Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/183648
Fuel Factoid Deep Fried Fuel By Tom Kelley Can You Run A Diesel On Veggie Oil? T here has been lots of talk about saving money and the environment by running a diesel engine on Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO). While it's certainly possible to do at the hobbyist level, and at the small fleet level with enough hands-on attention, the technical problems are quickly outweighed by the availability factor. It's true that most restaurants have to pay to get their used deep-fryer oil hauled away, but it's a matter of quantity. With the exception of extremely huge restaurants, typical quantities being disposed are less than 100 gallons per month. To many who tout the use of SVO, 100 gallons a month times the local number of restaurants may seem like an endless supply, but when weighed against trucks that can consume 100 gallons per day, the "free" supply of SVO isn't really that big. Given the uncertainty of remote availability, SVO just isn't practical as a long-haul fuel. But for a portion of the fleet in a local/regional operation, SVO can be practical given the appropriate level of management and attention. At Wil Fischer Companies, a Missouri-based Budweiser distributor, the fuel strategy is best described as "All of the Above." One option that isn't often found on most fleet fuel menus is SVO. This may seem a bit odd to those not well-versed in alternative fuels, but when one considers that Rudolf Diesel ran his first engine on peanut oil, a vegetarian truck doesn't seem so far-fetched. / OWNER OPERATOR/ OCTOBER 2013 / / 58 OO 1013 fuel factoid.indd 1 9/10/13 10:40 AM