The Use of Vegetable Oil as Fuel for Distributed Power Generation in Developing Countries

Abstract

This study reports an ongoing effort to investigate the degradation rate of a low-speed Listeroid diesel engine running on filtered waste vegetable oil (WVO). It aims to measure the performance, wear rate, and emissions of the engine over the course of a 1,000 hour longevity test. In a consecutive arrangement, exhaust gas is used to heat the oil, reducing its viscosity close to that of diesel for the duration of the residence time in the fuel line. This reduces engine power loss, pumping losses, head losses, carbonization and coking, which ultimately increases longevity. When completed, the technical methods developed, data collected, lessons learned, and hardware used will all be incorporated into a manufacturable, stand-alone, cost-efficient, field conversion kit for the Listeroid engine. The results of this study will be beneficial in actualizing the widespread and practical use of WVO and straight vegetable oil (SVO) fuels in developing countries.