Team-BHP - Speed, TurboJet, Xtra Premium...PARACHUTE???

They've been doing this for years.....some people even blend biodiesel in their homes from used cooking oil...it works out in foreign countries because according to law cooking oil is supposed to be used only once, after which it has to be discarded....hence lots of this stuff is available cheap.

I think a few years back Top Gear also ran a feature on this...they ran a diesel volvo or something on pure cooking oil without any mods to the engine...and it even ran well...

I guess the process for making biodiesel at home involves filtering and washing the cooking oil with methanol....then they filter the meth out and viola, you have BIODIESEL.

Nothing new really - research on biodiesel has been goin on for ages - in fact the Diesel Engine itself was first run in Peanut Butter IIRC. The Indian Army has also used Vegetable Oil in it's Shaktiman Trucks during the '65 war I think.

Some people in the US also collect used vegetable oil from restaurants and refine it to use it in their diesel vehicles.

We're currently trying to set up a plantation for Jatropha Curcas - a oilseed bearing plant - in TN, the plant takes about 3 years for production of oilseeds to be maximised so that biodiesel can be extracted with glycerine as the main byproduct. The leaves of the plant can be used for vermicompost and the oilcake as animal feed once certain toxins are removed or as compost itself - being rich in nitrogen.

Many companies such as D1 oils of UK , Mohans , and the governments of Chhattisgarh and at the centre are getting involved in this as it provides a renewable, clean source of energy. Daimler Chrysler India, Indian Oil are also seriously doing reserach into this while Indian Railways is already running some trains on Jatropha Biodiesel. Our President has even commenbted on this on his addresses to the nation on both Republic Day as well as Independence Day. This also provides a way of reclaiming wastelands whcih would otherwise be unsuitable for agriculture.

For more information you can visit www.jatropha.de or www.svlele.com.

cheers

zaphod

I remember 2 related articles :
1) They took 2 Mercs running purely on Bio-diesel to Ladakh for testing purpose. It came out trumps. One was C-class and other E. No modifications required on engine. I don't remember which Auto magazine published this (was it Autocar or BSM?)
2) Chhatisghar CM has ordered with Jatropha plantation over around 1lakh (?) hectors in the state. His vision is that this will be fuel of future. I guess, state is supporting this venture.

The bio diesel that MB India ran their cars on were extracted from Jathropa plant, this plant grows with little maintenance and in abundance over barren land. Andhra Pradesh government is extracting it and the sale price for now is set to Rs.15 a liter, this should go down once mass production starts.

For engines, the most bio diesel friendly are the old IDI engines, OM 616/617/603 and also the Toyota engines as in their Qualis, old Land Cruisers etc. The OM616/617 are among the most popular vehicles for bio experiment and as such, they are quite popular with the bio crowd in US, very little mods if any are needed to run bio in them and actually they run better and longer with bio due to its inherent higher Cetane rating and better lubricity.

Rudolf diesel never intended his engines to run on "crude oil derived" diesel. The original engine was running on vegetable oil, and then modified for petroleum.
As for biodiesel etc., Mercedes Benz has discovered that they can run cars on biodiesel without any mods. Earlier rubber parts were replaced with plastic to prevent corrosion which could occur, but after tests they found no modifications are needed.
Infact at higher altitude testing they found that the MB cars were spewing out black smoke, which is a good sign indicating complete combustion as opposed to other sumos and qualises there which were spewing blue smoke indicating incomplete combustion.
In USofA you can find DIY kits for converting discarded cooking oils from hotels and all to engine grade fuel. Many people in semi rural areas run their trucks on that and claim better FE and power.

Coming to the economics of using jathropa, currently to extract 1 litre of biodiesel you would need to spend 42rs. Price of diesel without taxes is 18rs/litre. So unless price of jathropa seeds comes down or other factors in that equation drop, it may not be used. The target price for next 5 years is 25rs/litre(Without taxes).

Quote:

Originally Posted by tsk1979

So unless price of jathropa seeds comes down or other factors in that equation drop, it may not be used. The target price for next 5 years is 25rs/litre(Without taxes).

You are absolutely right tsk1979...

Public sector oil firms will purchase bio-diesel extracted from plants like Jatropha for mixing in diesel, at Rs 25 a litre beginning January 1.

Five per cent non-edible oil from Jatropha, Pongamia etc (bio-diesel) will be mixed with diesel during trial runs and the percentage increased to 20 in phases, Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar said unveiling the new bio-diesel purchase policy.....

Full story here...:

http://in.rediff.com/money/2005/oct/13bio.htm

An old thread, but I thought it prudent to continue here than opening a new one (since the topics are related).

While on biofuels, I read somewhere that coconut oil (normal unbranded) is used by autorickshaw drivers in Kerala (Calicut) as a replacement for the 2T oil that they normally add to petrol. Supposed to be as efficient a lubricant and also reduces pollution and to top it, comes cheap at less than 50/- per litre compared to around 100/- for a litre of 2T oil.

Last I heard, Anna University, Chennai was doing some R&D on the suitability of coconut oil as 2T oil replacement. If it clicks and whole of India (2-stroke vehicles) starts using it, imagine the many benefits :
1. Would do wonders to the economic health of the coconut farmer in Kerala reeling under real low prices currently.
2. Reduce environmental pollution.
3. Cheaper for auto drivers - could (and that is a big could) result in savings to auto-users.
4. Reduce our crude import bill.

I did try it a couple of times on my wife's Scooty (without her knowledge :)) and did not notice any issues.

A question : Will this work in 4-stroke engines also, where the oil is not mixed with petrol, but is in a separate reservoir ?