FAQs
1. What kind of
engine is necessary to run on Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO)? 2. What type of conversion did you have to do to the engine? |
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We have had great success checking grease dumpsters and drums behind restaurants and asking to “take out the trash” when we find a good amount of reasonably clean and fluid grease. We have found that Asian restaurants, especially Chinese, consistently have good grease. Being somewhat picky about your grease helps your filters last longer and makes the filtering chore a lot easier.
If you have a stationary home a good way to get a constant, reliable fuel source might be to set up a contractual agreement with a local restaurant. Have them pour their deep fry oil (not burger lard!!!) through your filter bags/bed sheet/window screen and into your container (ideally a fifty-five gallon drum). You pick up the grease weekly or bi-weekly. The restaurant benefits by saving money which would otherwise be paid to rendering companies, you obtain free pre-filtered fuel, and the oil stays out of landfills, cosmetics, and animal feed.
| 4. Are you engineers or mechanics? Definitely not! We have had no mechanical training! The conversion is relatively easy and requires NO MECHANICAL BACKROUND whatsoever. Josh Tickell’s book (From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank) and a few websites or chat rooms are all we needed to get going. Borrowing someone else’s tools was also helpful. The conversion took us a 3 day weekend, a couple of cases of beer (Zimas for Sobi), and a healthy dose of patience and humility for the trial and error. We’ve seen experienced grease monkeys convert a car in 5 hours. We have already driven our bus, Unifried, over 10,000 miles on SVO and we are clocking in a few hundred more miles every week. We are inspired by this and happy to be spreading the news about this tasty renewable fuel source. |
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This depends on a number of factors, from your vehicle size to how resourceful you can be in acquiring used and salvaged parts. We were able to collect the parts needed for converting our bus for about $700. Smaller vehicles like cars and trucks can be done for around $450. Complete kits are also available for purchase and will range in price. Installing the conversion is not difficult and can be a do-it-yourself weekend project.
6. Why would I want to go through all this effort and get
greasy and dirty instead of buying my fuel at the gas station? (asked
by high school senior in AP Environmental Sciences class) Imagine that you own a vehicle with a ten gallon diesel tank which
gets forty miles to the gallon (about the average fuel efficiency
of diesel cars). You earn minimum wage, currently $6.75. If the current
cost of diesel fuel is $1.75 per gallon it would take you just under
three hours of work to earn enough to fill your tank. If you drive
25 miles a day, every two weeks you would need to refill your tank.
That’s three hours of work put towards fueling your car for
two weeks at low rates of driving. If you collect 50 gallons of pre-filtered
oil every two weeks, after two months you will have 200 hundred gallons
of ready to use oil. That’s $350 dollars worth of fuel for
your car…for free. If you spend $400 to do the modification
to your diesel engine, that money will be made back in just over
two months. From then on all the fuel you use is free and the savings
are adding up! Besides being fuel efficient and able to run on a
free fuel source, diesel engines average 450,000 to 1 million miles
of life. |
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This is the most beautiful part. Running on vegetable oil does not compromise horse power, top speed, or mileage in anyway. How a Diesel engine performs on diesel fuel is how a Diesel engine will perform on WVO. Our beloved Unifried is just as fuel efficient as she was on diesel fuel, getting anywhere from six to eight miles to the gallon. That’s the same mileage as your neighbor’s HumV, except “Uni” is much prettier inside and out.
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8. What are emissions like? There is not much published research on the emissions of Straight Veggie Oil (SVO). However, once industry became interested in biodiesel in the last decade, funding became available for research on biodiesel emissions. Emissions for SVO should be very similar to those of biodiesel. Biofuels are carbon dioxide (CO2) neutral. Unlike petroleum fuels, they do not add new carbon to the atmosphere. Biofuels stay within the existing carbon cycle, by using plant mass. The carbon goes from sky, to plant, to car, back to sky. Sulphur dioxide (SO2) and sulfates (major contributors to acid rain) are completely eliminated due to the fact that sulfur does not exist in veggie oil. Carbon monoxide (CO) emissions are reduced by 40-60% and carcinogens by 90%. Hydrocarbon emissions are reduced by 50% which reduces photochemical smog (ozone) by 50% as well. Particulate matter, a major contributor to increased asthma cases, is reduced by 45%. |
According to Joshua Tickell, the author of “From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank”, there are 3 BILLION gallons of waste vegetable oil generated in the US each year, enough to fuel approximately 5% of all diesel vehicles in the country. Instead of paying farmers tax dollars to not grow crops, biofuel production could be increased and that currently unused land could supply up to 24% of the US diesel fuel needs while keeping farmers employed. Another promising source of oil that is currently being researched by various universities and environmental organizations is algae. Algae can be easily grown in shallow ponds on otherwise infertile and unusable land. It is estimated that this source could supply all the diesel fuel needs of this country.
There are many alternative fuel options for the post fossil fuel era. Vegetable oil is one option that is currently very accessible and economical. We do not believe it is the one, single solution to our energy needs. We envision a future where there is a diversity of fueling options and veggie oil and biodiesel should be and will be on that landscape.
| 10. Can gas cars run on veggie? No, but you can buy an early to mid 80’s Mercedes, VW, Isuzu, or Toyota diesel for around $1000. These cars are relatively easy to work with, and run forever. You can keep two cars and your insurance won’t increase more than a couple bucks a month. Some insurance co’s will actually lower your rates for a second car. Plus, once you do the conversion for about $500 (less if you’re resourceful), you’ll get all your fuel for free and the car will pay for itself within the year. |
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