In the previous serie, we already learned and knew that vegetable oil contain high value of cetan value and the most important thing is that the vegetable oil has a high viscosity. In this serie we will concentrate on the basic knowledge on how to modify the diesel engine to vegetable oil based engine. We will rather use the term Biofuel instead of vegetable oil as it sound more scientific and technically correct.This time we will see how one can with help Biofuel-DIY-Kits modify the diesel engine, so that Biofuel can be used as alternative fuel.

First thing first there are two types of conversion systems. There are single tank prinzip and 2 tanks prinzip.

The best solution is with double tanks system which the rules is very simple. Start from cold on Diesel - once engine is up to normal temperature (or above 70�C) switch to Vegetable Oil - run as normal - when vehicle is to be parked up or to stop switch back to Diesel approx 2 minutes before stopping engine, the engine is then ready to a new start from cold on Diesel. An excerpt from Veg Kit Burner

The pioneer of this modification and conversion methode of diesel engine to a biofuel engine is a company from Germany named ELSBETT which had been since 70�s inventing and promoting the biofuel engine.

The advantages of biofuel engine, besides of the clean and toxic free emission (< 3.5 % CO and < 600 ppm hidrocarbon emitted and sulfur free), the car owner can also build their own biofuel station. Vegetable oil is easily be bought from supermarket or for a cost-effective
usage, one can buy from the wholesalers. The station should be equiped with a oil drum for oil storage, a hydraulic pump and a reliable filter.

In Malaysia although the price of a liter straight vegetable oil (SVO) ie. palm oil is still more expensive than a liter of diesel, we still have the alternative to use the waste vegetable oil (WVO), providing the WVO being filtered before using it.

According to Prof. Kamarulazizi of CETREE, the cost for the modification with local component for the single tanks is less than RM 2000 (ca Euro 500). The components like such as filter, pre-heater, spark plug, heat exchanger and heat detector are needed to pre-heat the Biofuel in order to reduce the Biofuel�s viscosity.

In the next article we will look at the hands on conversion using the double tanks system. Stay!