Use Veggie Oil in your Diesel

Rudolf Diesel, the German inventor of the diesel engine, designed the engine to run on vegetable oil.

In 1898, Rudolf Diesel was granted a US patent on the diesel engine; the first US production of diesel engines began. The modern diesel engines of today are improved versions of Rudolf Diesel's first engines. Diesel engines are often used in submarines, ships, locomotives, and large trucks.

New or used vegetable oil? 

Used oil is the most popular option because you can pick it up for FREE in most cases.  Restaurants either throw away their used cooking oil or pay someone to remove it, so you have an instant FREE source.  If you go to your local grocery store and buy the new clean oil you may pay $6.00 a gallon.  May be a good idea for cooking French fries but not fuel.  You can find large quantities of soybean oil for about $3.50 a gallon.  Still not low enough to be used for fuel. 

Used oil will need to be filtered or water cleaned in the case of biodiesel.  It is best when you collect used oil to let it set for a period of time, allowing any dregs to settle to the bottom.  Then when you are ready to draw it off, leave the dregs at the bottom of the container. 

Veggie oil lovers using straight oil will need to modify their vehicle with a kit, where the engine is started with petrodiesel, so the engine is warm enough to warm the vegetable oil and allow it to flow.  Before the engine it stopped for a number of hours it would need to be switched back to petro diesel, which washes the vegetable oil that could jell and clog the fuel system.

Biodiesel does not need any engine modification or warming before it can be used.  Biodiesel is created in most cases from vegetable oil.  Biodiesel requires a process where the glycerin and other impurities are removed.  A blended version Biodiesel will become increasingly more popular at the pump.  Your big players like Shell oil are planning to jump on the biodiesel band wagon in 2007 offering this blend.  The blend is measured by the percentage of biodiesel mixed with the petrodiesel.  The most popular blend is B20, which is 20% petrodiesel and 80% biodiesel.  B100 is of course, 100% biodiesel. 
With straight oil, you need to bring the oil up to 176 degrees using the heat from the engine to equal the viscosity of petrodiesel.  Biodiesel falls somewhere in the middle.  When it falls below 32 degrees, either additives must be added to the biodiesel or petrodiesel needs to be blended with biodiesel to keep the viscosity high enough to prevent clouding.
Straight oil is cheaper because you do nothing to the oil but maybe filter it.  The biodiesel will cost around 70 cents a gallon for the home user that chooses to buy a machine and process it themselves.  The fuelmeister is the most popular unit on the market.  They have sold over 3,000 units while their closest competition follows up the rear at 600 units sold.  These units only take up a corner of your garage and are simple to operate. 

Start making your own biodiesel fuel for only 70 cents a gallon! - Fuelmeister Biodiesel Processor

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