Hi, the story so far:

HAD A company (diesel) Landcruiser with switchable fuel tanks in it and thought of burning the waste canola oil (from brother-in-law's restaurant) in one of them. Quit that job BUT having joined this forum determined to get a vehicle of my own to try this idea out anyway. Now I have a 240 l (plastic) "upflow settling tank" 1/2 full of coarse-filtered WVO and a 60 l second tank to collect the runoff once it's full. The oil seems to be very clear with little fat and no noticeable water settling out so I'm hoping that it will test as dry and I can just final-filter and thin it to run in an unmodified vehicle (it's warm enough here in Queensland that I can't see needing to heat anything provided I clean out the original fuel system and put in a new onboard filter).

Here's my current dilema: Kerosene here is more expensive than (dino)diesel - which is more expensive than gasoline! Maybe I can find a bulk supplier to get that price down though. Since there's not a lot of difference between kerosene and diesel I thought why not just use that? This ends up with me just "extending" regular diesel with (85%?) processed WVO - nothing could be simpler. Then I read here that putting WVO into a normal diesel fuel system is a bad idea because it releases "black gunk" or "waxy residue" to plug the filter etc. What I don't understand is why mixing with kerosene is better than just mixing with (dino)diesel - and why it wouldn't have the same attendant problems as dumping some WVO into the tank on any garden-variety diesel vehicle. I see lots of you do thin WVO with kerosene prior to final filtering and that seems to work for you. If there is some magical difference between kerosene and diesel which makes the former safe to use as a thinner, but the later NOT then could someone please enlighten this poor newbie?

I have set up sample jars of (dino)diesel and processed WVO (warm-filtered then cooled and processed canola) and kerosene. I am planning to compare their viscosities to establish the percentage mixture needed to produce a product with a warm-day viscosity close to the cool-day (dino)diesel viscosity since any vehicle I get would be designed to cope with that.

A final point some of you may be prepared to comment on is that I originally planned to get a real old and crude cheapy which is less of a financial risk AND more likely to cope with this sort of blend than say a TDI or "common rail" engine but all the advice I've read here fails to clarify WHY the more sophisticated fuel systems have trouble digesting this stuff - higher injection pressures maybe? A couple of brand-new turbo' diesel sedans have just been released here for $20,000 and I might just take a BIG plunge on this so I won't have any OTHER car problems to worry about, just getting the fuel quality and mix right. It could cost me an IP along the way, but that might be cheaper than putting $60 every week into the tank! Pros and cons welcome just please don't flame me for asking what I haven't found answers to yet - Felix.

Thank you for experementing and putting lot of thought into this instead of just coming on here asking us to spoon feed you all the information that took us years to come across.

anywayyy.. speaking of information..... the information your seeking, along with the folk who discuss it and etc. is in the forum dedicatd the subject of blending / solvent thinning WVO. Suggest you cut and paste this thread over to that forum.

I have always read that one can use half as much K-1 as D2 to get the same amount of thinning benefit.

I have never done viscosity tests myself in this regard or seen any empirical evidence, but I have taken the statement to be true.

In my area I have to drive a long way to get a decent price on K-1. It is actually cheaper for me to buy Jet-A than K-1 from the local supplier. For me, the Jet-A is cheaper and fresher.

I have seen a german study (I'm sorry, but I don't have the link), and Kerosine has a significantly lower gel point, and no added parafins (like diesel, or in Canada, summer diesel). It has been mentioned recently that stove oil is a cheaper form of kerosine, which may be available through home heating oil suppliers. I buy Kero at a gas staion that also sells diesel. There are a couple in my area.

In a warm climate like Qld where it seldom if ever gets below freezing, the problems associated with using #2 diesel for thinning VO are much less likely to occur. One would just have to use more #2 to thin the mix to the same viscosity that stove oil, #1 ULSD, or kerosene would give.

Ah many thanks all - I'll leave it up to Admin whether to move this to the other section as I don't want to double-up this thread. Sorry for the mis-posting.

Valuable info' that it's normal to use 1/2 K1 as you would D2 - which feeds into the economics obviously. If I get this off the ground I'll seek out "home heating oil/stove oil" or AVTUR/Jet A or bulk K1 of course but for the moment a few dollars per litre just to experiment with is ok. Stale gas is an option but apparently it's very smelly - and maybe explosive?

In case anyone is interested I'm attaching a pic' of my setup thus far. The big tank is a 240 l city council recycling bin (well, I AM recycling right?). This is based on John Galt's diagram except the supply tube doesn't need to be 2" AFAIK and leading it in from the side allows me to see the level at a glance. Also as someone pointed in another thread it might help to NOT stir up the sludge that collects in the bottom.

There's no way to SEAL the thing so I can't have the top oil forced out when new oil is added, but I doubt having it run out through the overflow tube (yet-to-be-attached to the smaller drum) instead will upset the applecart (comments John?). There's pantyhose lining the collection drum you see on the shelf to the right and a rough garden-watering filter in-line just to keep out anything which gets around the pantyhose somehow. Again following JG's approach I'll thin (with K1 probably 10-15%) before doing the final filtering just to make things flow more easily.

Now to find the right vehicle...

WVO_Processing_Setup.jpg (43 KB, 24 downloads)