SVO: Powering Your Vehicle With Straight Vegetable Oil Book

Acknowledgments     XI
Using this Book     XIII
Introduction - Is Vegetable Oil For Me?     1
Environmental reasons     1
Economic reasons     4
Geopolitics     6
Tinkering     7
Straight Vegetable Oil vs. Homebrew Biodiesel     7
Diesel Engines     9
Modifying the Fuel     9
Modifying the Engine     10
Diesel Engines     10
Basic Engine Theory     11
Basic Diesel Theory     15
Basic Combustion Theory     16
Temperature     21
Fuel Properties     23
How Things Fall Apart     26
Fuel Properties of Vegetable Oil     29
What is vegetable oil?     29
Vegetable Oil and Cooking Oil     33
Waste Vegetable Oil     35
A Word about Hydrogenation     35
Vegetable Oil is Not Biodiesel     36
Viscosity     39
Ignition Delay     47
High Temperature Reactions: Life in the Combustion Chamber     51
Other Fuel Properties     53
Stoichiometric Air/Fuel Ratio     59
Chemical Breakdown of Vegetable Oil     59
Oxidative Polymerization     60
Reactions in the Fryer     68
Hydrolysis     69
Thermal Polymerization     71
Water     73
Water Damage     74
How Much Water     76
Emulsions     76
System Design     81
One Tank or Two?     84
The Significance of Engine Design and Modification     86
Heating     89
Controlling the Fuel Source     96
Plumbing     97
Valves     101
Filters and Restrictions     106
Pumps     110
Material Compatibility     111
Common Points of Failure     112
Practical Issues     117
Preparing and Maintaining a Vehicle for Coversion     117
Oil Sources     121
Waste Vegetable Oil     124
Processing Waste Cooking Oil     127
Settling and Filtering     129
Centrifuges     135
Testing Oil     140
Vegetable Oil and the Law     144
LPG and CNG Conversions Industry: A Case Study     146
Co-ops     149
Case Studies: The Restauranteur The Farmer, The Conversion Shop     150
Burning Questions (With No Answers as Yet)     153
Fuel Standards     155
Guide to Diesel Vehicles     159
Fatty Acid Profiles of Common Vegetable Oils     171
Annotated Bibliography     173
Notes     205
Index     215
About the Author     225