER run WVO straight unless I had a dual tank system. I have made biodiesel a couple of times 50 gal total and it runs great too. My costs are low, I figure I have already paid for 2 of the three vehicles on fuel cost alone. Biodiesel and WVO will clean the crap out of your fuel tank. I have plugged filters when I changed over to WVO and never had a problem with growth but I dewater and blend with diesel. Good Luck! If you need any info on my setup PM me.

 

[stampy]

Oh I probably have 15k miles on my diesel benz 300sd Mostly around town driving. It takes about a hour a week for the pickup and processing of 55 gal. The centrifuge runs without watching it. I also never had a cold start problem and I live in northern NC and I am a GA Tech Grad!