WVO Blog

Each minute approximately 150 to 400 gallons of crude oil continue to spill into and threaten estuaries and marine life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to the Environmental News Network. The news continues to be so bleak that I am hesitant to even type any words containing, spill, oil or worse, catastrophe. Which in addition to unsuspecting marine life, seems to be the only prediction of where this accident will head next.

But not all the news is entirely dim. The disaster has brought together concerned consumers, lawmakers, public and marine conservation groups that are working to bring awareness to the general public and make necessary legal changes to protect Joe Plumber from getting stuck with the bill. And speaking of bill, The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act of 2010 was introduced to Congress earlier this month and if passed, would ensure that BP continues to dig deep in their pockets to pay for this mess. I'll keep my fingers crossed and continue bruising my knuckles knocking on wood.

Rapid response marine conservation experts, The Blue Seals are currently in the process of trying to document this disaster which continues to reek environmental havoc on the Gulf Coast. You may have heard of them, they are a part of the the non-profit organization Blue Rage Films, which received accolades for Discovery Channels’ popular TV series, “Whale Wars." So far, The Blue Seals have failed to break through the veil of censorship that BP has hung. Which who could blame BP? Images of birds saturated in black goo is not exactly the kind of PR you want despite a declaration of Mea Culpa.

While the entire free world continues to wag fingers at big oil, one has to wonder why continue using a resource that could cause this level of potential damage? Is it time for consumers to lessen their dependency on oil?

What would you do if the reins of decision were in your hands?

 

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There are many WVO conversion systems on the road that need an operation manual to run them.  Wait until this gauge is...then turn this...10minutes before you stop...Make sure....ect.  When I set out to develop the system for my truck, I coined the phrase "wife proof operation".  Now don't get me wrong, my wife is a very intelligent woman; medical degree and everything.  However, in order for her to drive my truck (and use WVO) on occasion, the system really has to do it all. 

 

Fast forward about two years: My wife and I are driving home from a weekend in Florida (1000 WVO trip) and I made the comment.  "I am really impressed how reliable the WVO system is on this truck!".  I almost heard the bell toll.

A week or so later, we were in the process of getting my wife a new car but had just sold her old one the day before. ( My wife is three months pregnant and a new car is apparently part of the process.)  Anyway she had to drive my truck to work about an hour away.  On the way back, she is flagged to pull over because the truck is literally spraying diesel onto the road.  Somehow, the purge solenoid broke off the valve body exposing 70psi fuel which, was getting loose in a hurry.  She of course phoned me (at home without a vehicle) so I could give instructions to the guy that pulled her over to get the truck back in running order.

Now, I need to explain a few things.  I had planned on failure in the design; I had placed quarter turn ball valves on the fuel line at the pump and on the purge line.  The idea being that if something failed, I would be able to simply turn the valve to isolate the veggie system so that it would operate as normal on diesel.  However, the ball valve was behind the solenoid valve.  While I expected it could fail, I didn't consider that it would break off.   The valves could not isolate the leak.

Back at the truck on the side of the road: a man literally walking by stopped to help and was able to thread to solenoid back into the valve.  It still leaked but was good enough to get her home.  Well almost, she ran out of diesel turning into our neighborhood and was pushed to the side of the road (again) by a couple firemen that happened to be behind her.   I got a ride from my neighbor to my stranded wife and, with a crescent wrench and a pair of pliers, removed the broken valve and simply reconnected the two loose ends together.  Since the valve is normally closed the closed ball valve replaced normal operation.  Three minutes later, I was able to start the truck on veggie and drive the truck and wife home.

Is there a lesson to the story?  I don't know, probably if it can go wrong it will.  Expect it and plan for it.  Adding a fuel system to your vehicle should make it more reliable not less so ensure that you can totally isolate the veggie fuel system and return the fuel system back to a stock configuration.  Its nothing short of amazing how reliable vehicles are today.  As far as WVO fuel systems go, mine is certainly among the best but I always bring a tool box and a spare filter, just in case.

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I shut myself in my design cave for the past few weeks and now am ready to leak you what I have been working on:  The RPC 210 - Thats 210oz collection capacity in the bowl.  By spec its about 10x the size and performance of the standard RPC 22 (22oz) so you can expect un-heated WVO flowrates at 50-100gph. 

But wait there is more: also in the design is a self purge option that will evacuate the bowl of the collected materials.  Obviously, this is machine is not for everyone, but if you are looking for automated 24/7 operation or need to clean serious amounts of oil; this is the answer. 

Finally, the best part:  I am looking at a base price of $5000 for a machine that will compete with centrifuges costing  4 times as much. 
If you are interested in getting one of these brutes, I will be taking orders for pre-production during the month of March.  I will do a batch of up to 10 units at $4000 each.  Reserve your machine with a $2000 deposit and I will guarantee delivery of a working machine meeting your satisfaction.    

I will have more information on the store page HERE

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I have been wearing my pointy little geek hat quite a bit this month.  Re-worked the structure of the website and installed a new cart system that is integrated with my warehouse.   Bla Bla Bla What all that means is that you will have stock visibility, same day shipping and a calculated shipping cost (rather than a high flat rate).  I know there will be bugs but it is the foundation to support me providing you with the whole gambit of veggie related equipment.  We have active projects running to find cost effective components now and they will be showing up on the site as they are available.

The second part of this re-work is to organize the education Wiki portion of the website.  I have complete designs for conversions and equipment available but the organization has always been a problem.  Even with this challenge, hundreds of people have downloaded these designs and I know of a good many that have used them verbatim or as a starting point for their conversions.   While I will be devoting my attention towards updating and enriching this information, I need to promote input and feedback.  So, to the keen veggie people out there:  I need your help.  If you are working out a design on your own that I do not have, I would be willing to finance at least some portion of it if you work with me to document it. 

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2009 Was a crazy year to start a business!  Nuf said.  I would have to write a book to go over all the changes at WVO designs this year but it has all been in the right direction and our mission and role in the community is clear.

WVO Designs will continue to develop and distribute products and designs to the waste oil and biofuel industry.  Expect to see an acceleration of products and design offerings through 2010.  Last year we worked out the system, now we are going to focus on filling it. 

We will maintain a focus on the community.  The best part of my day is talking to people that share my passion for biofuels and alternative energy.  Expect to see an organization and expansion of the free WVO conversion designs, there are only a handful of WVO suitable vehicles in the US and I am going to try to get a design documented for each of them.  They will all be released to the community "open source" and I encourage community involvement.  Most likely, I will set up some (ethical) bribes to promote input. (document the converion and I will pay for the parts...)

Cost effective alternatives.  While there is obviously a lack of information in this industry, there is a major lack of high quality products at reasonable prices.  I plan to release cost effective conversion components: Valves, Heated Pickups, Hose, Fittings, Pumps, Filters, Controllers.

Customer Service.  I have no business training so I wrote my own rules from the basics: "Threat everyone like you want to be treated".   I will go over the top to provide a 100% satisfaction guarantee.  I will answer my phone or call you back if I miss you.  I attempt to ship your order within 12hours.  I am no salesman, I simply educate and provide my opinion if you want it.  

Anyway, that is my mission for 2010.  I look forward to working with you in the future.

~Leon Griffin

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A refreshingly funny and very well produced video. Good thing I am not this funny or I wouldn't get anything done.. -Leon

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I have been thinking, or rather fascinating about how the diesel engine works.  If you are like me; you can't help but visualize the inner workings of mechanical devices.  While driving down the road, I can literally "see" the injectors pumping veggie oil into the compression chamber a little before the piston reaches the top of its stroke...I did a two day road trip a couple weeks ago and the mind wonders...

Anyway, it got me to thinking about some of the workings of diesel engines and the differences between diesel fuel and WVO.  It is a beautiful think how well vegetable oil works in the diesel engine and it still puts a smile on my face every time my truck switches over from diesel to veggie.  However, I never really looked into the properties of the fuel other than the energy content and viscosity.  It is common knowledge that the primary issue with WVO is the difference in viscosity and that pre-heating the oil to 160F is necessary to match the viscosity of diesel fuel.  This will create an appropriate spray pattern from the injectors and thus produce complete combustion avoiding the dreaded residue and piston ring coking.   I have talked to people and seen kits advertizing that pre-heating the WVO with electric line heaters will reduce switch over time.  I believe that this is totally wrong and even measuring fuel temperature is unnecessary and could be misleading.

It's all about the engine temperature.  Yes, I have wrote about my feeling that the engine is going to control the temperature of the oil, regardless of the temperature it is pre-heated to.  So, hot engine, hot oil, cold engine, cold oil.  But that isn't a complete picture of what is happening in the engine at startup. (This is where I get geeky)  We know that it is the "heat of compression" that produces the heat to ignite the fuel in a "compression ignition engine".  But how much heat is produced?  Well, I could break out the ideal gas law and go from there but I found an online calculator HERE to do it for me. 
Here are a couple scenarios:

My 7.3L has a 17.5:1 compression (50% Efficient)
@ 0C (32F) - 470C (878F)
@ 15C (59F) - 511C (951F)
@ 30C (86F) - 552C (1025F)
@90C (194) - 660C (1220F)

Now, lets take a look at the fuel:

		Flash Point	Autoignition Temp
	Diesel	62 °C (143 °F)	246 °C (475 °F)
	Vegetable Oil	220 °C (430 °F)	326 °C (620 °F)

Clearing up a couple terms:

• The flash point of a volatile liquid is the lowest temperature at which it can vaporize to form an ignitable mixture in air.
• The autoignition temperature or kindling point of a substance is the lowest temperature at which it will spontaneously ignite in a normal atmosphere without an external source of ignition, such as a flame or spark

OK, so now that we have some ideal numbers for what should be happening in your engine, I will make my thoughts and conclusions:

Additional Thoughts
- I know I would be hard pressed to start my truck below 0C without glow-plugs on diesel.
- I can start my truck on Veggie on a warm summer day though it is not easy or pretty.
- I can start my truck on Veggie easily if it is at running temperature
- Idling an engine for extended periods on diesel will produce coking form un-spent fuel.

Conclusions
1) Based on these numbers you need about 2X the autoignition temperature to properly ignite the fuel.   
2) Running Veggie on anything but a hot engine will probably leave un-burnt fuel around to cause problems
3) High End Veggie systems should have a load sensor or exhaust temp switch to ensure that veggie is only being used when there is sufficient engine temperature and load.

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My first mistake was leaving the house without the roll of paper towel, I had it under my arm at one point but must have set it down before it made it to the truck. Oh well, I was on my way now and no turning back. The focus on centrifuge manufacturing has taken my attention from oil collection and now my supplies have run dry. I was headed to meet up with another local Greaser that had an extra tote of oil for me.

I had met Randy about a year previously when we both spoke to a community environmental group at the College of Charleston. Randy is a retired doctor that started using and collecting oil about six years ago. Starting with cubies then moving on to 55gallon drums then finally to 275gallon totes he has a nice clean shop with about 2000 gallon capacity. Randy's collection method is quite unique in that he actually gets the oil directly from the fryers after hours and replaces it with fresh oil. This allows him to have absolute quality control and ultimately, the nicest oil I have ever seen. I spent a couple hours at his shop getting to know him and his operation and even shot some video of him telling his story. (Watch for that on the site soon).

I hit the road home now nicely loaded a 275gallon tote of veggie but still low on diesel and empty in my veggie tank. I past a gas station that was on the wrong side of the road and while I though ominously about it figured that I would just catch the next one. Well, fate was not smiling on me and I didn't pass another station before I hit the Ravenel Bridge (highest point in South Carolina I am sure) and as I started pulling up the grade I knew I had made a mistake as I lost power and coasted to the left margin that is about a foot and a half wide, completely blocking one of four lanes of traffic. Sweet, I ran out of fuel hauling fuel.

I stepped out of the truck onto the center divider and into the truck bed to survey what I had to work with. An empty 90gallon bed tank, a full 275gallon tote, a 120V transfer pump, 3/4” hose with cam loc fittings and no inverter...Almost immediately a police officer pulled up behind me with lights on helping to divert traffic. By the time he approached me I had decided that it might be possible to use a 5' section of hose to siphon from the tote to my veggie tank. He watched as I played Hover on the hose and managed to get a steady flow of veggie into the bed tank without even getting a mouth full of oil. Good think that tote was full! We chatted about vegetable oil, engineering and southern ladies for a minute until I noticed that the level had dropped in the tote showing that I had transferred 20 gallons or so then went to give it a try. I recall the officer saying “Do you think this is going to work”. I primed the veggie pump and line with the purge override and the system confirmed that I had fuel pressure. When I turned it over, she fired right up but died when my veggie controller recognized the loss of power (from the starting relay) to be a shutdown and then initiated a purge. Normally, I don't start on veggie and if I did, the diesel pump would maintain pressure during this time. However, since there was no diesel the engine would die from lack of fuel (again). This was disappointing, and my mid raced to solve the problem of how to disable the purge valve. I probably would have disconnected the wires from it except that it is under the vehicle on the passenger side and towards traffic. It was still early afternoon and I didn't want to get run over yet. Fortunately, I had a better idea and pulled the fuse panel to access the controller relays, after a moment of “do I pull the green wire or the red wire”? I disconnected the relay for the switch and she fired right up.

The officer helped me enter traffic and across four lanes so that I could make the next exit on the other side of the bridge. While the truck ran, air in the line robbed me of full power and it was a bit of a nerve racking mile or so till I could pull off the highway to a gas station (which didn't have diesel). My truck was now happily running on veggie now so I thanked the officer for his help and he went on his way. Total time blocking traffic on the bridge was maybe 5 minutes, the taste of vegetable oil in my mouth was not unpleasant but I did wish I hadn't forgot those paper towels.

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Pardon me while I get a little philosophical; fact is, the business part of this website ( The Raw Power Centrifuge) is doing very well and I thank my many happy customers for their show of faith.

However, while the centrifuge and its aggressive pricing has contributed to the WVO community in a positive way, the original purpose of this site was to be a community hub for the development of designs relating to WVO. ie, vehicle conversions, collection systems, filtering systems, ect. The concept is that if the community contributes to the designs, the designs will be Open Source and free to the community. Kinda a “many hands makes light work” and everyone benefits.

Where I am coming from:

Two years ago, when I woke up and told my wife “I wanted to drive a vehicle on vegetable oil” I got on the net to gather information on how to do it. Almost immediately I found two things:

1)While all the information needed is available if you look hard enough, it is spread far and wide and mixed with confusion and misinformation.

2)Many of the “Businesses” in the WVO field did not offer unique products; they offered over priced information plus a collection of off-the-shelf hardware store components. Since there was few proprietary components, the industry guarded the knowledge of how to do things to protect their business. No fault to them, its just how it goes.

Since I grew up as a west coast hippie (possibly 20 years late), have an design engineering background and am an Alternative Energy enthusiast. I feel that I can lead this effort for the benefit of the WVO community. Over the past year, through this website, I have talked to hundreds of people tackling very similar problems. It would help everyone if we could just pull together to solve them and be able to share with others who in turn add their improvements.

So, I can lead the charge by organizing the data and supporting the development of say: a conversion kit for every vehicle, but I am not going to go do it all solo if the community doesn't want it.

I would appreciate feedback on:
a) Do you see the value of it?
b) Can you help?
c) Suggestions on projects.

Leon Griffin
WVO Designs

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Thursday afternoon, 7pm, dusk, and I just closed the hood to my truck after changing the diesel fuel line check valves mounting on engine heads. One had broken allowing veggie to be pumped into the diesel tank (see last post).

Tomorrow, I was planning a 500 mile trip up to Washington DC to attend the Collective Biodiesel Conference. So, I kinda left it to the last minute..again. I even left it to the last minute of the day, and didn't start the process until almost 3pm. Luckily, since I had done this once before, I had a good idea of the process. To access the front drivers side, you must loosen the alternator mount and push it forward. To access the passenger rear, you must remove the turbo manifold. You should do the front one first to get your wrenches and method figured out as you really don't have much visibility or room at the rear. Interestingly, I had more trouble getting the front assembly re-assembled as the aluminum fuel line seemed to pull me out of alignment to the threads. Probably messed around for an extra half hour getting that to work out right. The only pearls of wisdom I can offer for changing the rear check valves is that this time I laid a foam sleeping pad over the engine. This provided some comfort while laying on the engine and reaching the rear fuel line. This one didn't give me any problems. Inspecting the original check valves (brass ones from McMaster) I found that the rear had failed and the clip ring holding the assembly together had actually broken. The new ones that I have are stainless and will have a higher strength. Though I think I will be incorporating a pressure relief valve into the system soon.

 

 

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