Vegetable oil and diesel fuel. Can they be mixed together and run through the CTD for better lubricity and at what concentrations can it be mixed without problems such as gelling.

 

You can go up to 5% filtered or virgin oil with no problems at all. If you start going much higher you'll have cold weather problems.

 

Thanks Bill, What do you mean by filtered or virgin oil. The stuff I have is straight off the grocery shelf, 100% soybean oil. Does it have to be filtered for some reason or are you referring to home brewed or already used from cooking.

 

What ration can be used in the summer. Meaning filtered french fry oil???

Not trying to hi-jack, but just add info.....

 

By virgin oil I mean right off the shelf (SVO straight veggie oil) vs. used fryer oil (WVO waste veggie oil) which needs to be filtered to get the food debris out.
Some, but not all, vegetable oils start solidifying at 40F and will plug your filters unless heated. If the oil is heated to 160 °F you can run 100% VO. Most guys who do have two systems, the VO and diesel system. The diesel is used to warm the engine up, to flush the VO out before shutting down and to heat the VO tank to get it flowing.

Don't know how cost effective it would be to buy off the shelf VO just for lubricity, think that a diesel additive would probably be cheaper and do a better job.

WVO and biodiesel are two different things, BD has been processed to be a fuel.

 

The problem with running straight veg oil (besides cold weather) is the viscosity. It is to thick. Not good for the pump. It needs to be warmed to reduce it's viscosity. Thats why you see guys run a dual tank system (like infidel mentions).

I agree, not cost effective to run virgin oil. You can run used veg oil, but it needs to be filtered and dewatered.

The other problem (and there is a debate over this) is if running straight veg oil over long term, some report that it can coke up your injectors, and or gum up your rings. I'm not saying anything either way.

Do a search on your favorite search engine for waste veg oil as fuel, and biodiesel. You will get more info than you will care to read.

Kevin

 

The only reason I was going to run VO for lubricity is because I can get about 30 gallons a year for free. That's equiviant to approx $60.00 worth of fuel I would have had to buy. I figured if it was free, my time is free, and it adds lubricity without harmful effects why not use it. Looks like a couple quarts per tank will be o.k. By your figure a person could go to 7 quarts of VO per 35 gallons of diesel, or 2 quarts of VO per 10 gallons of diesel fuel.

Do you know the lubricity properties of VO compared to BD. You stated some where that 1% BD increases the lubricity of #2 fuel by 60%.

 

One more question. Does VO added to fuel oil increase or decrease MPG?

 

I run B100 in the summer. And my fuel mileage goes down a little. I think the bio has less BTU's per gallon.

Dean

 

VO will lower your mpgs also but if it's free what the heck?
Only number I've read is that 2% VO will raise the lubricity of ultra low sulfur diesel back to the level of high sulfur diesel. This assumes the ULSD doesn't have any lubricity additives to begin with but they all do.

 

I have a bit of experience with the bio diesel. I worked for Penn State University Farm Services and we ran a 20% mix in all of the farm equipment as well as the over the road trucks. We noticed a significant decrease in power, higher consumption rate, and several problems with plugged fuel filters. This would make sense if in fact BD has a lower BTU/gal than straight diesel. I know its not veggie oil but it is something else to consider with this topic. It kinda makes you hungry too when you are running a tractor all day in a field and all you can smell is french fries, haha!

 

http://www.journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html anything and everything !

 

Thank you to everyone for all the helpful information.

Much Appreciated.