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What Is The Future Of Vegetable Oil Diesel?
In the late 19th century, French born Rudolph Diesel invented an engine without spark plugs, and he used vegetable oil diesel to fuel it. Fossil fuels were cheaper than vegetable oils and so petroleum became the preferred fuel for the diesel engine.
In a speech to British manufacturers in 1912, Diesel made it clear that he believed the time may come when vegetable oil sources of fuel might one day become as important as petroleum products.
Throughout the 20th century, there was some interest in vegetable oil diesel by car enthusiasts, who experimented with the fuel. There was also official research carried out, but mainly in response to petroleum shorages at the time. Throughout this time, biodiesel was usually preferred because it could be used without any modifications to the engine.
There are different types of vegetable oil that are suitable for use in diesel engines. There is waste vegetable oil, or WVO, that is collected from restaurants and food processing plants, after it has been used for frying food. Unused vegetable oils are referred to as straight vegetable oil, called SVO, or pure plant oil, also called PPO. This is to prevent confusion with biodiesel.
The most commonly used plant for vegetable oil diesel is the rapeseed, also called canola. There is research into using sunflower oil because of its lower freezing point. There are island nations in the South Pacific that use coconut oil diesel fuel, because of the ready availability of coconuts and the desire to be independent of the oil-rich countries. Coconut oil only works in warmer temperatures; above 17 degrees Celsius.
The problem with vegetable oil diesel is its increased viscosity, meaning that it is thicker than petroleum. If it isn't thinned before entering the engine, it could cause serious damage to the engine. Conversion kits are available for some vehicles to enable the use of vegetable oils, and some enthusiasts blend regular and vegetable oil deisel to get around the problem.
There has been a varied response from different governments around the world to the use of vegetable oil as diesel fuel. The issue seems to centre around the taxation of the fuel, rather than the legality of using it. Some countries have pilot schemes running to test the viability of the oil as a fuel, others have no legislation to cover it, while others seem more concerned about fuel taxes being paid than the fuel's viability.
The availability of vegetable oil diesel remains a short-coming. There would appear to be many sources of waste vegetable oil, but straight vegetable oil has a variety of uses and so is in short supply for use as diesel fuel on a large scale. There remain a number of issues that need to be addressed before vegetable oil diesel fuel will be readily available.
About the Author Get free and useful resources about biodiesel fuels including vegetable oil diesel when you visit: http://www.energysolutionshub.com/
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