Tuesday, Apr 11, 2006 at 10:33
Klaus,
Action Gwelup - 2 litres for $1.99
20 litre drums of the same oil at FAL wharehouse in Balcatta were $30 - but are now around $25 I think.
However you make a valid point regarding new oil - it has to be less costly than diesel to be attractive.
I've not had any luck with buying commercial quantities cheaper. In fact, as in the case with Action, the smaller quantities are cheapest - on special.
Joe
Young of
Kojonup Oils, Jingalup Rd Jingalup 6395 (08) 9833 6267 near
Kojonup will supply 200l at $1 a litre degummed canola direct from his
farm. Not food quality but suitable for engines. Call him first if you're heading that way. I've not bought his oil, but I've heard of a LC owner in
Albany that has done 20k+ on this oil.
Palm oil is very good as a fuel, but as it solidifies at normal temperatures you need to run a two tank system with in tank heater, fuel line heaters etc to keep it fluid enough. This is not beyond competant
home mechanic but can get complex and expensive. Many people in Europe and Canada use this stuff in 0°C environments so we really have no problems compared to them. There is a line of thinking that the supply of good used Canola oil will dry up as more people try to source it and that it makes sense when doing a conversion to set it up for hydrogonised fats - solid lard types - which are much more freely available as people have found. However if you let the lard cool in the injector lines it will be very difficult to start the engine without pouring boiling water over the pump and lines, hence the common two tank system with a start up shut down on diesel, or biodiesel to clear the Injection pump of oil. Two tank is common setup with people who run straight vege oil too, not just lard, so you can run 100% oil when the engine is warm. As long as your fuel pump, sometimes there is an aux pump fitted, can pump the oil from the tank to the heat exchanger fitted near the injection pump, you don't really need heated tanks and heated lines for good canola type oils. It's only the lard that needs tank heating etc.
I'm happy to let people know what I have learnt, but I'm not sure this is the right
forum, we're drifting away from 4WD and Camping folks. I would just be 'reinventing the wheel' with the info I give you when the info I have found is out there on the net in various forums. It's much better to learn for yourself than take it from me on this
forum. One of the most useful forums is this one
biodiesel.infopop.cc/ and
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There is a bit of flaming that goes on between people who are developing commercial conversions overseas on these forums, and they can make contradicting claims which confuses newbies. I'm not aware of any Oz based commercial vege oil conversions.
For what it's worth, my supplier is using Cottonseed oil in their friers and it works fine for me. I've also used Canola. Just don't use oil that is white at room temp, let it settle, draw off the liquid from the top, filter it through a 5 micron filter, make sure there is no water in it, and pour it into your tank - all the while being aware that blending non excisable and excisable fuels is against ATO rules. A two tank system is not blending fuels and is not breaking ATO rules.
Happy hunting.
Tim
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