Comments on: Fast-food fat: Future fuel for cars

If you like the convenience of fast food and cleaner-burning fuel from the same source, then you can have it your way.

[sandsunsurf]

BioDiesel versus waste oil

This article is somewhat confusing because it uses the term
biodiesel interchangeably to describe both biodiesel and waste
oil. There are two distinct ways to use waste oils in a diesel
engine, and the author describes them both, but confuses the
issues because of the misuse of the word biodiesel.

Biodiesel is in fact the result of transesterification of waste oils.
Commercially available biodiesel is almost always mixed with
petroleum based diesel. 5% Biodiesel with 95% diesel is called
B5 diesel and can be run in nearly all diesel engines wihout
modification. B20 is 20% biodiesel and can be run in many
diesel engines, especially older ones, as can higher percentages
of biodiesel- usually made by hobbyists.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) is the most common term used for
waste oil that is burned in a diesel engine. As the author
described, to run WVO, a diesel car is usually fitted with tank
heaters, heated fuel lines, and/or heated fuel filters. This makes
the WVO have a similar viscosity to diesel fuel, allowing the
engine to run on a pure WVO fuel once the system is hot.

The idea of collecting waste oils from restaurants is not new, in
fact in many towns one of the oldest businesses likely to be
around but not known is the rendering plant. The rendering
plant collects the used oil from the grease dumpsters in the
back of buildings, just in a lower-key manner than normal
garbage pick up. In the old days, and in some cases today, the
rendering companies disposed of animal carcasses by rendering.
Google "rendering plant" for more info.

In many areas, WVO enthusiasts and biodiesel hobbyists can
purchase the waste oil they need for about $1 a gallon (sold by
the pound).

The article has one more glaring error- there is certainly more
than 150 gallons of biodiesel made each year. Many hobbyists
make more than that, so that must be a typo.

Also, many estimates I've found on the web still show that even
using all restaurant waste oil for biodiesel and WVO would only
cover a single digit percentage of America's total amount of
petroleum consumption.

[sumwatt]

Great clarifications

I know that I have read quite a bit on biodiesel in the past. One of the oft misunderstood issues in WVO is that it does take some hardware (for lack of a better word) modification to the fuel system in order to achieve the expected results.

[kieranmullen]

Looking for funding

This is all old news isnt it? I mean years old!

Probably just looking for funding for BiOil.

KieranMullen

[mr3vil]

Newer Diesels don't have trouble either

I've run my 2000 F250 on home made B100 before without any ill effect. Usually I run B50 to prevent gelling. The big factor is fuel filter changes. Bio-Diesel is an excellent detergent and often cleans up the crud DinoDiesel left behind. Crud that ends up in your fuel filter. You'll have to change your fuel filter after the first tank and probably the second before all the residue gets cleaned.

[michael kanellos]

Don't fully understand your post

The difference between biodiesel and waste vegetable oil is descriibed in the story. The terms are also not used interchangeably. I cut some technical detail out because of length. Here is what is in the story.

Converting waste oil or animal fat into biodiesel is a somewhat straightforward chemical process. Through the transesterification process, glycerols, which make the oil more viscous, are removed from the oil. Hobbyists who run their cars on deep fat fryer oil today have to insert an additional tank inside their cars or trucks where the oil can be heated up before going into the engine. The heating counteracts the effects of the glycerols. (Biodiesel hobbyists also filter the oil.)

[michael kanellos]

Don't fully understand your post

The difference between biodiesel and waste vegetable oil is descriibed in the story. The terms are also not used interchangeably. I cut some technical detail out because of length. Here is what is in the story.

Converting waste oil or animal fat into biodiesel is a somewhat straightforward chemical process. Through the transesterification process, glycerols, which make the oil more viscous, are removed from the oil. Hobbyists who run their cars on deep fat fryer oil today have to insert an additional tank inside their cars or trucks where the oil can be heated up before going into the engine. The heating counteracts the effects of the glycerols. (Biodiesel hobbyists also filter the oil.)

[metal-man]

true it can save us but it can drastically reduce the ozone depletion if its done right and we make a gornment owned corn field or fields that are stictly for the makeing of corn oil it could help out alot of our fuel problems as well but dropping the fossil fuels to make room for these are costly thats why i say we keep them until we are able to get the Corn Oil up and running it may just save us alot of pain and suffering in the long run

[hoatzin]

More freedom fries! More H2s!

"Fast food" as we know it could not exist without a cheap-petroleum-based economy and car-dominated infrastructure.
To think that either biodiesel or ethanol will save us from going off the fast-approaching cliff is as foolish as hoping for a "hydrogen economy." (Hydrogen is an energy storage medium, NOT an energy source.)

This time next century, "fast food" will be whatever stray dog or pigeon meat you can catch and eat before some other starving peasant steals it from you. And our lazyass grease-guzzling car-culture will be largely to blame for this avoidable catastrophe.

[ggf1938]

Freedom Fries!

DEAD ON Correct!

[umbrae]

You can do it now...

Most diesel engines will run off straight (new or filtered) cooking oil with no processing or modification. Standard engines can run off it with modified engines.

Using Bio-WASTE is more feasible that using food stock to create fuel. Too many people go hungry in the world to burn food in cars. Waste is the only way to go.

[jt369]

Conversion?

Where can I learn more about what I need to do to convert a standard engine?

[Clouseau2]

Yes but

This is good for making our energy system more efficient, but it won't replace but a sliver of consumption, AND of course it took an amazing amount of oil to grow the food to feed to the animals, to transport the food and the animals, etc., so it really isn't replacing oil, it's just increasing efficiency.

[darix2005]

think

Mac is evil

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