Alternative fuels for diesel: impact on emissions?

[cranetruck]

Rizzo, coking as I understand it , builds up over time and comes from starting on cold WVO, which may leave a residue. WVO is also acid and leaving it in the system when the engine isn't used may cause other problems in the long run.
With a two-tank system, only regular diesel is left in the system when the truck is not used.
In the summer I have noticed that the fuel temperature will build up as you drive, I have seen 125°F on my fuel temp gauge and that's without heating the fuel. I don't have to use the haeter much on a drive when it's warm out. The return flow back into the tank is about 2 to 3 quarts/minute so it doesn't take long for all to have cycled through and been heated by the IP and injectors.

Gary, a 50-50 fresh VO mix with diesel should be perfect.

 

[rmgill]

Darnit, my ace in the hole source for WVO sells theirs. Now I'll have to pester total strangers. Hmm, I wonder what the indian restaurants do with their oil. That could be an interesting smell going down the road. Hmmm, Garlic nan and curry....

 

[cranetruck]

Yeah, losing the source for used cooking oil is often on my mind. I have picked up oil from Jim's Grill here for over a year about once or twice a week and have no other source should they change their mind about giving it to me.
A good supply of WVO is important, that's for sure.

 

[cranetruck]

Lovebloodhounds, let us know how your first biodiesel batch comes out.

 

[lovebloodhounds]

Bjorn and all so far good lettig it sit for a day or two Thanks agian for your info Kenneth

 

[Adamlee]

alt fuel cost/benefits

Bjorn, with your calculations using bio/WVO this past year or so, how does the bottom line look?
Costs of materials, investment in space/personal time, etc...is there some sort of "ballpark" number that you might hazard a guess as to a "price per gallon" for your home-brew fuel?

With the news I heard today about gas prices possibly moving towards 4 bucks a gallon with all the turmoil going on in Lebanon etc, bio sure seems to be here to stay as an option for many....especially those of us w/ diesel MV's....

 

[cranetruck]

RE: alt fuel cost/benefits

Good question Adam. The way I see it, it's an investment over a period of time, I put in a few hours each week and spend some money on lye and methanol as I go along accumulating fuel.
When time comes for a trip, like the last one to GA/FL, during which I used some 110 gallons of BD plus WVO, the actual cost at the time was very little for fuel, the 1,200 mile trip cost me less than $300, which included purchases at Wayne's place, food, supplies and some additional diesel. Figure $600 for the trip if regular diesel had been used exclusively.
To keep cost down, I spent the nights at truck stops sleeping in the cab of the deuce. Shower plus food at ea stop cost perhaps $20/night.
With my 50-50 mix of BD and WVO, the cost/gallon of fuel is about $0.40/gallon, which doesn't include the cost in time to prepare the stuff.
Cost to prepare the deuce with dual tank, heated tank, valves, controls etc has been spread out over a year, but is probably $500 or so for parts alone. Probably more if I added in all the wrong parts that were purchsed, solenoid valves that didn't perform for example.
I have also had great help and free parts and suggestions from Kenny Engle and Robert Miller in particular. Thanks Guys!

 

[lovebloodhounds]

RE: alt fuel cost/benefits

Bjorn put the batch in this afternoon after work then went to pick the kids up from bible school motor ran great so far Thanks agian Kenneth

 

[ken]

Gary as long as your FDC is hooked up and working right it should work. Besides as hot as it is in CA it should thin right out LOL!!!

 

[Earl_Beverly]

Bjorn,
Do you think a run of straight bio would wash the paraffin from WMO, fats from fryer oil, and other soluables through the fuel filters? Just a thought to run an hour or two of 100% bio to free the filters...
Earl

 

[houdel]

Just the opposite. Biodiesel is a solvent. Running Bio will dissolve all the crud in your fuel sytem that diesel didn't. All that crud ends up in your fuel filters. Normal practice is to plan at least TWO extra fuel filter changes shortly after converting to bio as all that crud the diesel left in your tank and lines WILL be picked up by the bio and plug up your fuel filters!

 

[ken]

Earl, Lee is right Bio will clean everything. It will knock everything loose and plug up the filters. I've tried it in my car and trucks. It plugged the filters after about 500 miles. It must have cleaned the injectors also because black smoke was greatly reduced even when switching back to regular diesel. I buy it about every 3rd tankfull now. Once i changed the filters the first time i haven't had any more trouble.

 

[Boatcarpenter]

I could use some clarification on terms here please. Earl Beverly wrote "Do you think a run of straight bio would...). What exactly is straight bio in Texas? Not B20 that we get around here? I guess I run "straight" bio for around here, but being only 20% oil (whatever they can find to blend), will it have the same cleansing effect as what you are using in Texas? Also Bjorn talks about a 50/50 mix of BD and WVO. Is the BD a 20% BD or does Meadows of Dan use some other mix?

 

[ken]

BC, The stuff i get here is B99.9. I get it at www.houstonbiodiesel.com . I don't know of any place locally that sells B20. B20 being 20% bio and 80% regular diesel. I would think B20 would still clean the fuel system but not as quickly as the B99 does.
I think bjorn is running B100 for his bio and mixing it 50-50 with straight vegitable oil?

 

[reblawyer]

Any suggestions out there on good solenoid valves and where to buy them for a heated two tank wvo/svo system?

 

[SasquatchSanta]

Darnit, my ace in the hole source for WVO sells theirs. Now I'll have to pester total strangers. Hmm, I wonder what the indian restaurants do with their oil. That could be an interesting smell going down the road. Hmmm, Garlic nan and curry....

First of all ... don't shoot the messenger but as someone that spent over 30 years in the rendering and vegetable oils industry I fear more and more of this is going to be happening.

With diesel prices soaring the renders are starting to loose more and more of the grease (WVO) business and are starting to circle their wagons. I just spoke with a fats and oils broker that said renderers in Iowa (for insance) are having all kinds of problems and are starting to tell their pick-up accounts that if they allow the ice cream (term for the good stuff) to be syphoned off by others that they will stop servicing their account all together which would include handling products like sludge that MUSTS be disposed of.

If you could establish a rapport with a local renderer you might be able to buy what they call yellow grease (WVO) in small quantities. Current Midwest prices for yellow grease is 12 cents/lb. Most renderes centrifuge and filter their yellow grease so most if not all the work would already be done for you.

Just a thought --- like I said --- please don't shoot the messenger --- the writing is on the wall

 

[forrestkk]

If you run to much you can get injector coking, but the biggest factor is ring land coking. If you don't keep the VO hot (about 160F) before injection you get get crappy atomization and incomplete burn. Evenutally you will lose compression and be in bad shape, but there are plenty of options to get the VO up to temp and you will have no issue.

 

[n1vbn]

Any suggestions out there on good solenoid valves and where to buy them for a heated two tank wvo/svo system?

I would go here for the best solenoid valves.


http://www.greasecar.com/product_list.cfm?cat=Individual Components



I will be having a full Greasecar system installed in my M-1009 This fall.

Jim

 

[cranetruck]

When towing the 8x8 home from Oklahoma, I used a mix of 50% veggie oil for 1/2 a tank full or so and noticed a rather big difference in performance pulling the 37,000 lb rig uphill. I used 100% petro diesel for the remainder of the trip....
If you can afford to suffer some loss in performance, biofuels are okay, otherwise stick to petro diesel. My

 

[rmgill]

Just a thought --- like I said --- please don't shoot the messenger --- the writing is on the wall

No need to shoot the messenger. One man's waste is another man's treasure. Some places pay to have it picked up, some places get paid for it to be picked up. Once it goes into a company's tank I consider it theirs (and that's the law too). Places I'll be getting it from are the ones that still pay to have it picked up and I'll just leave them a tank that I can go pick up and drop off. I just have to start getting some tanks/drums to do this and a way to load/unload them.