Ban The Pumps | Bio Diesel, Running a Diesel Engine On Vegetable Oil

In 2002 Britain was brought to a standstill by the fuel blockades - they didn't work!

The blockades were organised through BanThePumps.com - we have now taken over that role and intend to make a real difference this time!!!

BanThePumps.com will be the focal point of a renewed effort to help the crippled motorists, farmers, hauliers...

We will be posting regular updates and news about our Amazing Loopholes and I hope you can take advantage of them.

Prime Minister Tony Blair defended his actions in 2002 by refusing to cut fuel taxes during the week of petrol price blockades that brought the country to a standstill. 'We cannot, we will not be forced into a change of policy,' he told a news conference in London.

He said giving in to the protesters, 'would not just have been irresponsible but the impact on the country掇 economic credibility would have been immediate and catastrophic.'

Well we have an answer to Mr Tony Blair and an answer super-expensive fuel prices.

Bio Diesel!!!

RUNNING DIESEL ENGINES ON VEGETABLE OIL (BIODIESIEL)

It is perfectly possible to run your diesel engine on vegetable oil!

In some areas Supermarkets have rationed their supply of vegoil because so many people have cottoned onto this motoring loophole!

Autoinfozone have revealed this amazing substitute to thousands. BUT it must be stressed that throwing pure vegoil in your tank can cause problems - our recipe turns vegoil into Biodiesel!

Basics about Diesel Injection and Vegoil

In contrast to diesel fuel, vegetable oil comes with a higher viscosity than mineral diesel fuel. This results in problems with the injectors and sometimes even with the injector pump itself. The spray pattern of an injector becomes no more than just a dripping of fuel or a single stream when the vegoil is at room temperature (20。).

The injector pump needs more power to get the fuel pressed through the injector pipes which causes a higher torque on the drivebelt or the drivechain. A broken timingbelt or chain will cause a severe engine damage.

In order to use vegoil as a diesel substitute, one must try to lower it's viscosity down to diesel fuel level.

How to lower oil viscosity

Vegetable oil can simply be made more fluent by heating it up to about 70-90。. This has turned out to be the best temperature.

There are ways to do this in a car but they are complicated and require some alterations.

In tests it has been found that 'used' vegetable oil has a slightly changed chemistry similar to that of manufactured Biodiesel that has been through a refinery process called transesterification. This process is a reaction of the oil with an alcohol to remove the glycerin.

A group of chemistry students in America looked into this developed their version of biodiesel which was widely reported.

Each week the students picked up 25 gallons of spent cooking oil from a local restaurant, The Chippery.

By giving its oil to the students, the restaurant saved the $35/pickup fee charged by a rendering company.

The team used their reactor to convert the oil to Biodiesel by adding lye and methanol, generating only one byproduct glycerin, commonly used as soap.

Oregon State University Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering department fuelled a VW with a clean-burning, "green" fuel substitute the students manufactured from used cooking oil. With guidance from IME faculty members, the team designed a manufacturing process that converts spent deep fryer oil from a local restaurant into Biodiesel.

With time they fine tuned the process to produce a form of Biodiesel pure enough to pour into a fuel tank. All their hard work paid off; the group's Biodiesel powered the VW to the Oregon coast and back.

The cost of fuel for the 150-mile trip? Not a nickel.

Side benefit? The dark plumes of sooty diesel exhaust were replaced with the invisible and faint aroma of French fries!

But the students didn't stop there. They have fine-tuned the process so that their Biodiesel can be certified to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards.

Many automobile and farm equipment manufacturers, including Volkswagen, John Deere, Audi, Caterpillar, BMW, Volvo, and others, now warrant their vehicles for use with biodiesel. The fuel has been tested widely by government and private industry with no negative side effects. Biodiesel has a higher lubricity than petroleum diesel, which can reduce engine wear.

AUTOINFO'S BIODIESEL RECIPE

It must be stressed that the following recipe has been widley tested and has proven to work - the viscosity of the vegoil is reduced to ensure a clean burn and the glycerin appears to be burnt off as a waste product. But for the record Autoinfo accept no responsibility whatsoever for it's use (we have to put that in just incase some fool tries to sue us because their 20 year old banger breaks down - not because of the Biodiesiel but because its an nail!)

As we've explained you need used vegetable oil. Now you can get it from local restaurants or heat it up to cooking temperatures and let it cool.

If using used oil it will need to be strained through a fine filter to remove any crispy fried fish bits!

Next step is to add a solvent to bring down the viscosity.

White spirit is the best, easily available product and preferably non-Kerosene based (for tax purposes).

To make 1 litre of Biodiesel add 3mls of spirit to 97mls of used vegoil and leave to stand for up to a week...that's it!

More refined Biodiesel can be bought from manufacturers. A good source of information can be found at http://www.biodiesel.org or type in biodiesel into Google.

And it's far better for the environment than the expensive and soon to be redundant counterpart - diesel!

FAQs

What about TAX?

Some states and countries will require you to pay the required taxes if the fuel is used on the roads. EG. in Britain you will need to contact Customs and Excise who will require you to fill in a couple of forms and pay @26p per litre.

Compare that to the 80p - 90p you'd pay at the pumps and Autoinfo have brought you another amazing moneysaver!

What is Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is a substitute fuel for users of traditional diesel fuel, commonly called ULSD or Ultra Low Sulphur Diesel.

Biodiesel is produced primarily from waste or used vegetable cooking oils utilising a special process that changes the characteristics of the oil to finish with a product that will power a diesel engine without any modification.

Is Biodiesel as good as normal Diesel?

Rest assured. Biodiesel is far better than ULSD if you take all the environmental advantages into account. You will notice little, if any, difference in performance.

You can completely substitute your normal diesel fuel with biodiesel or mix it in any proportion.

Good website, but I have a couple of questions:

1) The reason for using methanol and NaOH was to remove chemicals that gum up the motor. What are the longer term effects of just adding white spirit?

2) What are the supplies of waste oil? Seems to me they are finite and limited and will rapidly rise in price so that biodiesel will be only just cheaper than taxed DERV. What do you reckon?

There was a feature on vegoil on BBC's Top Gear so I investigated it further.

I read a lot of scientific studies and tests on the subject and it most definitely works - there's even a company in Birmingham (UK) that recycles used oil and turns out Biodiesel.

It is my understanding that the white spirit is added to lower the viscosity not to remove chemicals. The only biproduct of the refinement process is glycerin which is burnt of during combution. It is vegoil's higher viscosity that causes the problems.

Pure vegoil will gum up the injectors - eventually - you could replace them many times over with the money saved but the addition of a solvent eliminates the need. I would run a tank of derv and injector cleaner (available from car accessory shops) periodically just to service the injectors. I have always done this anyway.

Top Gear tested our Biodiesel recipie and it worked - I'd imagine they did their homework also before broadcasting it to the nation?

In the third world and inaccessible areas they use all sorts of oils - rape seed, sunflower, palm oil....for generators and cars because of the price and scarcity of derv.

Longer term?

Supplies of waste oil are massive and it is a waste disposal problem but even if they do dry up it'll still be cheaper to buy a chip fryer and heat the oil up - plus you could sell the chips as a sideline!!!

Glad you like the site - check out the parking and speeding fines book - these are real loopholes police, friends I have used successfully!

Will Biodiesel affect my engine warranty?

Biodiesel should meet what is considered to be the highest biodiesel standard DIN51606, and as such, will meet the EC standard currently under discussion EN14214. Almost all major manufacturers now accept these standards as evidence of compliance to be used in diesel engines, without modification.

Besides who's going to know!

Why is Biodiesel Environmentally Friendly?

The biggest reason is the positive effect on the environment. Biodiesel does not contribute to net CO2 in the atmosphere, creates 30% less particulate emissions, 93% less hydrocarbons, 50% lower carbon monoxide emissions, and 50-85% less PAH's (health risk hydrocarbons associated with diesel fuel).

It produces less offensive fumes, and, has a very high flash point, making it one of the safest of alternative fuels.

On top of all these benefits Biodiesel is produced from a sustainable, renewable raw material. Use biodiesel and you will be helping to protect the world.

(UK) Additionally, by the end of 2002, it is quite likely that waste cooking oils will be banned from use in producing animal feeds to safeguard human and animal health. This change in government policy could lead to wholesale illegal disposal of waste cooking oil in drains and landfill sites.

Biodiesel is therefore probably the most effective way of disposing of waste vegetable cooking oils in an eco friendly manner.

Will my car pass emission tests?

Yes it will- provided the engine is in good technical condition. Mostly, vehicles run on vegoil have lower rates of particles as vegoil contains more oxygen than diesel and so has a cleaner combustion.