Quote:
Originally Posted by Horse  |
Its not even that new and you don't really even technically convert the oil to diesel, as diesel itself is a petrol product. You can convert any existing diesel engine to run on the stuff with the kits like you said and with some persistence and work you can obtain sources of used french fry grease and stuff to use as fuel. People do actually do this on a significant scale although like you said it isn't exactly mainstream. Its a well documented offshoot of the biodiesel advocacy crowd though and a totally viable alternative that can run on the many decades old diesel engine technology, no need to wait for some sort of revolutionary engineering breakthrough here. It is also totally clean for those who care not only about the costs and political ramifications like me, but also about environmental concerns.
Biggest drawback is the gelling issues in cold weather, just like with 100% biodiesel. Not sure offhand if you can get around that partially by mixing in dino diesel like you can with bio, I'm inclined to say no. But I know that there are ways to get past the gelling issue with bio, such as running a 20% bio blend in cold months or using antigel additives. Another issue for older diesel engines is that using bio (maybe SVO too) tends to really clear out all the old dino diesel gunk and clog your fuel lines or filter. Lots of people get around that by installing a small prefilter in the fuel line before it gets to the main fuel filter. The smaller prefilter can be swapped out on the fly roadside in the event that you clog up. The older the diesel engine the more this is an ongoing problem, but it is beneficial in how much it cleans out the system or in the case of a newer engine keeps it clean.
I'm also not so sure about the 150-180 MPG thing, I thought SVO just got you standard diesel MPG (50-60ish in a passenger car usually). But I could be wrong on that.