Speaking of alternative fuels.....

[barnstorm2]

A few months back when I posted a photo of my A&P friends converted SUV lots of people asked questions and seemed interested.

I got this recient update from him I thought I would share...

------------------------------------------------------------------

Speaking of alternative fuels, I've got bragging rights. We just returned from a 2,170 mile trip to Texas and back burning my home brewed fuel. I took a small fuel trailer (see photo) with an additional 150 gallons of fuel. With the 42 gallons in the Suburban's tank we had 192 gallons. When we got back home I still had 25 gallons left. This was by far the longest test of my system to date and I am proud to say that there were no mechanical difficulties with the vehicle.

With the warm weather preceding the trip I went ahead and plumbed the trailer tank to the Suburban via a quick disconnect and pump. The plan was to keep the vehicle tank topped off as I drove. I awoke the morning of the trip and it was 20 degrees. I knew I was in for trouble. Eventhough I had insulated the line from the trailer as well as the tank itself, I knew that the line would likely gel up. The fuel in the trailer tank was about 100 degrees but the line just couldn't retain enough of that heat. The original plan was to have coolant lines running to the tank and back keeping it all warm. Because of the warm weather we were having the week before, I thought that I could put off the heat system until Fall. I was wrong. We stopped in Memphis for lunch and I dropped the girls off to eat. I ran into the Home Depot next door and bought a 3 gallon bucket, a large funnel,and a foot of 1 1/4 inch hose. I then just used the large valve on the tank to fill the bucket and pour it into the Suburban's tank. This was surprisingly quick and clean. I was surprised by how many people saw me and asked no questions. I even had a police car slowly circle me and just go on without question. Just as I was putting things away one man did approach me and asked what kind of fuel I was burning. He had guessed it was veggie oil.

I continued to use this bucket method for the rest of the trip. It really was not as big of a pain as I would have guessed. My next long trip will be later in the Summer and fuel temps will not be an issue.

I am now looking into trying to centrifuge the oil to remove the water and food particles. If I can do this, it would eliminate the extensive dewatering and filtering that I presently do. All of the centrifuges I have found so far are wildly expensive. I have devised a plan to build a continuous flow centrifuge from an old washing machine. I intend to first try centrifuging a few test tube samples at the doctors office or high school lab first to see what I get. If I'm happy with the results, I'll try a couple of sealed containers fastened into our washing machine to see if I can duplicate the test tube results. If that works then I'll buy an old machine to rebuild into a continuous flow centrifuge. If that works, I'm going to sell plans. I know I'm not the only one out here tired of boiling and filtering oil.

More later...
Rick