Veg Oil Info

As the Tesco veg oil thread in the discovery forum is gettin quite alot of interest, thought i would drop this veg oil info in here so all forum users might stumble on it....

Taken From

BBC - Climate Change - Bloom - Running your car on waste vegetable oil

For those that cant be assed clicking here it is....

A recipe for low-emission motoring?

Some diesel engines will run on waste cooking oil if it's brewed into biodiesel or blended with old fashioned 'fossil' diesel. If you convert your engine you can even use it neat. However you cut it, recycled oil will slash emissions from driving and can make a tasty saving against soaring pump prices.
Running your car on the same oil that fries your fish is a major CO2 saver and could be 'cheap as chips' too (especially if its free from the local greasy spoon). Cars running on cooking oil - used or otherwise - get similar fuel economy to diesels and 20-30% better than ordinary petrol.
In practice there isn't nearly enough of the stuff to fuel Britain's six million diesel cars, but if you have a pre-2000 low-pressure diesel engine, waste oil could be a golden opportunity for you and the climate - unlike the majority of 'primary' biofuels. In fact, the government's Better Regulation Commission is satisfied that waste cooking oil "makes economic and environmental sense."
And fiddling around with your engine isn't a must. An expanding network of filling stations sell biodiesel brewed from recycled oil which can be added to some unconverted engines. So can our waste veggie oil help us to stop cooking the climate?

Pub Fact

• The catering industry in the UK produces about 50-90 million litres of waste cooking oil each year
• Rudolf Diesel's very first engine was powered by peanut oil in 1900
• Ireland discards more than 10,000 tonnes of waste vegetable oil every year
• As much as 25% of waste cooking oil collected in the UK is being exported, mainly to Germany and France, according to the Better Regulation Commission
• Recent reports suggest that there are about 35 companies making waste cooking oil biodiesel commercially in the UK

How will it make a difference?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/cookingoil.shtml#

The average diesel car produces nearly three tonnes of CO2 a year. Switch to waste biodiesel (processed waste veggie oil) and you can expect to cut your driving emissions by about 85% , according to the Department for Transport. Convert your engine to run on pure waste cooking oil alone and your emissions will be dangerously close to zero. Of course, waste veggie oil produces CO2 but no more than the CO2 that the plant originally took out of the air through photosynthesis. Read the full report (Carbon and Sustainability Reporting Within the Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation, 2008).
A knock-on effect is that the oil you use would otherwise have gone down the drain or into landfill - where it leaks methane, a greenhouse gas. Over half of the 100,000 sewer blockages cleared each year by Thames Water result from fat - much of it poured down sinks. (For other ways to dispose of cooking oil, see 'How do I do it?')
In order to make the biggest carbon savings you need to convert your engine to run on pure, unprocessed veggie oil, which costs money up front (typically £500-£1,000). Nevertheless, the savings can offset the conversion costs in a few months. After that, you're in profit on the deal.
Back to top

What's the debate?

"Is waste veggie oil 'carbon neutral'?"
Waste vegetable oil has already been used once, so boffins give it a size-zero carbon footprint. In fact, Swiss research published in 2007 found that the only transport biofuel that consistently performs better than petrol in environmental terms is waste cooking oil. That said, waste veggie oil still emits CO2 when it is combusted in your engine - but only as much as it absorbed while it was growing in a field. In addition, a burgeoning demand for waste vegetable oil could potentially spur further growth in the biofuel industry down the line. It's already fueling 'cooking oil wars' amongst biodiesel makers in London, according to the Telegraph. Read our article on the perils of 'primary' biofuels.
"If it's such a good idea why aren't we all doing it?"
There's simply not enough cooking oil in the UK to take over from diesel entirely according to the government's Better Regulation Commission. Current waste oil supplies could only feasibly power around one-350th of the UK's cars. In fact, the Energy Systems Research Unit estimates that the UK can only produce enough biodiesel from waste veggie oil to displace less than 0.6% of conventional diesel.
"Is running a car on pure vegetable oil legal? Doesn't the government levy tax on fuel?"
It's all perfectly above board, and there's no tax to pay unless you use more than 2,500 litres a year (enough to take you about 20,000 miles). Hang on to your receipts in case you're ever asked to prove you haven't exceeded the limit.
Beyond that point you'll need to establish the amount of duty payable per litre, a complex business dependent on whether its chemical consistency qualifies it for a biofuel reduction (call the HM Revenue and Customs' National Advice Service on 0845 010 9000 for details). You may be able to source your oil from a collective that will do these calculations for you.
Back to top

What's stopping me?

"I have a petrol car, not a diesel one."
Fair enough - only diesel cars can use vegetable oil. The alternative biofuel is ethanol based E85, but it's not nearly as eco-friendly. Yet.
"My local dealership says I can kiss my warranty goodbye."
It's very unlikely a manufacturer's warranty will be valid once you've converted a new car to veggie oil. And there are some other things to bear in mind too:

• It's not advisable to put pure vegetable oil in modern high-pressure diesels as it may wreck the engine and land you with a repair bill running into several thousand pounds
• You need to replace the fuel filter more often, but the new filter only costs around £10

"I don't want to convert my car to run on pure veggie oil. Is there an alternative?"
Yes. If the waste vegetable oil has been processed into biodiesel, then you can probably run your diesel car on it without conversion. (Generally speaking, cars built from 1994 onwards are probably ok - but it's worth checking with your car manufacturer). You can get waste vegetable biodiesel at some small biodiesel filling stations - or make it yourself from waste cooking oil.
Back to top

How do I do it?

If you have a diesel car, you may be able to run your car on pure waste vegetable oil:

• Check with your car manufacturer whether your car can run on pure veggie oil - or is suitable for conversion to vegetable power
• Inform your insurance company and car manufacturer of impending conversions
• Check with your local greasy spoon whether you can collect their waste cooking oil - but make sure to buy a filter before you use the oil
• For financial simplicity, search online for duty-paid, filtered veg oil suppliers
• If you're the adventurous type, buy a DIY kit to convert your car to run on 100% veggie power
• Vegetable oil freezes in the cold unlike agricultural biofuel - so consider mixing with traditional biodiesel or diesel in winter

If you can't run your car on pure waste veggie oil, don't despair:

• An alternative is waste vegetable oil that has been processed into biodiesel. Look for your nearest biodiesel filling station and remember to check that their fuel is made from waste veggie oil
• All station diesel now contains from 2.5-5% biodiesel - so adding another 5% of home-brew biodiesel risks breaking an unmodified engine and losing the warranty
• Check that the processed waste biodiesel conforms to the EN 14214 standard
• If you don't mind a spot of DIY, you can take a course in how to make waste biodiesel without blowing your house up: the Low Impact Living Initiative and the Centre for Alternative Technology
• You can even teach yourself how to make waste biodiesel: there are plenty of online guides, including Gas 2.0, Journey To Forever and Schnews. And you can read a BBC article on how to make the stuff

If it all sounds a bit daunting, there are still more productive ways to dispose of your old vegetable oil than in the bin or down the sink:

• Donate it to a recycling scheme so others can run their cars on it: see Reuze
• Put small amounts in your compost bin, mixing it with cardboard or paper
• If you're fond of our feathered friends, mix up any vegetable oil leftovers with seeds, nuts and raisins to make bird patties: Breathing Places
• Find out what other opportunities you're wasting. Read our articles on recycling and low-carbon shopping

Found This 1 too, LR specific

Originally written for the Shire Land Rover club mag

How to run your diesel Land Rover on Vegetable oil


Why?

Why do it? Because waste oil for use in a road vehicle can cost you from as little as 10 p/l as opposed to over 120 p/l for diesel, and because it is very good for the environment. Its a carbon neutral fuel meaning that the exhaust Co2 produced was absorbed by the plants that made the oil in the first place. The particulate emissions are also decreased dramatically.

A bit of background:

Vegetable oil is chemically very similar to diesel. The first Diesel engine (invented by Rudolf Diesel) was demonstrated for the first time running on peanut oil. It was meant to run on whatever oil was produced at the farm. Needless to say the oil industry got their hands on it as it ran very well on ‘heavy oil’ which was an annoying by-product of the petrol distillation process.

The problem:

The major issue with running vegetable oil through a diesel engine is the viscosity. It is many times thicker than diesel, especially at low temperatures. There are many ways to overcome this. One is to change the chemical composition of the oil by transesterifying it, and producing proper bio-diesel. I wont deal with this here, but there are many sites on the internet that detail how to do it.

The solution:

The other major way is to simply heat it up. This is done most easily by attaching a heat exchanger to the coolant lines to heat up the fuel as it passes through. This is the underlying principle – every conversion kit is based on this. However, there are a few other problems you need to be aware of:

Lucas injection pumps are notorious for failing on vegetable oil. These are fitted to 2.25, 2.5 and 2.5 TD engines. The reason is that they rely on the fuel for lubrication, and because vegetable oil is so much thicker, it cannot seep around the rotor head and so deprives it of lubrication. Eventually it seizes and normally snaps the drive shaft or strips the timing belt. Either way, it’s expensive.

The way to overcome this is to fit a second fuel tank. This way you can start or stop on diesel and using changeover valves, change to veg when the the engine and fuel is hot enough (normally when the engine is up to normal operating temperature).

You can also loop the return – take the return to tank line from the injection pump and plumb it into the heated fuel line. Not only does this help the fuel stay hot enough, it also reduces the stress on the injection pump. If you are really cunning, you can fit a second heat exchanger in the loop to ensure everything stays nice and hot.

In fact most DIY kits consist of a heated fuel filter from a Peugeot with the thermostat removed being used as the first heat exchanger. A second is then fitted in the return loop. Some commercial kits however use a modified glow plug arrangement to heat the fuel electrically. However – it has been shown that in a draughty engine compartment (such as your land rover) that they have very little effect on heating the fuel. Use a heat exchanger!

For 2.25 2.5 and 2.5 TD engines, this is all you need to do. Your engine will run as before, just the exhaust will smell like a BBQ.

TDi owners however, have a slightly different concern:

Both the 200 and 300 TDi are fitted with the Bosch injection pump. These have proven to be very robust on vegetable oil. However, the engine itself is the problem. As they are direct injection, it is possible for the vegetable oil to not completely combust in the cylinder when cold. It can then condense onto the cylinder walls, get under the piston rings causing coking and find its way into the sump, where it polymerises the sump oil. Not very nice!

The way around this is to use a twin tank system as outlined above. This enables the engine to heat up on diesel and then when it is warm enough you can change over to veg. Again, heat exchangers and a looped return all help.

If you have a Td4 or Td5 however, a twin tank might work….I have not heard of any Td4 or Td5 owners using vegetable oil, however a twin tank should work in theory. Anyone fancy trying it?

Some cars will go on vegetable oil from cold with no modification. Generally any engine with a Bosch VE injection pump, or inline injection pump that is In-direct injection will be fine if you tip the fuel straight in the tank. It might go a little better if you loop the return and add a heat exchanger though.

I have converted a 2.25, and 2.5 TD and a 300 TDi, and all go very well on veg. Here are some photos of my converted SIII 2.25 and 300TDi.

Supplies:

So that’s the technical bit over with. You might now be wondering where to get your oil. It works out slightly cheaper than diesel to go to the supermarket (Tesco’s own in 3l bottles is the cheapest at the moment at 44 p/l)

However, the real saving occurs when you use waste oil. If you can find a restaurant that can give you their waste oil, then all you need to do is to let it settle in drums for about a week so all the solid animal fats, chips, fish heads etc sink to the bottom and then decant the good liquid oil from the top. This can then be pumped through a filter and put into your tank. This brings the cost of the fuel down


Kits:

Hopefully I might have convinced you to convert your gas guzzler to vegetable oil. The cheapest way to do it is to make everything yourself. However, I would recommend for simplicities sake to buy a kit. http://www.smartveg.com is the place to go for a kit. This kit is the best kit around – it is computer controlled and switches over to vegetable oil automatically when the fuel has reached a high enough temperature. I know of a couple of 300 TDi owners with this installed. DieselVeg Home - Diesel to Vegetable Oil engine conversions will sell you a cheaper kit, but it relies on the judgement of the driver for when the oil is hot enough – and it uses an electric glow plug type assembly in the looped return

Much more information is available on the net about running on oil and making bio-diesel. vegetableoildiesel.co.uk - Powered by XMB is a good starting forum for all aspects of this.

Other fuels:

It is possible to use fuels that are solid at room temperature as a fuel. I have been experimenting with this in my 2.25 SIII. I have a copper pipe running through my second fuel tank carrying hot engine coolant. This then feeds into a heated fuel filter and through a heat exchanger before making it to the engine compartment where it passes through a second heat exchanger in a looped return.

So far it has run very well. I have been using the solid fat that settles out from used oil. The liquid oil goes into my 300TDi. Solid fat has about 5% extra energy above diesel, so it is a very easy way to get a little more power! Unfortunately this still isn’t quite enough for me, so I have a 3.5 V8 lined up to go in the front

First bit about the legality & registering is outta date and needs deleting. rest is good reading though.

good old tw@t mag........ffs

redhand said:

First bit about the legality & registering is outta date and needs deleting. rest is good reading though.

Click to expand...

Noticed that on 2nd reading All edited now, cheers

Please dont convert your landy to vege oil, especially if you live near me.





I dont want to share the local supply of wvo

Biggest benefit is when you get into conversation with so called greenies ( not the ones who actually understand the real concepts, but the I've read about this in the guardian types) who think all 4x4 owners should be shot - it takes all the wind form their sails when you point out that their beloved prius with its nickel batteries is a bigger polluter than your nasty filthy land rover.