I’ve seen it done before and was wondering if it’d be worthwhile investment to add kitchen oil removal to my existing family’s trash service and basically get paid to collect fuel for my garbage trucks.
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**Getting the oil**: you’ll need to work with places who likely already have contracts in place to instead use your services to reclaim their waste oil. This can be difficult depending on your location as there may only be a few players who have monopolies on the service so it can be difficult to compete on price.
Additionally, if you don’t already have the equipment necessary to get the oil from a grease trap you’ll need to invest in that
**Cleaning the oil**: This is probably the most important step as used cooking oil is often full of particulate matter (small PPM level soot/etc. as well as larger items like chicken bones) that will need to be filtered, but you’ll also need to ensure you’re properly drying the oil to remove excess water. This will require space and equipment and can be quite involved (this isn’t including the space requirements of just storing the feedstock or finished fuel).
You’ll also need to get used to testing (usually via sending samples to a dedicated facility) your oil-fuel to make sure its consistent as you’ll want to avoid large variance from batch to batch in your finished product.
**Using the fuel**: ToxiClay already spoke to this but the key is the viscosity which you’ll need to keep in mind.
These are just some things to keep in mind if you want to go this route.
**Getting the oil**: you’ll need to work with places who likely already have contracts in place to instead use your services to reclaim their waste oil. This can be difficult depending on your location as there may only be a few players who have monopolies on the service so it can be difficult to compete on price.
Additionally, if you don’t already have the equipment necessary to get the oil from a grease trap you’ll need to invest in that
**Cleaning the oil**: This is probably the most important step as used cooking oil is often full of particulate matter (small PPM level soot/etc. as well as larger items like chicken bones) that will need to be filtered, but you’ll also need to ensure you’re properly drying the oil to remove excess water. This will require space and equipment and can be quite involved (this isn’t including the space requirements of just storing the feedstock or finished fuel).
You’ll also need to get used to testing (usually via sending samples to a dedicated facility) your oil-fuel to make sure its consistent as you’ll want to avoid large variance from batch to batch in your finished product.
**Using the fuel**: ToxiClay already spoke to this but the key is the viscosity which you’ll need to keep in mind.
These are just some things to keep in mind if you want to go this route.
I can speak for rapeseed oil specifically since I have some experience driving a truck quite a few years ago that was converted for vegetable oil fuel;
Rapeseed oil attacks engine hoses, specifically those that are synthetic. The only ones that don’t constantly dry and leak from the fuel itself, are the natural rubber ones. This also includes gaskets and stuff, which means that you may save yourself a lot of trouble if you buy the truck new and order the engine with rubber gaskets and rubber hoses for everything that will come in contact with fuel.
Is it like this with all vegetable oils? I have absolutely no idea. But it feels like it’s worth warning you about so that you don’t hit that landmine without seeing it coming.
One of the super-convenient things about running a truck on vegetable oil is that if you get a fuel leakage (no matter if it’s due to a breakdown or a crash) is that the fuel is easier clean up; reasonably small amounts may not require that you call out an excavation service on your insurance company’s dime because you just released something extremely toxic that will soon reach the ground water.
If you order a trash truck new, remember that there are rapeseed oil based hydraulic oils too (same problem with hoses!) for the press, and that can save you a lot of headache next time you bust a hose right next to someones brand new hedge…
Oil that you collect must also, obviously, be thoroughly filtered so that you try to drive your trucks on a product that will not clog. The equipment that ensures that you get JUST oil in your engines, do not cheap out on it.
I can speak for rapeseed oil specifically since I have some experience driving a truck quite a few years ago that was converted for vegetable oil fuel;
Rapeseed oil attacks engine hoses, specifically those that are synthetic. The only ones that don’t constantly dry and leak from the fuel itself, are the natural rubber ones. This also includes gaskets and stuff, which means that you may save yourself a lot of trouble if you buy the truck new and order the engine with rubber gaskets and rubber hoses for everything that will come in contact with fuel.
Is it like this with all vegetable oils? I have absolutely no idea. But it feels like it’s worth warning you about so that you don’t hit that landmine without seeing it coming.
One of the super-convenient things about running a truck on vegetable oil is that if you get a fuel leakage (no matter if it’s due to a breakdown or a crash) is that the fuel is easier clean up; reasonably small amounts may not require that you call out an excavation service on your insurance company’s dime because you just released something extremely toxic that will soon reach the ground water.
If you order a trash truck new, remember that there are rapeseed oil based hydraulic oils too (same problem with hoses!) for the press, and that can save you a lot of headache next time you bust a hose right next to someones brand new hedge…
Oil that you collect must also, obviously, be thoroughly filtered so that you try to drive your trucks on a product that will not clog. The equipment that ensures that you get JUST oil in your engines, do not cheap out on it.
I can speak for rapeseed oil specifically since I have some experience driving a truck quite a few years ago that was converted for vegetable oil fuel;
Rapeseed oil attacks engine hoses, specifically those that are synthetic. The only ones that don’t constantly dry and leak from the fuel itself, are the natural rubber ones. This also includes gaskets and stuff, which means that you may save yourself a lot of trouble if you buy the truck new and order the engine with rubber gaskets and rubber hoses for everything that will come in contact with fuel.
Is it like this with all vegetable oils? I have absolutely no idea. But it feels like it’s worth warning you about so that you don’t hit that landmine without seeing it coming.
One of the super-convenient things about running a truck on vegetable oil is that if you get a fuel leakage (no matter if it’s due to a breakdown or a crash) is that the fuel is easier clean up; reasonably small amounts may not require that you call out an excavation service on your insurance company’s dime because you just released something extremely toxic that will soon reach the ground water.
If you order a trash truck new, remember that there are rapeseed oil based hydraulic oils too (same problem with hoses!) for the press, and that can save you a lot of headache next time you bust a hose right next to someones brand new hedge…
Oil that you collect must also, obviously, be thoroughly filtered so that you try to drive your trucks on a product that will not clog. The equipment that ensures that you get JUST oil in your engines, do not cheap out on it.
Eating injector pumps and injectors for lunch gets expensive. As does constantly buying new fuel filters.
Refining fuel is hard. Now, you get yourself a duce and a half or a 1980 rabbit and those things were designed to run on trash fuel. The duce and a half will even burn peanut oil, Jet A or kerosene.
Anything remotely modern will eat itself on your hillbilly diesel fuel. The fuel system in a diesel is a very complex hydraulic system with all sorts of tiny high precision parts. 20 years ago they were running at 1500psi.
Now they run at 15,000 psi. And oh my would you destroy parts fast. New Ram trucks are spitting out fuel pumps for breakfast because bosch built that pump expecting german fuel quality and the north american fuel is shredding them.
Also, emissions certification. You are actually breaking the law by running that fuel on anything that carried any kind of emissions certification when it was new.
Eating injector pumps and injectors for lunch gets expensive. As does constantly buying new fuel filters.
Refining fuel is hard. Now, you get yourself a duce and a half or a 1980 rabbit and those things were designed to run on trash fuel. The duce and a half will even burn peanut oil, Jet A or kerosene.
Anything remotely modern will eat itself on your hillbilly diesel fuel. The fuel system in a diesel is a very complex hydraulic system with all sorts of tiny high precision parts. 20 years ago they were running at 1500psi.
Now they run at 15,000 psi. And oh my would you destroy parts fast. New Ram trucks are spitting out fuel pumps for breakfast because bosch built that pump expecting german fuel quality and the north american fuel is shredding them.
Also, emissions certification. You are actually breaking the law by running that fuel on anything that carried any kind of emissions certification when it was new.
Eating injector pumps and injectors for lunch gets expensive. As does constantly buying new fuel filters.
Refining fuel is hard. Now, you get yourself a duce and a half or a 1980 rabbit and those things were designed to run on trash fuel. The duce and a half will even burn peanut oil, Jet A or kerosene.
Anything remotely modern will eat itself on your hillbilly diesel fuel. The fuel system in a diesel is a very complex hydraulic system with all sorts of tiny high precision parts. 20 years ago they were running at 1500psi.
Now they run at 15,000 psi. And oh my would you destroy parts fast. New Ram trucks are spitting out fuel pumps for breakfast because bosch built that pump expecting german fuel quality and the north american fuel is shredding them.
Also, emissions certification. You are actually breaking the law by running that fuel on anything that carried any kind of emissions certification when it was new.
Virtually all restaurants use hydrogenated oil so you would actually have to refine it instead of doing the heated dual tank old school way.
Virtually all restaurants use hydrogenated oil so you would actually have to refine it instead of doing the heated dual tank old school way.
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