BioDiesel Conversion for a Tractor Trailer ?

I'm interested in some solid resources and parts suppliers to convert a full sized Semi-Truck to run on Waste Vegetable Oil ( WVO ). I understand this is a tall order, but many municipal busses with larger diesel motors have already been converted to run on WVO, so the concept seems sound...I'm just having trouble locating resources on what was needed to convert such large engines and apply it to my specific needs.

Here's the specs of what I'm working with:


Note to the moderators: I would have posted this within the existing Alt Fuel vehicles thread, but that had drifted over to the topic of nuclear power generation and it seemed that posting this in the middle of such a thread would have disrupted thread continuity. That, and I don't yet have the cash to convert my truck over to nuclear power just yet.

The ones that come to mind first are Greasel and Frybrid. Just search for them on Google and it should pop up.

If you look around, you'll see that it doesnt take a whole lot of extra effort to put together your own system. Of course, it depends on what you want to run, also. BioDiesel is commonly available at the pump and doesnt require any vehicular modifications.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO), is an entirely different ballgame altogether. Where BioDiesel can run in any vehicle, the truck has to be specifcally converted for WVO. You'll need a seperate tank, pump, and filter system for it before it ties into the factory fuel lines to the injectors, along with a heater in the tan to ge the oil up to a fluid temperature- and even then you'll have to start and shut down on diesel. It's doable, and for an owner op running 100,000 miles or more a year it might make sense, but there's a lot of labor involved. After collecting the oil (which is actually starting to get tough in some parts of the country), you need to heat it and filter it before getting it anywhere near your truck to remove the water, condensation, and the largest of the waxy particulate matter that will cog up your fuel system. Then you transfer it into your truck and start the truck on diesel. After the WVO reaches the proper temperature (around 180* F, I believe) you can switch over to it and run. Before you shut down, especially if in a cold area, you need to switch back over to diesel and run the truck long enoug to purge all the WVO out of the engine's fuel system. Otherwise it can gell and solidify and the truck wont start.

If you hunt around online you'll find several forums devoted to alternate fuels for diesels, and those folks will know alot more about the specifics of it than I do. Hope I was at least a little helpful, though.

DieselTech said:

The ones that come to mind first are Greasel and Frybrid.

Click to expand...

Thanks DieselTech. I've already contacted the staff at Frybrid & Greasecar, both of whom seemed stumped at my request, despite the fact that Frybrid even has a picture and testimony about a converted muni-bus on their site.

I've also checked out Greasel based on your post, but they only seem to have pre-packaged systems for very small applications and don't seem to sell 'just the parts' needed for a custom job.

It's ironic here that it wasn't too long ago when I could remember that buying the bare parts and figuring out how to put them together by oneself was the norm for such applications. Now that's actually tough to find. Good for people who want to do this to their cars or light trucks though - it looks pretty easy to convert most passenger diesels at this point. But for my needs I might just have to do some more research, and make all of the parts myself if I'm going to be able to convert a semi-sized truck.

Thanks for the recommendation though !

Also try veggievan.org. To run WVO from my recollection you need a filter system to clean the oil and a pre heater to drop the viscosity. Veggievan focuses mainly on refining oil to bio Diesel but they to talk about WVO and have lots of links. Plus you don't get a newsletter every three hours if you sign up for it.

Depending on your location Midland Farm CoOp sells Bio Diesel. Here the outlets are Energy24 stations.