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[Pat McCotter]

A diesel generator is more expensive initially but you can run it with waste vegetable oil. Restaurants have to pay to dispose of their oil so they save money if you take it for free.

You just have to settle and filter the oil and have a way of heating the oil to thin it before running it through the diesel generator. Once the diesel is running and warmed up you can use the diesel cooling water to keep the oil heated.

Cheers!
Pat

[Evenstar]

Funny thing... I'd heard of diesel engines running on vegetable oil in vehicles, but never considered that a diesel generator could do the same... that's not a bad idea at all!

[Sergeant Roark]

As for vegetable-oil burning Diesels, learn from my mistakes:

I spent $800 on a kit from a Mass. company called Greasecar and it simply does not work. It apparently works on Volkswagens, but NOT on Ford short buses, as they claimed it would. Now I'm stuck with this ridiculous bus that gets 12 mpg on Diesel. The greasecar.com forum is full of people who've had trouble with it. It's a cool theory, and our bus did run perfectly on veggie oil for about 120 miles, but now it won't run on it at all. I was a Diesel mechanic for 4 years and I can't make it work. Just a warning.

[lloydbob1]

I have no firsthand knowledge about running veg in diesels, only theory, from reading, but, it would seem to me that if it ran on veg for a while, something, probably either coking, or filter problems, that you could fix, is the problem.  What does Creacecar have to say about the problem?

[FreeBoB]

As for vegetable-oil burning Diesels, learn from my mistakes:

I spent $800 on a kit from a Mass. company called Greasecar and it simply does not work. It apparently works on Volkswagens, but NOT on Ford short buses, as they claimed it would. Now I'm stuck with this ridiculous bus that gets 12 mpg on Diesel. The greasecar.com forum is full of people who've had trouble with it. It's a cool theory, and our bus did run perfectly on veggie oil for about 120 miles, but now it won't run on it at all. I was a Diesel mechanic for 4 years and I can't make it work. Just a warning.

My son converted a Chevy Tahoe to run on waste veggie about 6 mos ago.  All problems are fixable.  He hired a local guy to do the conversion (there are two in Ithaca).  Each problem he had after the conversion was fixed, or the system slightly modified.  Once, early on, my son put the veggie oil fuel filter in backwards and it took them hours to figure out what the problem was!  He's been running for months now without problems of any kind.

Not only diesel generators, but oil home heating furnaces can be modified to run veggie!

Brian

[Sergeant Roark]

The guys at Greasecar aren't much help; apparently almost all of their customers drive VWs, so the kit is sort of designed for them. VW drivers don't seem to have any problems with it at all, but there are a bunch of us with Fords (well, the engines are made by International) with similar problems. Again, the bus DID run on it, so the concept is sound; I would just recommend making your own kit or buying one from someone other than Greasecar unless you drive a Jetta or something.

[lloydbob1]

Not only diesel generators, but oil home heating furnaces can be modified to run veggie!

Brian

Altfuelfurnace Yahoo group

and

http://www.econoheat.com/

[Pat McCotter]

The guys at Greasecar aren't much help; apparently almost all of their customers drive VWs, so the kit is sort of designed for them. VW drivers don't seem to have any problems with it at all, but there are a bunch of us with Fords (well, the engines are made by International) with similar problems. Again, the bus DID run on it, so the concept is sound; I would just recommend making your own kit or buying one from someone other than Greasecar unless you drive a Jetta or something.

I put the Greasecar kit in a 1985 Mercedes 300TD. 8000 miles on fish & chips and Chinese restaurant oil. I had a 60 mile one way commute. I now have a 1984 Mercedes 300D I am installing the kit into.

Pat

[Pat McCotter]

[
http://www.econoheat.com/

Thanks Lloyd, I hadn't seen this before.

Pat

[Chuckster]

Are you the same Chuck who got in all that hot water over the Grafton situation ?  Or someone different?

Not me.  I don't know anything about that and haven't, as yet, done any business in NH, though I have been active in Hawaii and Vermont.

[Chuckster]

Diesel Generator running on grease?

Wind, photovoltaics, and microhydro would be much more common, I think.

We are using a combination of photovltaics and biodiesel generator to power a large business operation in Hawaii.  We are totally self sufficient, energy wise.