Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels: A Do-It-Yourself Manual: A Do-It-Yourself Manual

by Jon Starbuck, Gavin D J Harper

Overview

CONVERT TO BIODIESEL FOR A MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY RIDE

Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels has everything you need to make the switch from expensive, environment-damaging carbon fuel to cheap (and, in many cases, free), clean fuel for your vehicle. Practical and decidedly apolitical, this unique guide focuses on technical details, parts, and instructions.

Inside, you'll find step-by-step instructions accompanied by helpful illustrations for such projects as building and properly using a homemade biodiesel reactor, which enables you to drive you car on vegetable oil purchased at a fraction of the price of gas or even on second-hand oil obtained from restaurants free of charge. Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels also includes a list of international parts suppliers and various manufacturers' warranty statuses regarding vehicles converted to biodiesel.

Projects include:

• Collecting waste oil
• Building a waste-oil processor
• Creating biodiesel fuel
• Converting your car to professional standards
• Constructing heat exchangers

Run Your Diesel Vehicle on Biofuels covers:
• History and functions of the diesel engine • Benefits of biofuel • Where to obtain raw ingredients • Theory of fuel conversion • Existing conversion kits o Blends, emulsions, and thinners • Processing and discarding waste oil • Laws and regulations • Green retail o Health and safety • Limitations of environmental benefits

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071600446
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	12/01/2008
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Jon Starbuck (Machynlleth, Wales) has converted several vehicles to run on vegetable oil and has written web sites and taught courses on the subject of vegetable oil and biodiesel. He has a BSc. Physics from the University of Kent and is currently pursuing a Masters in Renewable Energy Systems Technology at Loughborough University. He worked and taught at the Centre For Alternative Technology for five years. Gavin D. J. Harper (Essex, UK) is author of 50 Awesome Auto Projects for the Evil Genius, Build Your Own Car PC, 50 Model Rocket Projects for the Evil Genius & Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius. He has just completed a BSc. (with honors) Technology with the Open University, and an MSc. Architecture: Advanced Environmental & Energy Studies. Gavin will shortly be a research student at WISE Research, an alliance between the Centre for Alternative Technology and the University of East London. He holds an RYA Diesel Engine Servicing Certificate, and is a Ph.D. candidate in the Social, Political, and Economic Impacts of Alternative Vehicles and Fuels at the Business Responsibility, Accountability, Sustainability & Society Research Centre at Cardiff University, under Cardiff Business School.

Table of Contents

1. History of the Diesel Engine2. How Does A Diesel Engine Work?3. What is in a name?4. Why Bio fuels? (Climate change, energy security, emissions, etc.)5. Where to get your main raw ingredient—vegetable oil (WVO and SV))6. Theory—fuel modification (Chemistry, Making your first bio diesel, Scaling it up; bio diesel processors – both home-made and commercial)7. Theory—engine modification (What conversion kits are out there; Assembling your own conversion 'kit', valves, tanks, heat exchangers)8. Other options (blends, emulsions, and thinners)9. Waste Oil (Collecting, Processing, what to do with leftovers)10. The Law and Regulations11. Health and Safety (Methanol, explosions, poisons, disposal of waste)12. Why Bio fuels will not save the Earth, and what we can do about it