SVO

[Due to the increasing size of the archives, each topic page now contains only the prior 365 days of content. Access to older stories is now solely through the Monthly Archive pages or the site search function.]

German Researchers Find Straight Rapeseed Oil Fuel Increases Mutagenicity of Diesel Engine Emissions

April 13, 2007

A German team of researchers has found that straight rapeseed vegetable oil used as a fuel in diesel engines shows a strong increase in the mutagenicity of emissions compared to a reference diesel fuel and other fuels.

In a study published in Archives of Toxicology, the team compared the mutagenic effects of emissions produced by two different batches of straight rapeseed oil to the emissions produced by rapeseed methyl ester (biodiesel), GTL diesel and a reference diesel fuel.

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V100 Golf Aces EPA Emissions Tests

February 04, 2007

Results of the emissions testing. Click to enlarge. Source: AAE.

A 2002 Volkswagen Golf TDi modified to run on straight canola oil (V100) produced emissions below the EPA standards for the vehicle in recent testing at the National Center for Vehicle Emissions Control and Safety located at Colorado State University (NCVECS).

Albuquerque Alternative Energies (AAE) modified the Golf with a vegetable oil fuel system supplied by PlantDrive and VO Control, consisting of a Hotfox stainless steel heated fuel pickup, Vormax dual stage vegetable oil processing filter, Vegtherm inline electric final fuel heater, and a VO Control Systems VO Controller.

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Converting an RV to Run on Vegetable Oil

December 07, 2006

Left tank is 140-gallon clean tank, right tank is 70-gallon dewatering tank with attached filter extended for changing. Click to enlarge.

Frybrid has converted a 40-foot Bluebird motorhome to use straight or waste vegetable oil (SVO or WVO) in its 11-liter, 450hp turbodiesel engine. This system has a 140-gallon heated clean tank and a 70-gallon dewatering and filtering tank, bag filter which extends for changing, and 50-foot hose reel and pump to suck up oil.

The system switches to VO and simultaneously activates a pump which circulates cooling diesel fuel through the fuel system electronics package which is about the size of a briefcase. It is capable of collecting, dewatering and filtering oil as the vehicle is moving and is fitted with additional electronic heaters to allow filtering when parked. It should be capable of filtering 140 gallons of waste oil a day, according to Frybrid.

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MIT Vehicle Design Summit Wraps

August 15, 2006

One of the prototypes, powered by electricity and fuel cells. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington

Students from 21 universities around the world gathered at MIT this summer for the MIT Vehicle Design Summit, which concluded on 13 August. The students designed and built prototype commuter vehicles that exploit human power, biofuels, solar technologies and fuel cells to travel at least 500 miles per gallon of fuel. (Earlier post.)

As one example, the biofuels team used a 1-liter, direct-injection, 22 hp engine fueled by straight vegetable oil and lithium-ion batteries from A123 Systems.

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