How efficient is a bus fueled by vegetable oil?

Question

At this years Bonnaroo Music Festival, "Clean Vibes" had a bus fueled by vegetable oil. How efficient is an engine like that? Why isn't that or something similar mass produced?

Answer 1

It's as efficient as any diesel bus.

Answer 2

I currently run my Ford Excursion on veggie oil. I had it modified about 8 months ago. All diesel engines can run on vegetable oils with a simple modification, but gasoline engines can't. I get approximately 20 MPG in my 4x4 Excursion with the same performance that I experience using diesel, but without the emmissions and the foreign fuel dependency. I get my oil from three restaurants that give me their used oil after they clean out their fryers. I filter it and put it straight into my fuel tank. My exhaust smells a little like a fish fry.

I drove by Bonnaroo Sunday night before it was over (I live below Nashville). I hope you had fun. I know the weather was nice.

Here is the website of the company that did my modification. The owner, Charlie, has an Excursion just like mine.

Answer 3

Because can you imagine what would happen if we switched the US over to corn oil, or some other kind of plant-based fuel? We would have to convert over half the landmass of the US to farm enough crops to get the fuel we need to keep running. All the fertilizer runoff, displaced animals and ecosystems ruined... it would be engineering our own destruction. The truth is that we're already over-farming the land, and the plants we rely on to sustain us are beginning to lack vital nutrients that we need to stay healthy.

The truth is that there ARE energy-alternatives out there that could power all of our cities indefinitely, but you won't see them popping up anywhere because the technology IS being supressed. Somebody wanted us pulling oil out of the Earth where it belonged and burning it because it was a critical component in maintaining our energy fields. Then they set off a whole bunch of nuclear weapons as "tests" to further the ruinition of our planet. All this on a leap of faith that our creator would swoop down and save us right before the end.

Why do all this? Because our solar system and its energy fields are nearing the point where they will no longer be able to sustain life. The galactic current that passes over the Sun and lights it up like a light bulb and causes it to release vital electrons to our planet is weakening. As this happens, there will be more sunspots which transport electrons from the Sun's surface to its solid inner core. On Earth, massive hurricanes and tornadoes will pull electrons out from under our atmosphere (which acts like an insulator to hold them in) where they will be pulled back to the Sun. Our planet will quickly turn into a barren wasteland and no one will know why, because they do not know that the electrons the Sun gave up are what allowed the biosphere to exist.

Watch it get real religious real quick after that point. This is why nobody wants us being energy efficient. Any hopes to survive would only be prolonging the suffering. Have faith in God. :)

Answer 4

It is very efficient, fuel cost is about 50 cents a gallon, why they are not mass produced is probably due to oil companies surpressing the technology

Answer 5

yes, instead of diesel. in our country it is rapeseed oil, i have seen other oil in tropical countries be used as diesel. there is recession in agriculture in many countries so these energo-crops can be groun on the surplus arable land and that is better than if the farmers and trade unionist screamed that they dont have demand for their produce. of course u cant plough down all the country to phase out all the gas. but if some % of car fuel is not fossile fuel , than it is good. it is the same as with all alternatives - it doesnot make sense as the only älternative, but only together with others

Answer 6

because they use compressed natural gas I believe, which is very efficient, but that wont be mass produced yet until the infrastructure is in place to do this. Ethanol plants are sprouting up very quickly.

Answer 7

It may be efficient, but recycled oil from restaurants leave a putrid smell in the air.....