The use of Diesel Secret was brought up back in '05, and was never really definitively determined to be good or bad. The old thread is here: http://loghomebuilders.org/biodiesel
If I recall correctly, the ingredients in Diesel Secret were determined to be commonly available chemicals that can be had at a small fraction of the cost of their product.
Probably the simplest proven thing to do is a dual fuel system of diesel and preheated WVO. (where diesel is only used during startup and shutdown)
I was watching some tree-hugging show on the science channel when I first learned about biodisel. They showed how the person got used oil for free from restaurants, etc. And I thought, "gee that's pretty neat! But if everyone in America tried to do this, there would not be nearly enough restaurants to keep everyone supplied." In other words -- neat trick, but this won't save the planet.
But it got me curious enough to look at the big ol jugs of restaurant oil they sell at Sam's club. At the time, the per-gallon cost was a LOT more than the cost of disel fuel.
So, how does it compare now?
I read about some guy in England getting caught using vegetable oil he bought from
the store because it was cheaper by the gallon than regular diesel. The reason
they busted him was because he wasn't paying any taxes on the store bought oil.
The article also said they caught him because of the smell of the exhaust. :-)
It works but competition for the restaurant cooking oil is getting crazy. People steal my oil from my barrels all the time. I've never paid but I may have to start paying 50c a gallon for the oil.
This method is far simpler and cheaper than the expensive two-tank conversion system. It thins the oil with chemicals rather than heat and requires no equipment conversion. You start and stop on the same tank and you can mix with diesel fuel in any ratio. I am low key and don't advertise my system locally. I have two restaurants that supply me with enough oil for my driving. I drive a 2004 Dodge Ram 4x4 and pay about 40c a gallon for diesel.
Don't do what I did... or agreed to do http://ajrider.com/bio.mov . (Don’t look for accuracy in media.. they botched a few facts.. I’m not the inventor…) I was doing the biodiesel deal for a couple of years and then found that a Mercedes will run just fine on straight WVO with no mod, and even through the winter here in Virginia.
Good thing I made the transition from making bio to just cleaning WVO as after two years of doing that, the fire marshal shows up with hazmat standing by based on reports that I was manufacturing combustible material. Even though my old bio processor was sitting off to the side, the main attraction now was the centrifuge that I am using to clean the WVO. He took pictures and said that there was no problem as long as I wasn’t combining anything. (no more oil and vinegar for my salad I guess…)
Had they visited me two years ago when I had a drum of methanol and mixing that with sodium hydroxide, they would have treated it like a major hazmat event…
Now the other issue with staying low key goes back to the days of probation in that it wasn’t a problem making moonshine, the problem was that the government wasn’t getting their cut. I heard of a couple in NC that were hit with pretty heavy fines due to not paying road tax. Go figure…
They say that want to reduce our dependency on foreign oil and reduce our sulfur emotions both of which we do in using WVO which is not convenient by any means. But because we have chosen to do something about the problem, we risk getting hit with fines..
Now I also have an 87 F250 with the 6.9 and it doesn’t like straight WVO and is real fussy during the winter. Even during the summer it likes a mix of 40% dino and 60% WVO and it does just fine.
Bottom line is that it depends on the vehicle that you are trying to run. As a side note, I also have the infamous Changfa diesel driving a 12kw head that hasn’t seen diesel in three years and even starts in the winter on straight WVO with no glow plug. I believe that the main variable is the injector and the viscosity of the fuel when it hits the injector.
If you’ve made it all the way through this dissertation, please go to http://www.americansolutions.com/ and sign the petition. Not sure if it will do any good, but we need to support any effort to achieve these directives.
Found this site in using vegie oil with thier formulated addative for diesel engines. http://www.dieselsecret.com/comparisonchart.html
Does anyone know if this stuff is lagit or is this just infomertial snakeoil hooha. I think some of the numbers for biodiesel processor may be a bit inflated.
With current fuel prices I am real close to sending Jay Leno an e-mal to see if he has a line on a spare steam engine.
Stu
" and the second little pig build his house of sticks" we all know what happend next.