Vegetable oil as Diesel fuel? (not biodiesel)?

By admin | Mar 18, 2010
Nick C asked:


I’m not talking about Biodiesel or Waste Vegetable Oil. I’m talking about Straight Vegetable oil, or Pure Plant Oil. Its the same stuff the restaraunts buy to cook with, but you buy it yourself before they foul it up. 50 cents a gallon is typical, and it will run in any diesel once its warmed up (requires a two tank system with regular #2 diesel for cold starting.) I researched WVO (waste vegetable oil) use and it can be damaging if not filtered well. Biodiesel costs the same as diesel in my area(phoenix AZ). Thats why SVO (Straight Vegetable oil) is a better choice. Has anyone actually done this? Not theoretically, but actually, can this really be done and is it cost
effective for a company with a 5 truck home service fleet? We spend $6000 per month on fuel so this cheap fuel thing sounds to good to be true.

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4 Comments so far
  1. bconehead March 20, 2010 9:34 am

    Yes! The JR Simplot Company in Idaho ran a some diesel semis on pure vegetable oil back in the 90’s!

    Well maybe not pure but…. read the url below

  2. Shale S March 21, 2010 5:06 pm

    There are many companies that do this…but you are right it has to be filtered so it won’t to plug the injectors, it’s very cost effective. Locally I know of people who use all the cooking oil from restaurants.

  3. Brendan P March 23, 2010 12:46 am

    Yes, such a thing is possible, but only on a SMALL scale. The sclae needed to power all the cars in the world or the USA will far outstrip the space available to produce it. Also don’t forget EROEI (energy returned on energy invested). If it takes more energy to make the SVO than you get from burning it, the entire process is pointless…

  4. mike b March 23, 2010 11:20 pm

    i only have WVO and it works great and its free i don’t know where you can get straight clean oil for only .50 cents a gallon when the oil i see at the store is like 4.00 -4.50 a gallon

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