It's no secret to the majority of our readers that it is possible to run many older diesel engines on nothing more than straight vegetable oil. In fact, the first diesel engine, invented by Rudolph Diesel, ran on peanut oil. This fact is also well known by the students at the Michigan Technical Academy who have converted their own school buses to run on waste vegetable oil. Garden Fresh Foods in Ferndale, Michigan is providing used veggie oil that was first used to fry tortilla chips for no charge. The total cost of the fuel for the two buses that are running on 100-percent veggie oil is estimated at about 80-cents a gallon. Other buses are running on a 10-percent blend of oil and diesel fuel. As the temps in Michigan go down, the blend will be adjusted, though the students are currently hard at work solving that problem with heaters. Great work.

[Source: The Detroit News]

Click on the image for high-res shots of this diesel 1967 Mercury Cougar

Much of the vegetable oil and biodiesel movement centers around the classic Mercedes-Benz inline six cylinder engine, but fine examples of the genre are getting tougher to find. As is always the case with older machines, time and driving in general take their toll on the bodies and chassis of our favorite classics. But, these old Mercedes lumps can be rebuilt to fine running order. Wondering what to do with that good-running or rebuilt turbodiesel engine? How about dropping it into the engine bay of some classic Detroit iron? Many of these older American vehicles were built with engine-bays capable of accepting everything from a straight-six to a huge big block V8 engine. If that sounds like too much trouble, perhaps you should take a look at an example that's already been converted. Right now on Craigslist in L.A. is a cherry 1967 Mercury Cougar with a Mercedes OM617 cast iron turbodiesel engine from a Mercedes-Benz 300SD. Mated to a four-speed manual tranny, we'd imagine that many trouble-free miles of burbling diesel goodness are in store for this particular gem. Thanks for the tip, Geeky1!


[Source: Craigslist]

In this video, a young woman describes the process that AppstateBiofuels is using to "close the loop" on biofuel production. What that means is that they want their operation completely self-contained. They are using solar power for electricity and hot water generation, and the water used in the biodiesel creation process is reclaimed using a variety of ecological methods in their onsite greenhouse. On days when there is not enough sun, they use a generator powered by their very own biodiesel. Sounds pretty good! I thought that this looked like some sort of University project, so I did a little searching and dug up their site. According to their site:

"The Collaborative Biodiesel Project is a student-led initiative at Appalachian State University and is partially funded by the EPA P3 Award: Student Design Competition for Sustainability. The purpose of the project is to create a closed loop biodiesel processing facility that provides for its own energy needs, and recycles its waste products. We have examined all aspects of the process in order to find sustainable ways to close the biodiesel loop. Our mission is to create a sustainable biodiesel processor model that can be easily replicated by others."

Check them out, and follow their process from start to finish. They do a good job of explaining exactly what it is that they are doing.

[Source: Youtube and Appalachian State University]

Ed Beggs grew diesel fuel in Ontario on his Canadian farm for years without realizing it. He called it soybeans back then. Today the British Columbia resident knows better. He likes to call it premium diesel fuel. Why the paradigm shift? Because Ed and his U.S. business partner, Craig Reece, operate PlantDrive, one of the premier companies producing Straight Vegetable Oil/Waste Vegetable Oil (SVO/WVO) conversion kits and components for fueling diesel engines with straight plant oil.

Conversion kit is really a misnomer. Auxiliary fuel system is more accurate since the vehicle gets an additional fuel line and fuel tank. The modified vehicle totes plant oil in a second tank (the stock diesel fuel tank is untouched in most systems) and the auxiliary fuel system is heated while the stock fuel line is left intact. Plant oils like soy and canola, which are similar to regular diesel fuel in that they are liquid at room temperature and have similar BTU content, are about 10-15 times more viscous than No. 2 diesel. Heat is required to reduce the viscosity of the SVO/WVO to a level the diesel engine can accept.

How does it work once the kit is installed? The modified diesel vehicle starts up on a starter fuel of either petroleum diesel or biodiesel drawn from the stock fuel tank, and then switches to the heated vegetable oil fuel once the engine is up to normal temperature.