Quick Diesel Engine Primer
Converting the Oil to Biodiesel
SVO and WVO
The Conversion
Benefits

Quick Diesel Engine Primer

Diesel engines use heat for their operation. Air is compressed with pistons in cylinders and heats up. At its most compressed and hottest point a fine mist of fuel is injected which ignites quickly and explosively thereby creating the force that moves the pistons, which is then transformed into the rotational energy of the crankshaft. There are no spark plugs in a Diesel engine as the fuel/air mixture ignites itself. Only when the engine is cold glow plugs help to create the initial heat for combustion.

The explosion itself is a little bit slower compared with gasoline. This is partially why Diesel engines last much longer. Example: Hit a piece of metal with a hammer and then with a rubber mallet. The metal hammer will make more impact and destroy the metal quicker.

Diesel engines are optimized by their manufacturers to run Diesel from fossil fuel sources. Plant oil has different physical and chemical qualities and therefore either the car or the plant oil itself has to be adapted to combust properly.

Converting the Oil to Biodiesel

Biodiesel is converted plant oil, mostly vegetable oil, which can be used directly in most Diesel engines. The chemical conversion process (transesterification) involves potent chemicals such as Methanol (alcohol mostly derived from natural gas) and lye (caustic soda or sodium hydroxide). Mixing the ingredients and application of heat result in about 80% Biodiesel and 20% glycerin. The byproduct Glycerin can be used for soap making and is biodegradable.

Biodiesel can also be mixed with regular fossil Diesel. That’s why you sometimes see acronyms like “B10”, which means 10% Biodiesel mixed with 90% fossil Diesel.

Biodiesel is a strong solvent and can attack some rubber components in fuel hoses and injection pump gaskets. It is important to ensure that those components are compatible.

SVO and WVO

We convert the car instead and use straight vegetable oil (SVO) mostly waste vegetable oil (WVO) from the food industry. We use all of the oil without adding chemicals. However we need to filter out solids as your Diesel engine is still on a liquid diet.

Plant oil is thicker than Diesel. However, if you heat it up it will become thinner – which most know from watching oil in a frying pan. We therefore use the heat from your engine and add some heat from onboard electrical sources to ensure that your Diesel engine is fed with the right viscosity.

Imagine you would put oil through your shower (note: do not do this at home). Your shower would not work properly as thicker drops form more slowly. That is somewhat similar to what can happen when the injectors are trying to spray thicker oil into the combustion chamber. It just doesn’t burn properly and leaves more carbon deposits.

We want to make sure that the oil is preheated enough so it burns completely with the right mixture of air and fuel. Therefore – as mentioned before – we install additional heaters and heated filters so you can drive safely in almost any climate.

In most cars or trucks a second fuel system is installed with tank, heater and filter. In the end all you have to do is flick a switch and you have the best of both worlds.

The Conversion

In most cars we install a complete separate fuel system for the plant oil. This includes a tank, fuel lines a special preheated filtering system, and an electric switchover mechanism. Preheating the fuel is very important as it thins the oil and leads to good combustion without excessive carbon deposits. To assure even and quickly generated temperature of the fuel we add an electric heater which heats the fuel only when you are using plant oil. The operation is simple: you just have to flick a switch in your dash.

The advantage of the two tank system is that it can be operated safely in colder climates too and it meets the demands of newer efficient Diesel engines. Cold start is done on Biodiesel or fossil Diesel. Tnen you switch over to plant oil when the engine has reached operating temperature and before you shut the engine down for the night you run it again for a bit on Biodiesel or fossil Diesel to purge the system. Of course we can also install a small computer that does all the this for you.

Benefits

The direct benefits to you are that you have a cheaper (often free) source of fuel. In addition you do something for the environment as the combustion process releases less toxins and you are using a renewable resource. Actually the whole process is carbon neutral: the plant grows, digests CO2 and releases oxygen, and the combustion process releases a bit of CO2 again.

You are actually using solar energy as the plant converts the energy of the sun with the help of minerals and water into the oil that you consume as part of your food preparation and then in your vehicle. When farmers used animals for food production, they used a portion of the land to feed themselves and the animals. Today they could also feed themselves and then the machines they use for production from the same land. It sure can create more local autonomy.

The fuel you are using is not toxic. It is completely biodegradable. It smells friendlier too.

You can do your part to lessen our footprint on the planet and if you are using waste vegetable oil you can also save a bundle.

For more answers to more frequently asked questions, click on the following link: http://www.plantdrive.ca/html/faq.html