07-22-2008, 01:34 AM
BACKGROUND:
Alright, as many of you may or may not know, I work as a Regional Manager for a popular restaurant chain. In our stores, we pay a third party to have our used oil from the deep fryers taken away. I should mention that as part of my job, I get a gas card (unlimited credit card for Shell) to fill my tank up with, however I still have to pay for the car maintenance. Recently I've been thinking about how I could save our company some money, and myself a few bucks. You see, about a year ago, I traded in my (fully-paid) Toyota Echo 2002 for a Ford Mustang GT 2005; everything in the GT is more expensive, from air filters $20 more than other cars, to car washes with leather seat treatment, to only being able to take in premium gasoline. I fear if prices continue to rise for gasoline, my boss may ask me to pay a share of cost since I have a "sports car", but I really would like to save the car money also. So I checked on craigslist here in Santa Barbara and have found plenty of working Diesel cars for under 2k. So now I have the drive and the means, but not a clue how to do it.
HERE AND NOW:
So here I am thinking about biofuel, and after doing about 4-hours of research on the net last night, I think I'm almost to the point of understanding how it works, but there is still quite a bit I don't quite get. For instance, most diesel cars cannot run on straight vegetable oil until it has been through a process called transesterification which, from what I gather, is what happens when you use the oil in a deep fryer, however I should note that you can get a special part for your car which will preheat the vegetable oil to a certain temperature before it goes into the car so it won't break your fuel injectors. The oil from a deep fryer is called waste vegetable oil (WVO); straight vegetable oil is (SVO). There are other acronyms, but none pertinent to what I'm attempting to do. Now if you take WVO and put it in a holding container for 1-2 weeks, all the crap you don't want in your engine settles to the bottom (I still plan on filtering it directly out of the fryer with a metal strainer and filters). Now, if I'm correct, you just have to get a pump and siphon this settled WVO directly into your used diesel Mercedes Benz tank, discarding the waste at the bottom and your good to go without a secondary heating mechanism. If I'm incorrect, then I could be wasting a lot of money and causing extensive damage to my car. I've done a little bit of research on the type of oil we use at my work and, while not the top of the line biofuel, it is compatible with diesel cars without any adverse side effects (some types of fuel, while still vegetable oil, will cause extensive harm to the innards of your car). Other that the obvious (wiki), this is the website I got most of my information from, however again, I am still left with MANY questions, like does the WVO require additional filtering? Does the diesel car still need an additional heating mechanism even if using WVO. Is the method I've learned the best one (i.e. letting your WVO settle for 1-2 weeks before use).
If any of you lurkers has done this before, I'd really appreciate some pointers to get me started, and if you happen to know the answers to my questions, all the better. Thanks for any replies ahead of time.
Alright, as many of you may or may not know, I work as a Regional Manager for a popular restaurant chain. In our stores, we pay a third party to have our used oil from the deep fryers taken away. I should mention that as part of my job, I get a gas card (unlimited credit card for Shell) to fill my tank up with, however I still have to pay for the car maintenance. Recently I've been thinking about how I could save our company some money, and myself a few bucks. You see, about a year ago, I traded in my (fully-paid) Toyota Echo 2002 for a Ford Mustang GT 2005; everything in the GT is more expensive, from air filters $20 more than other cars, to car washes with leather seat treatment, to only being able to take in premium gasoline. I fear if prices continue to rise for gasoline, my boss may ask me to pay a share of cost since I have a "sports car", but I really would like to save the car money also. So I checked on craigslist here in Santa Barbara and have found plenty of working Diesel cars for under 2k. So now I have the drive and the means, but not a clue how to do it.
HERE AND NOW:
So here I am thinking about biofuel, and after doing about 4-hours of research on the net last night, I think I'm almost to the point of understanding how it works, but there is still quite a bit I don't quite get. For instance, most diesel cars cannot run on straight vegetable oil until it has been through a process called transesterification which, from what I gather, is what happens when you use the oil in a deep fryer, however I should note that you can get a special part for your car which will preheat the vegetable oil to a certain temperature before it goes into the car so it won't break your fuel injectors. The oil from a deep fryer is called waste vegetable oil (WVO); straight vegetable oil is (SVO). There are other acronyms, but none pertinent to what I'm attempting to do. Now if you take WVO and put it in a holding container for 1-2 weeks, all the crap you don't want in your engine settles to the bottom (I still plan on filtering it directly out of the fryer with a metal strainer and filters). Now, if I'm correct, you just have to get a pump and siphon this settled WVO directly into your used diesel Mercedes Benz tank, discarding the waste at the bottom and your good to go without a secondary heating mechanism. If I'm incorrect, then I could be wasting a lot of money and causing extensive damage to my car. I've done a little bit of research on the type of oil we use at my work and, while not the top of the line biofuel, it is compatible with diesel cars without any adverse side effects (some types of fuel, while still vegetable oil, will cause extensive harm to the innards of your car). Other that the obvious (wiki), this is the website I got most of my information from, however again, I am still left with MANY questions, like does the WVO require additional filtering? Does the diesel car still need an additional heating mechanism even if using WVO. Is the method I've learned the best one (i.e. letting your WVO settle for 1-2 weeks before use).
If any of you lurkers has done this before, I'd really appreciate some pointers to get me started, and if you happen to know the answers to my questions, all the better. Thanks for any replies ahead of time.
"The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained liberation from the self." -Albert Einsetin