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Biocombustibles,
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Spanish version- -V e r s i ón en español
Introduction
SVO basics
-Alphabet soup
-The choice- - biodiesel or SVO
-Fuel quality
-Titration for SVO
-Filtering
The SVO problem
-'Just put it in and go'
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Introduction
Vegetable oil can be used
as diesel fuel just as it is,
without being converted to
biodiesel.
The downside is that straight
vegetable oil (SVO) is much
more viscous (thicker) than
conventional diesel fuel or
biodiesel, and it doesn't burn the
same in the engine- -m an y
studies have found that it can
damage engines.
BUT it can be done properly and safely- - IF you get a professional engine
conversion. (See below.)
There are other approaches, here are the main ones:
1.Just put it in and go.
2.M ix it with diesel fuel or kerosene then just put it in and go.
3.Blend it with an organic solvent additiveor with what some
companies call "our secret ingredient that we'll tell you about if you
pay us" (several versions)or with up to 20% gasoline (petrol), just
put it in and go.
Journey to Forever uses an Elsbett
single-tank Straight Vegetable Oil fuel
system from Germany.
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4.The only way to use veg-oil is in a properly installed two-tank system
where the oil is pre-heated and you start up and shut down on diesel
fuel (or biodiesel).
We've never had much time for Nos. 1 to 3 (moreb e l o w), and we've had a
two-tank SVO kit for a couple of years that pre-heats the oil and switches
the fuel, but we never used it. They do work, but we just didn't think it
solved the problem very well, and the more we learnt about it the more we
didn't think so. (M ore aboutt w o-tank SVO systems.)
Along with many others, especially in Europe, we think pre-heating the oil is
still not enough to ensure that it will combust properly inside the engine. It
needs a complete system including specially made injector nozzles and glow
plugs optimised for veg-oil, such as the professional single-tank SVO kits
from Germany. Then you really can just put it in and go.
In M arch 2005 we installed a single-tank SVO system fromElsbett
Technologie in our TownAce (1990 Toyota TownAce 1.9-litre 4-cyl
turbo-diesel 4x4 van). The kit includes modified injector nozzles, stronger
glow plugs, dual fuel heating, temperature controls and parallel fuel filters,
and it does just what it claims to do.
There's no waiting or switching fuels from one to the other, just start up and
go, stop and switch off, like any other car. It starts easily and runs cleanly
from the start, even at sub-freezing temperatures. It can use SVO or
biodiesel or petro-diesel or any combination of the three.
The professional single-tank SVO kits are the only SVO kits we
recommend. Read on and we'll tell you why. We'll tell you about the other
available options too.
See:Si n g le-tank SVO systems.
SVO basics
Alphabet soup
SVO-straight vegetable oil used as diesel fuel (usually new oil, fresh,
uncooked)
PPO-pure plant oils, same as SVO: PPO is the term most often used in
Europe
WVO-waste vegetable oil (used cooking oil, "grease", fryer oil, probably
including animal fats or fish oils from the cooking)
UCO-used cooking oil (what we called it in the first place until everyone
started calling it WVO, even if it wasn't necessarily all vegetable)
IDI - Indirect Injection diesel engines: the fuel is injected into a pre-chamber
or swirl-chamber before going on to the combustion chamber. Pre-chamber
engines are more tolerant of SVO than swirl-chamber engines.
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To Keith Addison
keith@journeytoforever.org
To Midori Hiraga
midori@journeytoforever.org
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DI-Direct Injection diesel engines: the fuel is injected straight into the
combustion chamber. DI diesels are less tolerant of SVO than IDI engines
(see The TDI-SVO controversy). Types of DI diesels:
TDI-Turbo Direct Injection
CDIo r CRD -C o m m o n-rail Direct Injection
PDIo rPD-Pumpe Düse Unit Injection (Direct Injection, each injector has
its own pump)
The choice
The basic choice for running diesels on biofuels:
q
make biodiesel and just use it, no need to convert the engine, or
q
convert the engine so you can run it on SVO- - no need to process
the fuel.
It's not quite that simple. For instance, if you want to use waste vegetable
oil, which is often free, you're going to have to process it anyway, though
less so than to make biodiesel. And it still might not be very good fuel.
More on the choice between biodiesel and SVO.
One of the great advantages of biodiesel is that it will run in any diesel
engine. The same claim has been made for two-tank SVO fuel systems:
"Ready-to-install kit that will allow you to run any diesel on waste vegetable
oil." Also in any weather.
Is it true? M aybe, but for how long?
In cold weather vegetable oil crystallises, forming solid wax crystals that can
quickly block the fuel filters. One solution to the all-weather problem with
two-tank kits is to change the filter in winter, using a 30-micron filter instead
of the standard 10-micron filter (or less), so the wax crystals just go straight
through without blocking the filter and melt in the injection pump, allegedly
without causing any stress or damage.
Also going straight through into the injection pump however will be any solid
particles of between 10 and 30 microns that the specified standard filter
would have stopped.
Would you do it?
Vendor's claim:
"The Racor filter that comes with the Greasel kit filters down to 28
microns. If the oil being used is dirty, the Racor will do its job and
protect your pump and injectors."
Comment from a diesel injection workshop:
"I wouldn’t do it. They put that original 5-10 micron rating on there
for a reason."
Comment from injection pump manufacturer Stanadyne:
"We do not recommend using the 30 micron as the final filter at any
time. As the final filter, that micron rating will cause problems with the
injection equipment in terms of wear/injector plugging, etc. We
recommend using the Fuel M anager 5 M icron element (there are
many lengths to choose from) as the final filter. If the system is
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