Can one burn vedgey oil in a yanmar?

[Archdean]

I actually have a Masters degree for whatever that might be worth? (Not a candidate looking for a silly thesis)

Reading this thread brings to mine the fellow who constantly steps over a dime to pick up a nickel!!

For whatever reason could you possibly have to want or think it would be cost-effective let alone be beneficial for your engine to want to use contaminated veggie oil in your diesel tractor!!!

Perhaps you might want to consider using it to facilitate your trash/leaf burning this fall or as I do help the driftwood alight that accumulates on my beach front or maybe help keep the dust down on your dirt roadway if it is allowed!!

Consider me to now be the latest person to have seen it all!!!

Dean

 

[ronnie2005]

I think you missed the point. He asked if it will work? Answer: yes.

Cost effective? Only he can be the judge of that.

We are only suggesting sorces of information.

 

[Darren]

Dean if you review my first post in this thread,

"In the warm months a diesel will burn FRESH vegetable oil with no problem. The vegetable oil actually has more BTUs than diesel. If you're talking about the used oil from a restaurant, you're going to have impurities and other issues to deal with. "

You'll see that I did not advocate using used vegetable oil in a diesel. My comments and references are based on using fresh oil not the stuff that went through a deep fryer. Just the fact that anyone has the option of using unused vegetable in a diesel during the appropriate season can come in handy. For the numbskull who dumps corn oil in his tank during cold weather, don't blame me when it gels.

I haven't priced a gallon of Mazzola lately, but if oil prices keep going up it's not unreasonable that at some point you can buy your diesel fuel cheaper off the grocer's shelves. If that peak oil stuff is correct, I'm going to be watching the price of vegetable oil at the supermarket. Get the thesis and decide for yourself. I've led all you hosses to the water. Can't make it much easier than that. I had to buy the book 25 years ago to dig out the references in the bibliography. BTW, that's a great book for anyone who wants to know about the design of engines.

For those who want to get their fuel from a restaurant, follow the previous links and correctly process the stuff before you feed in to your diesel. Both you and your diesel will be happier.

 

[Archdean]

OK,,, I Missed the point!! Maybe??

1.2 gallons of Wesson Oil purchased from Sam's club 3 weeks ago was $6.08 !!! Now who is Zooming who????

 

[ronnie2005]

Ouch..

Haven't bought any lately, vegi is still alittle pricy to change from my usage from petro diesel. If I was a high rate consumer, more than my 250-300 gals a year, I might consider a change, but until then I personally will stay with petro diesel.

 

[Darren]

If you want to burn vegetable oil bought at a competitive rate go to the Bunge corporate site and get a quote for soybean or corn oil. Be prepared to buy a truck or car load though to get that price. I doubt they'll be willing to sell the stuff to you in those little 55 gal. drums.

I wouldn't be surprised that if you bought a bulk car load the price would be cheaper than diesel at the pump. Of course this thread wasn't about economics it was about whether vegetable oil could be used to run a diesel. I think we've settled that issue for anyone who wants real life hold it in their hand read about the lab results proof.

 

[Archdean]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( It's a good thing the diesel I ran on vegetable oil didn't know that. It might have decided not to run. It did though and the exhaust did smell like something being deep fried.

FWIW, a couple of master degree candidates at MIT tested diesels on various vegetable oils for their thesis. At one time I had a copy of it. That's my basis for saying vegetable oils have a higher BTU content than Diesel fuel. That thesis was referenced in an article back in the 70's during the oil crisis. A professor at a college was running a diesel on alternative fuels. I like to look at actual source documents so I ordered a copy of the thesis from MIT.

I can probably locate the original magazine article and get the info to locate the thesis if you'd like to see for yourself.

I located the article in about a minute. Isn't the internet great!

http://www.motherearthnews.com/arc/2229/ )</font>

Here is what your RE says: It says nothing about the parimeters of the engine and what would or could of happned to it had this practice been continued!!

So, being a curious guy, I got on the phone to MIT and asked the folks there to send me a copy of the thesis ... fully expecting that it would describe some sort of complicated and expensive mechanical conversion that would have to be finished before the diesel could run on vegetable fuel.

However, the thesis didn't recommend any such thing. In fact, it stated that the authors had just poured the oil in and fired 'er up. "Well," I said to myself, "nothing's that simple ... there must be a catch."

So I picked up a gallon of diesel fuel and a gallon of soybean oil and took them to the college's shop. Dr. Donald Hudson—who taught the course in Advanced Power Mechanics—was as curious about my experiment as I was ... and he teststarted the shop's 600-horsepower Cummins turbocharged J-model diesel. The engine, of course, ran perfectly on diesel fuel.

Then, knowing that the Cummins was in working order, I disconnected the fuel lines, drained the tank, and—once everything was reconnected—poured in the gallon of vegetable oil.

The engine came to life with a roar ... and the smell of a hundred burning skillets filled the shop. It worked!

That successful experiment caused me to read further into the MIT thesis. The authors of that paper found that soybean oil actually produced more power — per pound — than did diesel fuel itself! Which seems to mean that the vegetable product would deliver more miles per gallon than would the petroleum derivative
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Now if that bit of scientific humor is good enough for you to advocate to others and even quote a flawed thesis as the basis of your claim, I can only say that my G/F just asked me what she should do with the old Wesson oil from her French fryer and I said save it and I'll send it to you guys to use in your tractors!! And I'll pay the freight!!

With all due respect and some Humor of my own to boot!!

Dean

 

[PBinWA]

I researched BioDiesel, SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil), and Waste Vegetable Oil options a year ago. The most economical method is to get waste vegetable oil and filter it and run it through your engine. Two years ago I called around and found a Renderer ( I think that is what they are called) that would sell me used cooking oil for 50-70 cents a gallon. These guys have contracts with restaurants to pick up and dispose their waste oil from the deep fryers.

Depending upon the quality of the oil (apparently using oil that was used to cook fish is really stinky) you would then take that used oil, filter it to the whatever degree you want and then run that in your engine.

There is a book on the subject called: "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank" (ISBN 0-9707227-0-2) that describes how to make a simple switch over system for running veggie oil.

You can buy a kit from these guys: Neoteric Biofuels that is reasonable or just get ideas for the pieces needed.

I want to do this but I don't have the free time to do all the work behind the scenes. Maybe when Diesel hits $5.00/Gallon I will make the time (It's already $2.86/Gal at a local station - groan)

 

[wd45]

Guys (or Ya'll to fellow southerners)

If I am not mistaken, Mr Diesel designed his first compression engine to run on vegetable oil. The Biodiesel link is a good site for information. Aparently Conagra, Cargill and a few other Ag conglomerates are backing the use of biodiesel to expand the market for their products. You have probably heard of the controversies surrounding biogenetically engineered crops, but if you burn the products in your car, truck or tractor, then who cares, and as petrolieum prices go up, then biodiesel just gets more competitive. And who remembers the mid seventies with lines at the gas stations? Just by-pass the station and go to the local restaurant? or if biodiesel really gets started then a home grown fuel source might really appear attractive. Right now thou, biodiesel cost more, but it does lubricate the engine better and since the sulfer is being removed(?) there is some payback in increased engine life, and it burns cleaner.

What gets me fired up about biodiesel (vedgey oil) is not cost savings but a bunch of other advantages. Keep up the messages, the more we know, the better off we are.

Mike

 

[Archdean]

Consider this a PSA about veggie oils!!

Before anyone runs down to the local eatery or takes the Missis's French Fry oil out to your $50,000 truck or tractor you better read and take to heart what this fellow says about moisture in Veggie oil!! If you like your Injector Pump That will cost you dearly to replace!!

Dean

web page on Moisture in VO