Why WVO
From VO Wiki
Why WVO?
WVO has many benefits. Some of them are listed below:
- Politics. Why increase our reliance on foreign oil when we can use a source of plant fuel grown domestically?
- Environmentally friendly. WVO is a carbon neutral or carbon positive fuel. The carbon dioxide emitted by burning WVO is not "new" CO2 being put into the atmosphere. Since vegetable oil is created by plants, the carbon dioxide emitted was originally pulled from the atmosphere by the plant. Hence the term "carbon neutral." Some studies suggest that WVO is actually carbon positive, in that it does not emit as much CO2 as the plant absorbs during it's lifetime.
- Economics. Last but certainly not least, WVO can save you money. There is an up-front investment to upgrade your vehicle, but after that investment, it's pretty much free gas! WVO can usually be obtained for free from resturants (they have to pay someone, usually a "rendering" company to take it away) and requires only minimal ongoing filtering costs. If you use a centrifuge, your filtering costs are almost zero.
How it Works
Diesel engines are designed to run on diesel fuel. Diesel fuel is less viscous (thinner) than vegetable oil. Therefore, the vegetable oil's viscosity must be moved closer to that of diesel fuel.
To use vegetable oil in a a diesel engine, its viscosity must be lowered via heat so that it can be moved by the from tank, through a filter, the injection pump, injectors, and finally into the combustion chamber. A lower viscosity is also critical to atomization, the process of "spraying" the fuel into the combustion chamber. If the viscosity of the oil is not lowered and it does not spray correctly, it will not burn correctly, and deposit will accumulate on the inside of the combustion chamber. Heating the oil to reduce its viscosity is critical to getting a good clean burn.
