Biodiesel is not the only renewable liquid fuel at our fingertips. Some vehicle owners are burning vegetable oil directly into their diesel vehicles.
That's right, your eyes don't fool you, there is vegetable oil in car and trucks and buses equipped with diesel engines. Some individuals acquire the fuel from vegetable oil in bulk. Others rescue vegetable oils from fast food chains and other restaurants.
How to use vegetable oil in a diesel car
To run a vehicle with vegetable oil, which is more viscous than conventional biodiesel or diesel cars, and truck owners must make some modifications to their vehicles. To make these conversions there are companies that sell conversion kits with a cost of $ 300 to $ 800 dollars, depending on the quality of the equipment. People can install the same equipment or they can hire a professional to do the job.
Before examining the contents of a conversion kit, it is helpful to understand the main purpose of these kits.
First of all, most conversion kits are designed to store vegetable oil, apart from diesel fuel or biodiesel. In most cars, you can't just fill a diesel tank with vegetable oil because cars and trucks can't run on 100 percent vegetable oil at all times. The main reason for this is that you cannot start a car or a truck with vegetable oil.
Secondly, because vegetable oil is much more viscous than diesel, it has to be heated to about 165°F or 74°C before being burned in a diesel engine. The heat makes the oil finer.
All equipment provides simple but ingenious devices that heat the vegetable oil so that it flows freely in the engine.
With this in mind, let's take a look at a typical conversion kit. All conversion kits include a separate tank for storing vegetable oil. They are made of steel or plastic and are placed in the trunks of cars or in the trunks of vans.
The conversion kits also come with the pipe to connect the vegetable oil tank to the combustion chambers in the diesel engine and a filter to remove impurities from the oil before the engine arrives.
The conversion kits also include valves to control the flow of biodiesel. Switches that allow the operator to control the valves are typically mounted on or near the dashboard to allow for ease of use. A fuel gauge is included to monitor the vegetable oil in the auxiliary tank.
One of the most important components of the conversion kit, however, is a device for heating vegetable oil. Some systems are based on electric heating heaters. Others use heat exchangers that transfer heat from the engine to vegetable oil. Both systems heat the vegetable oil so that it is thin enough to flow freely to the engine.
Authors: Val