Vegetable Oil Road Trip

A while back, I received the following question:

Hey, I just wanted to say hello and ask you if you have any suggestions about procuring the vegetable oil. My bus is about ready and I heard there are good establishments to get oil from relatively painlessly. Any advice is appreciated.

Supposedly there are organizations who will sell the oil- already filtered for cost but this is anecdotal. I am perfectly happy climbing in the grease traps and sucking it out and filtering it myself, but I need to know where to actually get it.

Cheers,
adam

Sadly, when I replied to the email address Adam gave, my reply bounced. Here is my answer:

Hi Adam,

Gosh, that’s the million-dollar question: where do you get vegetable oil?

First, a few warnings about dumpsters:

1. Once oil is placed into a dumpster, it legally belongs to the company that owns the dumpster. If you pump oil from the dumpster (even with the restaurant’s permission), you are stealing. There have been prosecutions of people running their cars on veg oil who pumped oil from dumpsters in Texas and other states.
2. Can you really, guarantee that some brainiac hasn’t decided to dump their old engine oil into that “oil only” dumpster? You can’t filter engine oil out of veggie oil, and I guarantee that engine oil will cause damage to your engine.

Now, on to your question: where do you get used oil?
Most restaurants pay a waste removal service to dispose of their used fryer oil. If you offer to pick up their oil for free, most restaurants will be happy to help you out.

What you want:

• Vegetable oil without animal fats that has been used at relatively low temperatures (~300-350F). Preferably canola or soy oil.
• Absolutely no hydrogenated oils – the words “creamy fryer shortening” on oil containers are a tip-off that their oil is hydrogenated.

Best places to try:

• Mexican restaurants that only use fryers for making tortilla chips
• sushi restaurants that use fryers for making tempura with vegetables and fish
• vegetarian or middle eastern restaurants that use fryers for making falafel and french fries
• chip factories (only approach them if you can handle the volume – otherwise, they will drown you in oil)

Tips to prevent you from ruining it for the rest of us:

• Be professional, polite, and dependable – the restaurant is depending on you to remove their oil. If you can’t do it reliably, they’ll wish they had could just pay Waste Management to do it. Establish a day/time to get the oil, and stick to it. Even during the winter.
• Get the manager’s name and contact info; give them yours.
• Be clean: bring a tarp, lots of rags, rubber gloves, funnels, and lots of absorbent material in case of spills. Leave your workspace (their kitchen or alleyway) as clean as you found it.

If all of this sounds like too much work (and it is a lot of work), try fillup4free.com, or look for a biofuels co-op, conversion shop, or other vegetable fuel organization near you.

I hope this helps.

We often joke that because of the deep fried smell of our exhaust, we are a rolling wave of obesity. It’s funny, but deep down, this car creates a dichotomy in my beliefs.

Why, you ask? Well, Minnie uses vegetable oil for fuel. On one hand, this is great because she and cars like her are not dependent on foreign sources for petroleum. However, on the other hand, we are using waste vegetable oil from restaurants that fry their foods.

My internal struggle arises because I am a professional proponent of preventive health measures such as eating healthily. It is my job to advise people to avoid eating fried foods because greasy foods lead to problems such as high blood pressure and obesity, and many associated complications.

A friend suggested that I hand out the book, “Fast Food Nation” as we drive to counter-balance our deep-fried message and smell. …which leads to another problem: if I were wildly successful and everyone stopped eating fried foods, where would I get waste vegetable oil fuel for Minnie?

About a week and a half ago, we visited the wonderful folks at CEHMM, shot an hour and a half of video, saw their research, and generally had a good time. Here are my notes:

We drove into Carlsbad, New Mexico, a little mining and oil town in southeastern New Mexico surrounded by high desert. This humble location is home to one of the world’s few algae-based biofuels research organizations.

CEHMM (pronounced “chem” – the Center of Excellence for Hazardous Materials Management) is a research organization whose primary aim is to protect human and environmental health while advancing economic development of the area. If they are successful in their algae work, they will certainly have achieved this goal.

Producing biodiesel from algae requires 4 basic steps:

1. Growing the algae
2. Harvesting (separating water from algae)
3. Extracting the oil from the algae
4. Processing the oil into biodiesel

1. Growing
Growing algae is the easy part – algae requires sunlight, water, nutrients, carbon dioxide, and some way to protect the purity and health of the algae.

30 miles north of Carlsbad, in Artesia, NM, on the grounds of New Mexico State University’s agricultural research station, reside CEHMM’s test ponds. To protect their algae, they are using saltwater algae in a brine – the brine water protects the algae from intruders and keeps the strain fairly pure.

Here is a photo of test pond #1: the paddle wheel both agitates and aerates the algae – providing it with atmospheric CO2.

And here is a photo of the soon to be completed 1/8 acre test pond:

2. Harvesting
These algae ponds reach about 1 gram of (useful) biomass per liter of (useless) water. Getting rid of the water is a difficult step. There are many methods of harvesting algae (see this Wikipedia article on algaculture for other ideas), CEHMM is using a proprietary technology that involves membranes (think: very fine mesh filters that don’t clog) to create a very concentrated mixture of water and algae.

3. Extracting
If harvesting is difficult, extracting is extremely difficult. This step is again proprietary (darn NDAs), and I was only given hand-waving explanations of how CEHMM accomplishes this bit. They are apparently looking at two competing technologies – one is able to produce biodiesel directly from the harvested algae by melting cell membranes, etc. I have no idea what other products are made in this process.

Another process they are looking at involves separating the oil from the cell membranes (which can then be composted, used as fertilizer, fed to animals, etc).

4. Processing
If CEHMM chooses to go with the second of the two extraction methods, they will have to process the resulting oil into biodiesel. In a retired gas station in Carlsbad, NM CEHMM has a small scale biodiesel production facility. Here is where they experiment with biodiesel production techniques (and fill up the local fire department with the resulting fuel).

Here is Terry showing off the second ever batch of biodiesel produced from algae. “A group in New Zealand beat us by a week.”

I can’t wait to see the fruits of CEHMM’s research, it is my hope that in the not too distant future, many of us will be driving around on algae-produced biodiesel.

Rebeccalin writes:

Hi, I was wondering why viscosity is a concern when using biodiesel. Is it because it will freeze in lower temperatures and the car would not run?
Also, what can be added to biodiesel to reduce the problem of viscosity?

Thanks!

Hi Rebeccalin,

That’s a great question!

Before we begin: viscosity is a measure of how fast a liquid flows. Something with a low viscosity (like water) flows very quickly. Something with a high viscosity (like honey or pancake syrup) flows very slowly. Also keep in mind: viscosity can change a lot with temperature. for example: cold honey barely moves at all, but if you warm it up, it flows very easily.

Viscosity of biodiesel fuel is actually pretty similar to petrodiesel fuel.

Here’s how they compare at 40C (I know, it rarely reaches 40C during the winter, but bear with me, that was the only data I could find) – I threw in the values for canola oil and water for comparison, so you can see how close biodiesel really is to petrodiesel.

The reasons the petrodiesels have a range of values here because the viscosity varies depending on the different blend of petrodiesel used – (I’ll discuss that in a second). Biodiesel also has varying viscosities, depending on the source of the grease used to make biodiesel. Pretty much, if you use very viscous grease, you get very viscous biodiesel.

Really, as long as biodiesel stays liquid, it should have no problem going through your diesel engine. Viscosity isn’t the problem.

The real problem with using any diesel engine fuel at low temperatures isn’t the viscosity – it’s what is called the cloud point. The cloud point is the temperature below which little crystals form in the fuel.

If the temperature drops below the cloud point, those little crystals grow into bigger crystals and your tank and fuel lines are filled with a solid “gel” of fuel. That sounds bad, and it is bad. Gelled fuel will prevent your car from starting, and will probably damage your fuel filters. Incidentally, the viscosity of gelled (or even clouded) fuel is way off the top of the viscosity chart above.

The cloudpoint of commercially available petrodiesel is controlled by blending – it can range from -34F to +41F.

Depending on where you are and what time of year it is, the petrodiesel available commerically will be blended differently to have a cloudpoint appropriate for the weather. This is done to save money for the oil companies. The higher (or warmer) the cloudpoint is, the less expensive the fuel is.

For example, in Minnesota in January, the cloudpoint of diesel at the pump is -34F. In Louisiana during the same month, the cloudpoint will be +25F. In June, it may be as high as +41F.

100% biodiesel has a cloudpoint of +31F to +51F, depending on what kind of grease the biodiesel was made from.

Now we’re beginning to see the problem with biodiesel in the winter. Unless you live in Louisiana, you might have problems using 100% biodiesel in the winter.

So, it’s very cold outside, but you want to drive greeen – what can you do?
The easiest solution is to blend your biodiesel with petrodiesel. I’d suggest a B20 blend (20% biodiesel/80% petrodiesel).

With regard to winter use, the National Biodiesel board says that over seven years of testing:

“The cold flow properties of biodiesel and biodiesel blends have been thoroughly tested with a variety of diesel fuels, both with and without cold flow enhancing additives. Biodiesel blends (primarily B20) have also been used in a variety of climates—including some of the coldest weather on record—without cold flow problems.”

“High concentrations of biodiesel (i.e. blends over 20%) may not be appropriate for use in cold climates without blending…with proven cold flow improvers specific to conventional diesel fuels.”

There are some people who have had success using antigel additives with higher blends of biodiesel (and even 100% biodiesel). The best source of info would be your biodiesel supplier or people with lots of experience using biodiesel in cold weather.

I hope this helps!

Sources: ASTM, National Biodiesel board, Wikipedia

The National VegOil Board has had emissions testing completed on a car running vegetable oil at an EPA-certified lab. [pdf of complete press release]

The results are that emissions are the same or lower, for all components as compared to petroleum diesel.

Here are the graphical results of the test (blue = VegOil, red = petroleum diesel, green = EPA limit):

So, what’s the big deal with these test results?
This is the first step in getting vegetable oil as a fuel certified by the EPA for use in vehicles. A big deal, indeed.

It looks like New Mexico State University (NMSU), located in Southern New Mexico is getting onto the agae-as-fuelsource bandwagon as well. They have a 1/4-acre denonstration pond due for completion in March of this year, and a 100-acre pond will begin construction in 2008. It looks like they have everything they need: “we have sunlight and space, and we have a brackish and saline water supply.” Yummy, brackish water – sounds like heaven for an algae farmer.

Since we’ll be going through Las Cruces on our drive in late April, I think we should swing by the demonstration pond, talk to the researchers, etc.

Link to Las Cruces Sun News article.
Previously: Vegetable oil and biodiesel from algae.

Wired News’ Autopia blog is reporting on trouble brewing in Texas over biodiesel. It turns out that Texas has high standards over nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Trouble is, some studies say that biodiesel increases NOx emissions by 2% in B20 (EPA, 2002), while other studies say that NOx emissions are the same or increased by 0.5% (National Renewable Energy Lab, 2003).

Biodiesel’s fate will be decided by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which has decided to spend the next year to study the effects of Biodiesel on vehicle exhaust. Lucky for me, I will be passing through while Biodiesel is still legal in the state of Texas.

I’ve seen speculation along these lines several times in the past, but it looks like researchers at MIT are looking more seriously at algae-produced vegetable oil for use as a fuel (either straight or refined into biodiesel).

Here’s the deal: the best crop for producing vegetable oil is palm (palm and palm kernel oil) which produces about 600 gallons per acre per year, not too shabby, right?

Well, algae is a weed, and grows anywhere there is water, CO2, sunlight, and it grows extremely quickly. It grows so quickly that researchers estimate that they could produce as much as 10,000 to 20,000 gallons of oil per acre per year.

If true, this would pretty much blow any arguments that vegetable oil is not a viable source of fuel out the window.

link

How this whole thing works.
I realize that I haven’t spent any time explaining why or how I am able to burn vegetable oil in my diesel car – I keep getting questions on how this works, so here’s my very non-technical explanation. With pictures.

Here’s the deal:
Diesel engines will burn almost anything that is liquid and contains carbon and hydrogen.
The first diesel engine (displayed by Rudolph Diesel at the Paris world fair) ran on Peanut Oil, so vegetable oils have always been a part of the diesel engine’s heritage.

Modern diesel engines are designed to run on petroleum fuel (A.K.A.: diesel fuel), but kerosene and other heavy fuel oils will also work well. Compared to vegetable oils, petroleum fuels are not very viscous, so to use vegetable oil in a diesel engine you either have to modify the engine (expensive) or make the oil less viscous (cheap). There are two easy ways to get vegetable oil to be less viscous: additives and heat.

Additives cost money (and are usually petroleum products), but diesel engines produce plenty of extra heat for free!

Vegetable oil gets to around the same viscosity as petroleum fuels when it is heated to about 120F (50C). So, to get vegetable oil to work in a modern diesel engine, all you need to do is heat it before it enters the engine. To do this, there is a kit installed in the car that reroutes the coolant so I can warm up the vegetable oil in my trunk:

My car starts on petroleum diesel, and when the engine reaches it’s normal operating temperature (coolant temperature of ~80C), I switch to the vegetable oil tank using a switch by my left knee. The switch stops the diesel fuel and allows vegetable oil to flow into the engine, where it burns just like any other fuel. The only thing I notice is that the engine gets quieter and people outside my car will notice that my exhaust smells of fried foods.

Here’s how things look when I first start the car:

And here is how things look when I switch to vegetable oil:

Stopping the engine is a similar process. I don’t want to leave vegetable oil in the fuel lines (low temperatures could cause the oil to solidify – this would be bad), so I purge the lines for about 20 seconds with petroleum diesel before shutting off the engine. All this takes is a little forethought. I’m now used to judging about 20 seconds before I get out of the car, so I purge the lines and get the engine ready for starting with clear lines the next time I hop in the driver’s seat.

Here’s what purge mode looks like before I switch back to diesel mode and turn the engine off:

Okay, so this is a fairly old bit of news, but in August 2005, the national biodiesel board started a toll-free number to help you find biodiesel near you. It should be a great way to find biodiesel while you’re on the road!

I tried calling, but I get the impression they don’t get much traffic. After four or five rings, a woman picked up. I asked her for biodiesel stations in Madison, WI, and she did tell me about the B100 pump across town, but when I asked her for any other pumps near me, she asked “what cities are near you?” This would be a problem if I’m driving through nowhere, but I guess I could just read names off the map.

Anyhow, I got the distinct feeling that she was just looking at this website.

Link to press announcement (via)