Concerns over climate change and rising fuel costs have more people turning to biofuels than every before. Whether you’re interested in burning a biodiesel blend in your current vehicle or converting an old car to run on straight vegetable oil, you may be able to reduce your fuel costs, save money, and help the environment by looking into alternative fuel sources for your driving needs. To get an idea of what’s involved in using bio fuels in your vehicle, check out these basic instructions for choosing biodiesel or bio fuel.

Maintenance

Besides driving more efficiently, you can also save money and improve your vehicles fuel efficiency by keeping it in good working order. Proper maintenance and care are essential for anyone wishing to reduce their monthly and yearly auto bills.

• Driving on underinflated tires will subtract 0.4 percent from your overall vehicle fuel efficiency. Doing a monthly check of your tires can save you 7 cents/gallon.
• Maintain your vehicle by having it tuned-up regularly to improve fuel economy by 4 percent, which will save you $0.10/gallon.
• During your next oil change, make sure you get the recommended grade of motor oil to improve fuel efficiency by 1-2 percent.
• If you’ve got an older car, replacing clogged or dirty air filters will help to prevent debris from getting into your engine, thus making it more fuel efficient.
• Regularly replace the oil filter in your vehicle to help your car running efficiently.
• Make sure that your tires are aligned properly. Misaligned tires will cause engine drag, which will further degrease your fuel efficiency.
• Regular oil changes will help to increase fuel efficiency, since smooth-flowing oil will reduce friction in the moving parts of your engine. This will also extend the useful life of your engine.

Converting your vehicle to run on biodiesel

Running your diesel vehicle on biodiesel is a great way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. You can choose to run your vehicle on commercially-available biodiesel blends which generally don’t go higher than 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petrodiesel, commonly known as B20. If, however, you want run your vehicle on 100 percent biodiesel, or B100, it will require some vehicle modifications if you intend to use a blend that contains more than 20 percent biodiesel.

1. Up-front vehicle changes

• a. Biodiesel is an excellent solvent, so your vehicle will go through an intense time of transition. Petrodiesel leaves waxy, grimy deposits in your fuel tank and hoses. Over the course of several weeks when first using biodiesel, the biodiesel will slowly dissolve sediment deposits in your vehicle’s engine, requiring frequent filter changes.
• b. If your engine uses rubber components in any of its systems, these will need to be replaced with rot-resistant parts. Viton is the preferred material.

2. Ongoing maintenance requirements

• a. Running a vehicle on biodiesel will require more frequent filter changes ongoing as well due to the solvent nature of the fuel.
• b. Diesel vehicles don’t have electronic fuel injection systems like gasoline vehicles, and as such, the injector pump (IP) will need to be primed. This is done by pumping the diesel fuel into the IP from the tank.

Compared to running your vehicle on biofuels, the vehicle modifications in this system are quite a bit less involved. However, if you choose to make your own biodiesel, either from virgin or waste vegetable oil, it will require a significant ongoing time commitment to process the vegetable oil into biodiesel in a relatively dangerous chemical process.

Nevertheless, it can cost less to run your vehicle on biodiesel. The initial cost to convert your vehicle is very little (the price of some filters and rubber component replacements) and if you make your biodiesel, it can cost between $300 and $13,000 to get a processor up and running. Making your own biodiesel after these initial costs are accounted for can range from $0.40/gallon to $3/gallon, depending on where you source your oil.

Additionally, biodiesel burns more cleanly than petrodiesel. In fact, even a 20:80 blend of biodiesel and petrodiesel means a 15 percent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO₂), and also cuts down on particulate matter (PM), carbon monoxide (CO), and sulphur dioxide (SO₂). Pure biodiesel can result in a 90 percent decline in air toxins. Biodiesel also produces about 95 percent less toxic waste than petrodiesel, although it also creates about twice as much nontoxic solid waste (in the form of unprocessed plant material).

Converting your vehicle to run on biofuel

Using straight (SVO) or waste vegetable oil (WVO) as a fuel requires modifications to be made to your diesel vehicle engine rather than modifications to the fuel itself (although the oil is filtered).

1. One- or two-tank conversion? The basic premise is to add either a one- or two-tank system that will be used to heat the vegetable oil. Veggie oil is very viscose and so must be heated to run in your vehicle properly in order to prevent coking, liquid fuel leakage past unsealed rings, and contamination of lubricating oil. Here are the two options:

• a. One-tank system: With this option, you fundamentally alter the stock fuel system to run the vehicle on 100 percent vegetable oil, but can only be used on vehicles run in warmer climates that never go below -40F. Many one-tank system users either blend their vegetable oil with petroleum diesel or add a solvent such as turpentine, paint stripper, kerosene, or naphthalene.
• b. Two-tank system: Here the stock fuel system is left untouched and an entirely new, secondary fuel system is added (the second tank). The stock fuel system runs on petrodiesel for start-up and shut-down, and then switches to the second tank to run on vegetable oil. The secondary tank heats the oil to 160F or higher. This method results in fewer engine problems, does not reduce the life of the vehicle, is an easy conversion, and much safer to operate.

2. Parts needed: The parts required for using biofuels include:

• a. Heated fuel tank: To warm the vegetable oil.
• b. Heated fuel lines: To keep the heated oil warm as it travels through the engine.
• c. Heated vegetable oil filter: Generally heated, these provide filtration to at least the same micron level as the stock fuel filter.
• d. Final fuel heater: To raise the fuel temperature to minimum injection levels.
• e. Valves: To correctly direct the fuel as needed, with automatic or manual controls.
• f. Indicators: Used by the driver to monitor the system

3. Oil collection: To run a vehicle on WVO, oil will have to be collected. Many restaurants will give away their oil for free to avoid paying disposal costs, but you must negotiate an agreement with them.

4. Oil filtration: Once the oil is collected, it should be filtered to remove any large debris.

5. Oil storage: Vegetable oil can degrade over time if left exposed to air, sunlight, and moisture. It therefore should be stored in a cool, dry location in sealed drums.

6. Legal implications: It should be noted that using vegetable oil as fuel is illegal and therefore should be done with due consideration.

Although many biofuel advocates suggest that you save as much as 75 percent on your fuel bills by using vegetable oil as fuel, how much you save by running your vehicle on biofuel will depend on many factors, including:

• Type of oil: If brand new pure or straight vegetable oil is used, the cost for using this fuel can be quite prohibitive, especially as costs for certain crops, such as corn, continue to rise. Waste vegetable is generally the most cost effective as it is often free.
• Cost of time: You will have to put some time in to collecting and filtering your oil, as well as time to modify your vehicle and maintain it on a regular basis.
• Vehicle conversion: There are some up-front costs to converting your vehicle, which fall somewhere between $300 and several thousand dollars.
• Original vehicle efficiency: The fuel efficiency of your vehicle won’t change much when using veggie oil, so this will have to be taken into consideration.

The greatest environmental benefit to running a vehicle on SVO or WVO is the reduction in pollutants. Compared to petrodiesel, vegetable oil is 75 percent cleaner, and results in fewer carbon dioxide, sulphur oxide, carbon monoxide, air toxics, unburned hydrocarbons, and particulate emissions.

Resources for Biofuel and Biodiesel Users

Today, there are more and more cooperative organizations allowing individuals to organize around various interests. Those wishing to use either straight vegetable oil or biodiesel have been enthusiastic about getting together for the purposes of supporting each other’s efforts. Here are a few of those types of organizations:

• The Biodiesel Collective Conference (http://www.collectivebiodiesel.org/coops/index.php): This is their site for bodiesel coops located through North America, listed by state/province.
• Fusel (http://www.fusel.com/vegoil_sites.html): Has a good list of vegetable oil-related communities throughout the country.
• Vegoil Yahoo! Groups (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/vegoil-diesel/): Join this group for all kinds of resources for vegetable oil enthusiasts.

The WVO community has developed largely out of necessity. The messy nature of filtering and using WVO as a fuel has keep many people from really investing in this work, resulting in small groups of people banding together to find solutions and develop systems to make the job easier.

Online communities are popping up everywhere to meet the need, many of which have good listings of potential sources for used cooking oil in your area. Cooperatives are essentially a collection of people who pool their efforts to benefit one another: build or buy a filtration system, collect a communal supply of WVO, or just swap ideas.

Check out these options to see if they’ve got listings suitable for your requirements:

• Fillup4Free (http://fillup4free.com/): Use their interactive map to add yourself to the community and then find people who have WVO to give away or sell.
• Good grease (http://www.goodgrease.com/search/node/wvo+for+sale): Has an ongoing list of vendors with WVO for sale or for free!). Use their search tool with keywords like “WVO for sale Dallas” to find what you’re looking for.
• Lovecraft Bio-Fuels (http://www.lovecraftbiofuels.com/index.php?option=com_joomlaboard&Itemid=40&func=showcat&catid=7): Provides a place for vendors to post WVO for sale.
• Community Partner (http://www.commoditypartner.com/): This side has a nice search feature that lets you filter results by region, quantity minimums and maximums, and frequency.
• Biodiesel Now (http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/118.aspx): Like Good Grease, Biodiesel Now has a community board where suppliers post listings of WVO for sale.

Craigslist (http://www.craigslist.org/about/sites): Like many other general-purpose sites, Craigslist may be a source for finding used vegetable oil. Just look for your city’s local Craigslist site, then search for WVO or SVO or some other keyword. You never know what you might find!