will my diesel generator run on cooking oil?

Question

I saw a fifth gear programme where they took cooking oil straight from the frying pan into a Mercedes, which ran for 200 miles with no problems, why?

Answer 1

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING ANSWER IF YOU VALUE YOUR DIESEL GENERATOR'S FUTURE EXISTENCE!!!

IT CONTAINS ANSWERS BASED ON FACTS!! PLEASE DON'T SKIP IT WITHOUT READING IT!!!

First of all, cars whose engines changed to use cooking oil are called "grease cars"
.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greasecar

Secondly, the producers of Fifth Gear might have taken oil "straight from the frying pan" and used it to run the car.... but I'll bet you that they didn't tell you of the "itsy-bitsy" tweaks they made to the Mercedes's engine. Here's the reason why...

Diesel engines work by atomizing diesel and air to a high compression rate. This compression rate creates the necessary heat for the ignition and combustion of the mixture. Cooking oil is 10-20 times more viscous (heavier) than diesel. Therefore, trying to atomize cooking oil through the same injector made for the diesel will be like trying to spray butter through the nozzle of a perfume sprayer.

This viscosity problem has to be overcome first. It has been discovered that vegetable oil will achieve viscosity similar to diesel at temperatures of 160 F and higher. Therefore, a mechanism will have to be installed that will heat up the oil to above 160 F before being atomized through the same injector.

Secondly, oil tends to polymerize (turn black and stick) when heated slowly from room temperature. The operating temperature of the oil is 180 F. It means that, if the system is at 180 F and oil "straight from the pan" is introduced to the system, it will not polymerize. Therefore, the engine must have some sort of system to keep the oil heated at a temperature of 180 F. This temperature will solve both the viscosity and polymerization problem.

The engineering change that is employed is the following: have two independent fuel systems of diesel and cooking oil!! The diesel system (the smaller one) will be used to heat the system to operating temperature. The heat is distributed to the oil by using the coolant system to transfer the necessary heat. (Clever, huh?). Once the operating temperature is reached, the operator changes the fuel system from diesel to cooking oil and keeps operating with cooking oil. Once the operator stops though, he/she will have to purge the system with diesel fuel. That is because if he/she fails to do so, it will result the cooking oil to cool inside the injector and return to its original viscosity, thus clogging it. Then, the engine will fail to start the next time the operator tries to, since the blockage prevents the diesel from being atomized. Therefore, it is imperative that the last step be performed every time the engine is to be turned off.

Therefore, a diesel engine must have to be altered to accomodate the necessary changes before being able to burn cooking oil (more detail is contained in the link below).

http://www.frybrid.com/svo.htm


Therefore, DO NOT USE COOKING OIL IN YOUR DIESEL GENERATOR BEFORE CONVERTING IT INTO A GREASECAR ENGINE!! I don't know about diesel generator prices where you live, but where I come from, it's definitely not cheap!!!

Answer 2

Run? Probably--cause it's all oil. In the process to create gasoline from crude oil, other things just happen to form out of the process such as heating oil, diesel, cooking oil, etc etc. The only reason why diesel is more expensive in some places than gasoline is that there is a bigger commercial demand for it. Making diesel doesn't require a special processing plant, it just happens as a by-product.
Anyway, all oil contains energy that can be extracted from the solution by burning it.
Now that it's established oil WILL burn in a diesel engine, the next thing to consider is will the engine run well--meaning as efficiently as if proper fuel was used. [It will take more oil to move the vehicle 10 miles at 50mph than it would take diesel to do the same work.]
The answer: Not likely--and I wouldn't want the rebuild costs after I had done it to the engine.

Answer 3

Yes. One Australian man is converting a Diesel Mercedes-Benz car to run on cooking oil, not on the "biofuel" converted from cooking oil. He writes that he starts the engine on Diesel fuel and runs on cooking oil once it has warmed up a little. If he has to park the car for any length of time so that the engine cools, he switches back to Diesel so that the car starts easily again.

In some climates it may be necessary to heat the fuel tank and fuel lines to prevent the oil from solidifying.

Find the 'MB Spares & Service' site in Australia and search the attached forums where you will find more details.

Diesel engines were originally designed to run on any heavy oil but it was found most convenient to run them on something very like kerosene. This has the advantage that it has low viscosity and does not solidify in low temperatures. It was also cheaper than vegetable oils.

In principle it would be possible to run a Diesel engine on used motor oil that had been freed of dirt. The engine would have to be modified or designed for the job though.

Answer 4

Oil is which ever type is a burnable energy source. True you can put cooking oil straight into a vehicle to burn it, but if you are to do this on a regular basis then you must make the oil more suitable for the engine. If you type make you own diesel in to a search engine you will get lots of good web links explaining the full details.
Remember if you put anything in the fuel tank of a road vehicle you m,ust by law register with the VAT office to pay the duty on the fuel you are "making".

Answer 5

Breath is defiantly right he has covered everything I have learned. Just make sure not to forget to filtering the oil and replace the rubber hoses with a type of hoses that don't break down. I think the clear hose with the crossed mesh work good. Also for extra info Henry ford ran his first engines off methanol which was made from vedgy and hemp seed oil. Also his plastic panels were made of hemp oil. He was forced to use petro.

Answer 6

Cooking oil must go through a chemical process in order to be an acceptable alternative to regular diesel fuel... but in the end it is cheaper and works just as well.

Answer 7

bet it will , it will not start on cooking oil , once it is running and warm is when you can switch to oil ,
it works cause diesel and cooking oil have the near the same burn point

Answer 8

It should do but it might need modification, for example the fuel pump might not be able to cope. I would suggest you talk to the manufacturer before trying. I would also suggest at first you try a mixture of mineral and biodeisel

Answer 9

Probaly

Answer 10

Probably yes, but do not forget to filter it before using.