I adore biodieselSMARTER

All the information you need to home-brew biodiesel is floating somewhere out there on the internet. It’s finding the right information with the angle you want that’s difficult.

Issue number 6 of biodieselSMARTER showed up in my mailbox yesterday and I couldn’t put it down. First of all, it’s written by folks with sustainability in mind. The full-page ad inside the front cover reads “The greenest car you own? Mass transit. Try not to drive at all. Icebergs will float in your honor… Respect the Biodiesel.” Nice.

In addition to the regular columns, this edition includes glycerin composting trials and horror stories of illegal glycerin dumping. There are articles on desert thriving moringa and snow-planted camelina as feedstock crops. Also in the mix are a couple of farm-scale case studies, a bicycle-powered reactor built by high school students, and a piece on PrairieFire Biofuels, which serves both the SVO and biodiesel scene in Madison, Wisconsin.

The camelina article is especially pertinent for us Alaskans. In fact, Hans Geier - the Delta Canola biodiesel farmer - sent me a small packet of camelina for a little test plot I’ve got going in the orchard. Much to my chagrin, Hans and some other local farmers have been really keen on blending unheated oils with diesel and/or other thinners. Interestingly, these Albertan farmers are doing exactly that, with locally grown and crushed off-spec canola. Although in general I’m not a proponent of blending, I’m glad to see biodieselSMARTER embracing the larger sustainable biodiesel-vegoil community.

Don’t have a subscription yet? It’s a little ‘zine, but filled with quality information, and it’s only TEN BUCKS for a year-long subscription.

Veg On!

Biofuels [kind of] Blamed in Food Crisis

The Anchorage Daily News ran a New York Times article at the top of the Nation and World section today that the ADN retitled “Biofuels blamed in food crisis.”

Other than the inflammatory title, the article itself is pretty good. It admits that biofuels - especially corn-based ethanol - does have an impact, but that it is “relatively small and that energy costs and soaring demand for meat in developing countries have had a bigger impact.”

The article goes on to report that “grocery prices in the United States increased about 5 percent over the last year.”

A decade ago we were lamenting that family farms were failing because of low crop prices. The soybean growers had a market for their meal, but the oil was terribly undervalued. They went ahead and formed the National Biodiesel Board to create a market for their soybean oil. It looks like they succeeded.

That being said, it’s easy to take a good idea and implement it poorly. The giant Three Gorges Dam in China is a terrible example of hydropower. Altamont Pass in California was built in the middle of a raptor migration route, giving a wind power a bird-killing reputation that has been hard for it to shed.

There’s no way we can grow ourselves out of our fossil fuel addiction. Biofuels, however, can be a sustainable part of our future energy mix.

Capturing waste fryer oil and oil from discarded fish carcasses could provide over 13 million gallons of biodiesel in Alaska every year. Combine this with the Canola production potential of the old barley farms in Delta, and we will have a significant impact on our local energy needs - sustainably - and without completing with global food supplies.

P.S. If you want more insight on the food vs. fuel arguments check out Clayton’s post over at gas2.org.

Veg On!

Dr. Diesel and Peanut Oil - Myth or Legend?

Ah yes, Rudolph Diesel’s 1893 compression-ignition “diesel” engine was invented to run on peanut oil, so it’s okay to burn old fryer grease in our diesels, right?

I’ve seen this peanut oil story published in books and spread widely across the internet. Unfortunately, the real history isn’t as clear as all that.

Gerhard Knothe, one of the USDA’s top biodiesel researchers, found passages in “Chemical Abstracts” 6:1984(1912) and 7:1605(1913) in which Dr. Diesel writes:

at the Paris exhibition in 1900 there was shown by the Otto Company a small diesel engine, which, at the request of the French government, ran on Arachide (earth-nut or pea-nut) oil, and worked so smoothly that only very few people were aware of it. The engine was constructed for using mineral oil and was then worked on vegetable oil without any alterations being made.

So yes, a early unmodified diesel engine did run on peanut oil, but it wasn’t Dr. Diesel’s first engine.

Veg On!

Which Truck Should I Get for a SVO (WVO, VegOil) Conversion?

The most popular post by far on the Vegwerks Blog is Which Diesel Should I Get for a SVO (WVO, VegOil) Conversion?

Not surprisingly, it’s also the most common email (and phone call) question that I get.

So, loyal readers, here are my top three choices for SVO trucks:

1. 1994-1998.5 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 2nd gen 12 valve
2. 1989-1993 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 1st gen 12 valve
3. 1983-1994 Ford International 6.9/7.3l pre-Powerstroke

Now, here’s the details:

Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO), even when heated, is still thicker than diesel. You need a truck with an injection pump than can withstand the added stress of SVO.

The strongest injection pump out there out there is the Bosch inline P7100, found on 2nd generation 12 valve Dodge Cummins trucks.

The best SVO truck:
1994-1998.5 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 2nd gen 12 valve

Other good candidates for a vegoil conversion are pre-Powerstroke 6.9/7.3 Fords with the regular Stanadyne injection pumps and 1st generation 12 valve Dodges with the Bosch VE rotary pump. Personally, I convert a lot of VWs with the Bosch VE pump, and have good luck with them, so I would prefer a Dodge, but they are harder to find than the Fords. In early 1994 Ford made a turbodiesel version of the 7.3 IDI, it’s the newest, most powerful of the old-style pre-Powerstroke engines.

Common, easier to convert diesel trucks:
1989-1993 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 1st gen 12 valve
1983-1994 Ford 6.9/7.3l IDI

Halfway through 1994 Ford switched from an Indirect Injection (IDI) engine to a Direct Injection (DI) system with a Hydraulic Electronic Unit Injection (HEUI), a type of Common-Rail system, instead of a regular mechanical injection pump. These are very common, but the fuel routing issues cause purge times to be almost 15 minutes with a standard conversion. With the extra modifications to reduce purge times, these can run vegoil very well, but may cost $1000-$2000 more.

Common diesels that may require more complex, expensive conversions:
1994.5-1997 Ford Powerstroke 7.3l 1st gen
1999-2003 Ford Powerstroke 7.3l 2nd gen

GMC/Chevy trucks have a very sensitive injection pump that is known to break when running straight vegetable oil. I don’t recommend converting these trucks, although there are a few local GMC fanatics who are running SVO.

The Dodge VP44 is a radial-piston rotary pump, instead of the axial-piston VE rotary pump, and that makes a lot of difference. Basically, the VP44 is a sensitive pump that breaks easily on straight vegetable oil.

Not Recommended:
1982-2000 GMC/Chevy 6.2/6.5l
1998.5-2002 Dodge Cummins 5.9l 24 valve

Yeah, but what about the newer trucks? Ummmmm, they’re newer. All have Direct Injection (DI) engines with some sort of common-rail injection system, and would require at least as much additional modifications as the 7.3l Powerstrokes. We can convert them, but consider converting them experimental and expensive.

And what about Isuzu, Toyota, International, and other early 80’s trucks? Well, most of them are pretty good candidates, but info on the rare trucks is beyond the scope of this piece, although I’ve happily driven an old VW pickup for years on SVO.

Gasoline and Vegetable Oil Blends

I’ve had a few phone calls from Alaska folks really really wanting a cheap and easy solution to running vegetable oil. Most recently was a plan to run 90% raw Canola oil, straight from the farmer’s press, which would be “treated” with 10% gasoline.

Here’s the response I wrote:

Hmmm. It’s my belief that if it were cheap and easy everyone would be doing it. My first thoughts are “There’s no such thing as a free lunch” and “You get what you pay for.”

Blending straight vegetable oil with gasoline (or diesel) and burning it directly in your diesel vehicle should be considered *very* experimental. Of course biodiesel folks often get nervous about running heated SVO, and the 2-tank heated veg folks can get skittish about running those unheated vegoil blends.

The closest I’ve gotten to blending is the time that I left my vegoil in the injection pump overnight (I forgot to purge). I did get the 81 VW pickup started at about 40 degrees - and it didn’t cause any noticeable harm to the system - but it kicked and bucked quite a bit while thick black smoke poured out until it warmed up. I try to avoid running cold oil in a cold engine.

I do know of one guy who runs unheated 100% SVO in a early 80s VW pickup down in Moose Pass (or was it Cooper Landing?). He told me he just ran it in the summer months, and it worked well for him.

For the internet fanatics, “Diesel Secret Energy” is the most famous of the blending “miracles.” They add their secret formula (mostly petroleum aromatics similar to paint thinner), some gas and some diesel, whip it up and call it good. The only person I know of in Alaska that bought the stuff, decided after he mixed it up that he wasn’t about to put it into his tank.

Blending, however, does happen successfully. Probably the most economically significant Alaskan example is the big WWII era generators out in Dutch Harbor at the Unisea fish plant. There they blend in fish oil, in a 50-50 ratio. Of course those are old, tolerant engines.

As far as passenger vehicles go, all the studies I’ve read say that unheated vegoil in an unheated engine will cause bad things: ring/cylinder varnishing, injector coking. The older 1980s studies say this happens more with blends above 20% vegetable oil.

If you’re planning on running unheated SVO or an unheated blend in an older, more tolerant engine, you just might get away with it. Be sure to test your crankcase oil, or at least change it often, as vegetable oil will polymerize and thicken your motor oil.

Needless to say, I do not recommend running unheated blends. But if you insist, tell us how it goes!

Veg On!

Book Review: Biodiesel Power

Yep, it’s winter in Alaska and I’m getting caught up on my reading.

Although Lyle Estill’s book Biodiesel Power is over two years old, it is still a very pertinent and inspiring slice of the American biodiesel movement.

Subtitled “The passion, the people and the politics of the next renewable fuel.” I found it a great read that covers not only Estill’s journey from backyard brewing to becoming a regional producer, but also the quickly evolving American biodiesel scene.

The other biodiesel history book out there is Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy by Greg Pahl, which is also a pretty good read. It focuses on biodiesel in the global context, how biodiesel was developed and encouraged by universities and governments and how business is running with it.

There’s almost no overlap between the two books, and frankly, Biodiesel Power is a bit more entertaining. Maybe it’s because it targets folks like me: backyard brewers that give a damn, folks that want to create community, inspire, educate and generally make the world a better place. It’s really a book about the grassroots biodiesel movement.

It’s the first book I’ve read that is based around a blog. Estill’s Energy Blog chronicles his biofuel journey and he uses past enties as a framework to build his book. (Now if only Girl Mark and Kumar Plocher would package their blog archives into a book form, we’d be set!)

One thing I really appreciate about Estill’s book is the way he nods to the founders of the scene, and then moves on. He acknowledges Joshua Tickell’s small-batch blender method in his first attempts at making biodiesel, and then gently drops the technique. (I, on the other hand, have railed mightily about the dangers of mixing sparking spinning blenders and poisonous explosive chemicals.) Estill even praises the much maligned FuelMeister, not for it’s mediocre fuel-making abilities, but for the fact that it brought larger-scale brewing capabilities to the masses. (Today, I’d go for the BioPro if I needed a pre-built processor.)

Another aspect I like is the way Estill takes on the tougher questions, like sustainability, politics, policy, and the 900 pound gorilla of biodiesel: the National Biodiesel Board. The stress between the small commercial producers and the large agribusinesses is an especially good part.

Biodiesel Power is a history of the American biodiesel movement told through a personal history of veg-fueling. Read it! And yes, you can pre-order his new book: Small is Possible.

Veg On!

The Best SVO Fuel Line Routing Design?

Hah! There’s two big debates in routing your fuel lines for a SVO-WVO-Vegoil system. First, to loop or not to loop. Second, to add a vegoil lift lift pump or not. We loop and in general don’t add a lift pump.

Not looping your veg return to the veg tank mirrors what most factory diesel system do, which is to return the diesel to the diesel tank. The benefit of a full-return system is that is minimizes diesel use, and purges any air you have in the system, avoiding the most common cause of poor performance and stalling (the other issue being a clogged filter).

Looping, however is what we do. Looping allows a gradual change from cold thin diesel to hot, almost as thin vegoil. It avoids the slug of cold vegoil that is inevitably sitting in the valve and the last few inches of unheated lines that are found in full-return system.

The looped system keeps circulating the heat up front, and allows us to backflush the veg filter with diesel. This backflush primes the supply valve and the few inches of unheated lines with diesel, preventing cold-weather clogging, and minimizing shock to the injection pump. There is no slug of cold vegoil, instead the heated diesel mixes with the vegoil/diesel blend in the purged supply lines, which then loops back again and mixes with the fully heated vegoil. The disadvantage of this system is that it uses a little extra diesel to purge the supply lines and uses the diesel left in the injection pump to blend into the loop.

To summarize: Looping is gentler on your injection pump and has better cold-weather properties. But, it doesn’t purge air and it uses a bit more diesel in order to purge and thin the initial slug of vegoil.

Of course, we use a 12v Vegtherm inside the loop, so we can maximize heat gain, and offer a full backflush. The Vegtherm is shut off for diesel driving, so we’re not lowering the lubricity of the diesel by unnecessarily heating it. Note that we use a Flat Plate Heat Exchanger (FPHE) on the veg side. Some folks create a longer loop into the FPHE, but that system won’t allow a full backflush. Only a 12v heater, of which the Vegtherm is the SVO standard, allows in-loop heating and a full backflush.

Okay second debate: to lift pump or not!

Older VWs do not have separate lift pumps. So no. Older Mercedes do have lift pumps, but the stock diesel filter can be rerouted before the lift pump, so the lift pump can pull from either the veg or the diesel tank, through the respective filter, and then into pump and on to the engine. So no. Fords and Dodges can generally be re-routed as well.

Newer high-pressure systems need a highly-regulated fuel pressure. So in general, yes. The pump that works well is a FASS pump. It’s guaranteed for 2 years on vegoil and has a 23 amp motor. This is not your standard pump, it’s not even the standard FASS pump. If you’re going to be converting a high-pressure (Pumpe-Düse or common-rail/CRD) system you will probably need one of these. An exception is the early Ford Powerstroke HEUI injection systems. In these, the stock filter cannot be rerouted, so Plantdrive.com provides a billet aluminum replacement filter “bypass” plug, and adds additional filters for both the veg and diesel sides. The good news is that you don’t need the extra pump.

I’ve only had one conversion where the owner wanted a cheap lift pump. They were having starting problems, and their mechanic couldn’t deal with the fuel line rerouting. We put on the cheapo $50 Solid-State Facet Pump (note: These have largely been replaced with their posi-flo pump). These should be considered disposable, but work. It should be noted that it ended being their glow plug relay, not fuel related at all.

Rerouting the lift pump allows the pump to work as it should, avoiding any chance of it pumping into a blocked valve (deadheading), and is cheaper since you don’t need an extra pump. Furthermore, the veg is always flushed from the lift pump, as a separate lift pump needs to be heated, along with the rest of the veg fuel system. The benefit of adding an extra pump is that it keeps your stock system stock, making it easier for mechanic to work on, and provides a fully redundant fuel system.

We believe in robust yet economical vegoil systems. In most cases a looped return and rerouting of the stock lift pump provides the best option for Alaskan winters.

Veg On!

Greasy Rider DVD - SVO and American Society

I was pleasantly surprised after watching Joey Carey and JJ Beck’s Greasy Rider DVD. Promoted as a documentary of a cross-country road trip where the filmmakers meet “fellow Greasecar drivers, friends and critics”, I was expecting an extended Greasecar advertisement.

Although the film does feature Greasecar, it’s not a film about their systems. It’s not even really a film about the road trip. It’s a film about how SVO fits into American society.

Folks burn SVO for environmental, political and economic reasons. This isn’t a treehugging movie, or a how-to film. It’s more of a lefty critique of our oil burning ways and their social implications. There’s no preachy narrator, but rather the honest voices of the people: Noam Chomsky, Morgan Freeman, Tommy Chong, Yoko Ono, the founders of the four major kit companies and more. Vegoil is shown as one part of the solution, something we can do now.

But don’t think this is just a film with talking heads. The producers put together a nice soundtrack and did a great job interspersing intense inteviews with bits of history, fabulous road-trip vistas, average joe reactions to their Greasecar, and chats with fellow SVO drivers.

I’m going to show it to my friends.

Veg On!

Sliding Home: A Near Perfect Primer on SVO.

“Sliding Home: A Complete Guide to Driving Your Diesel on Straight Vegetable Oil” by Ray Holan is perhaps the best $30 a prospective SVO-WVO-vegoil driver can spend.

It is over 300 pages of humorous easy-to-read vegoil information. I’ve read it cover-to-cover, twice.

Starting with Ray’s (and his wife’s) personal story of how he came to SVO - through a love of cars, renewable energy and biodiesel-related explosions; and continuing to walkthroughs of actual installations - it’s an informative, enjoyable read.

It covers all the major kit companies, and a number of the smaller ones. It gives a short history of Dr. Diesel and his engines, and goes over the wide selection of diesels available in the North American market.

If you want to save your time and sanity and avoid wading through the myriad of internet opinions, this is the introductory book you need to read.

It is not a technical manual. Non-mechanics will love it for explaining how to run vegoil while avoiding jargon.

However, if you’re looking for the technical aspects of vegoil and your fuel injection system, you should head straight for “The Edge of Veg” by Stephen Helbig, the only other SVO-centric book.

My only critique of “Sliding Home” is that it’s a nice book, perhaps a bit too nice. It details all the kits and vehicles available, but leaves it up to you to choose the best one. At 300 plus pages, however, this is a small issue. Another issue, not really a critique, is the fact that it’s a book. Great to read, but not necessarily the latest cutting edge information. It’s not the book to design or install your system by. It’s the book to understand all the craziness you’re reading on the internet - the near perfect primer.

And, if you want opinions on the best kit or the easiest car to convert, just check out the Vegwerks Blog!

Veg On!

The Edge of Veg, A Book Review

“The Edge of Veg: an Introduction to Running Diesel Engines on Vegetable Oil by Stephan Helbig” is a very worthwhile, if somewhat awkward, read.

I give it a 3.5 out of 5: 4.5 for the content and 2.5 for the writing.

“The Edge of Veg” is a great companion to Ray Holan’s “Sliding Home: A Complete Guide to Driving Your Diesel on Straight Vegetable Oil.”

While “Sliding Home” provide a fabulous do-it-yourself approach to converting your diesel to vegoil, “The Edge of Veg” explains what’s happening inside your engine.

In “The Edge of Veg” Helbig takes a look at different injection systems, analyzes how they work and how vegoil passes through them. It also takes a hard look at prechambers, whirlchambers and direct-injection engines and discusses how the vegoil ignites in each and tells how to optimize your vehicle for vegoil.

“The Edge of Veg,” however, suffers from run-on sentences, difficult phrasing and numerous spelling and grammatical errors. I’m assuming that it’s because the German author is writing in English - as a second language.

Overall, it’s a worthwhile read to understand the ignition properties of vegoil and how it interacts with the standard diesel injection and combustion systems.

“The Edge of Veg” is distributed in North America by the National Vegoil Board. It’s free with a full membership. Otherwise it’s only available from Amazon.de in Germany, but with the dismal euro to dollar exchange rate and with overseas shipping, not to mention trying to order in German, wouldn’t you rather just join the Vegoil Board?