Most people don't know that the Diesel engine was originally designed to run on peanut oil. Going back to the roots of this technology, we have converted our 1998 Jetta TDI to run on waste vegetable oil.
The principles of the conversion are as follows:
A separate tank in the trunk holds veggie oil. You start the car on Diesel, and
the engine coolant circulates through a heat exchanger in the tank to heat up
the oil and make it thin enough to be pumped into the car’s fuel system. Once
the oil warms up, you throw a switch and the fuel system switches over to the
veggie tank. Shortly before reaching the destination, you reverse the process &
purge the veggie oil out of the system (so it doesn’t clog it up).
The performance of the vehicle is identical to using the petroleum fuel- same
mileage, pick up, speed, etc.
In our Jetta we get 35-40 MPG in the city.
Converting the car cost $1000, including install. You can do it yourself much more
cheaply.
|
|
|
|
|
You can see more pics of the conversion process here on the web space of my system installer and veggie oil supplier.
Update, October 2006: We have been running the system for almost exactly a year. We have had ZERO mechanical problems with the installation, and the only repairs made to the car are unrelated to the conversion (new air conditioner compressor). The system has paid for itself, and now every gallon of veggie oil burned is money in our pocket. And, several hundred pounds of crap has been kept out of the atmosphere. Keep the planet green!
Please read this article on biofuels, courtesy of Home Power magazine.
Suppliers of kits and good answers to the FAQs are best answered by the folks who do it for a living. I recommend the following websites: