Veg Oil in diesel genny ????

[Kennedy]

Is it safe to do? Does anything need changed or altered?

[Tagger]

If it's just a generator, wouldn't it be cheaper to run it on red diesel?

[StephF]

We run ours on red diesel,( house/building electricity when renewables have no sun/wind for over 2-3 days) interested to hear any alternatives...

[marsonpee]

I ran veg oil diesel mix in my landy no probs. winter you may need to mix a little more diesel.

[mixedangased]

i run new rapeseed oil/derv 50/50 mix in hilux for past 4 yrs no probs,

just makes you hungry

[Old WoodChip]

it should run no problem, but same as mentioned above it would be cheaper using red!

[rupert w]

I think it depends on the type of engine,I'd want to check first before trying.

[felixthelogchopper]

If you start running SVO in any diesel engine, you will need to change the filters quite quickly (equivalent to a couple of hundred miles in a vehicle) as the veg oil clears all the muck out of the pipework. Also, SVO is not suitable for running in an engine with Common Rail Injection due to the high pressure. Unless you have a large, very cheap source of veg oil, I would stick to using Red.

[farmerjohn]

I buy bio diesel off a guy near me which is WVO with fat stripped out, iv ran my 55 plate nav D40 on it no problem 50/50 during winter and 75/25 in summer, also a 53 reg transit no problem,

BUT i had a 54 plase iveco van and a 03plateiveco pickup and i had nothing but problems with them, to be fair, i had ignition problems with them before running them on bio.

not sure if it was the bio or they have massive fuling problems (i wish i had google 'iveco daily starting problem' before i bought them)

in short as mentioned in winter when temperatures are coolermixmore diesel with it or it will solidify in lines, i also filter again before putting in vans and i add a chemical which basically increases the octane rating of the bio.

[Arob]

A lot of veg oilers use preheaters to keep the viscosity down, or a two tank system one veg one normal diesel, using the regular diesel when starting (engine still cold) and before stopping (to flush veg oil through) to prevent it plugging the valves as the engine cools.

 

As you probably know, biodiesel is veg oil with the gloopyness (i.e. the glycerine) removed, there are a couple of ways people go about this, the standard way is to use methanol and caustic soda, it's fairly straightforward and you can settle the worst of it out to leave a fairly clean fuel, but what's less straightforward is 'washing' the fuel to get any lingering impurities out, so be cautious of sources when buying it - i know a chap who ended up with a truck off the road and out of action from trying to save a few quid on fuel. The cost of recovery and repair, and the disruption to his business were quite a bit bigger than any savings he might've made.

 

Have you tried a forum such as this vegetableoildiesel.co.uk - Powered by XMB 1.9.11 you might get a more specific response?

Edited November 19, 2012 by Arob