Vegetable Oil SVO WVO waste cooking oil as biofuel

[penguy]

I used the SunWizard model and tried to duplicate everything he did. Even have a SunWizard centrifuge for fuel processing.

I use a TIH for the WVO supply from a home built 90 gal tank. The tank has an aluminum coiled tube as a heat exchanger. Some problem with initial heating of the pick up tube because I live in Maine.

WVO line has an in line glass fuel filter at the tank followed by a hose wrapped Golden Rod metal canister fuel filter. Final heater is a 26 plate pfhe from Omar. I put another sight gauge glass fuel filter down stream from the filters (diesel and WVO).

In the WVO tank I installed an electric heater element to keep the tank warm. I believe that is a mistake, idea is good BUT I think my insulation on the heater power supply has failed inside the tank. Getting debris. Will be checking in the tank soon.

As of today 3-8-08 we have about 1,800 miles on the system during a cross country trip from Maine to the West Coast. Pulling an aerodynamic car hauler. Total gross weight at about 18,000 lbs. Don't really know the the mpg. But I guess with an original gross weight of about 15,000 lbs it is about 14 mpg at 70 to 75 mph.

Due to very spotty internet capability I can't post photos yet.

[penguy]

I'm in SLC and so far on this trip I have driven 5,400 miles. Used about 400 gals of WVO. And maybe 60 gals of dino. Gross weight is still about 17,000 lbs.

My WVO tank does not have a gauge on it and of course I ran out, in Tucson, AZ. Yep, upside down under the hood to reprime the system.

WVO does not appear available in SLC.

I have photos of my set up but no way to post them. If somebody has a place to post them let me know and I will send the photos. My VO fuel filter is coil wrapped to heat it and the 26 plate fphe is right next to it in the far corner of the engine compartment on the drivers side.

[SunWizard]

I have photos of my set up but no way to post them. If somebody has a place to post them let me know and I will send the photos. My VO fuel filter is coil wrapped to heat it and the 26 plate fphe is right next to it in the far corner of the engine compartment on the drivers side.

Here is a free and simple place to host your pics and it even creates the links you need to display the pics on here:
http://www.photobucket.com

[penguy]

Thanks SunWiz,

I posted 3 photos on Photobucket.com. My album is located at http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk294/penguy_photos/.

(edit: here they are now that we can upload here)

[penguy]

Regarding our trip we drove about 8,000 miles. I ran out of oil. So I started buying diesel out west where it was cheaper. I drove about 1,700 miles on diesel and saved my last 90 gallons of oil for back east where the price was higher.

Still don't have a good idea of our fuel mileage. About 400 miles from home (Maine) we started to have tranny problems. Left the trailer in NY and drove home without. It appears it is a worn linkage problem with the tranny. The engine seems happy with the WVO. There does seem to be a noticeable drop in horsepower but I can live with that.

After getting home from our trip I visited some of my sources. Very interesting. Baker Commodities has just sent some of them a one year contract and is offering to pay 15 cents per gallon for the waste oil. By the way that is not a typo. I told them I would give them 20 cents per gallon and I am a local guy to boot. They like that.

My guess is we will see the real price settle out and start to appear next year. Renegade Oil In SLC gets $3 gal on his sales. This is going to have an effect upon all of us.