Waste Vegetable Oil Alternative Fuel
Engineers have been looking at the option of using vegetable oil as a fuel to run vehicles. Now technological advances have made it possible to study its properties in depth. As a result, in the search for alternative fuels, vegetable oil has also emerged as a front-runner. Its best advantage is that it is easily available. Some vegetable oils have the same composition as diesel fuels. Hence it makes them ideal as alternative fuel. But vegetable oils have high viscosity and low oxidative stability. If these two properties can be overcome, the problem of alternative fuel will be solved. |
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Waste vegetable oil or WVO, meets the needs of alternative fuels. It requires only a few modifications. Its high viscosity can be treated by heating the oil at high temperature. Otherwise it can result in poor combustion. Another idea in proposal is to have dual tank system. The vehicle is started on diesel engine, and then shifted on to WVO engine after a little warming up. When its time to shut off the vehicle switch over to diesel again. This will ensure that no residue of WVO is left in the engine. In colder climates, vegetable oil tends to solidify. Hence starting the engine can be a problem if there is leftover oil.
In engines that haven’t been modified, vegetable oil, used along with diesel will reduce the ill-effects. But there is no even consensus on this methodology. Using a blend of both the fuels can spoil the fuel pumps and piston rings.
Fuel from vegetable oil is easy to produce at home. All it requires is preheating in furnaces. The resulting fuel will is not very clean but is economical. Restaurants and hotel normally give away the waste vegetable oil. So the oil is easily obtainable from these places at very low costs. In countries like the US, modifying a normal engine to run on vegetable oil is not legal. In the UK, it is legal for use after paying the duty on fuel.
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Aviation industry has also been hit by the soaring crude oil prices. The growing demand for oil across the world is not being met. As a result, private airlines have had to increase the prices of the tickets. This isn’t good news for regular fliers. Especially since more and more people prefer travelling by planes nowadays. However, unknown to some of us, the aircraft industry has been experimenting with alternative fuels that can also improve the efficiency of the engines. 
