Pinchers owner putting vegetable oil to good use with ‘Frymobile’

[peanutbrittle]

Pinchers owner putting vegetable oil to good use with ‘Frymobile’
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/dec/03/pinchers_owner_putting_vegetable_oil_good_use_frym/?local_news
By Katy Bishop (Contact)

Sunday, December 3, 2006

Rick McDonald drove more than 3,000 miles in a month without going to a gas station.

His pickup starts on diesel and, with the flip of a switch, continues rolling on used vegetable oil.
What’s the catch?

There isn’t one, McDonald said after four months of riding around in the “Frymobile.”

His truck runs smooth and fast, getting about 18 miles per gallon on the highway and hitting 85 miles per hour without trouble.

snip

Babcock has a flat plate heat exchanger under his hood where fry oil runs sandwiched between steaming hot radiator fluid. This heats the oil and lowers the viscosity.

So, when McDonald starts his truck on diesel, the engine heats up the radiator, heating up the radiator fluid, which, in turn, heats the fry oil. Then he can flip the switch.

more.....http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2006/dec/03/pinchers_owner_putting_vegetable_oil_good_use_frym/?local_news

my note...local rag and may have to sign up to view the article. "Pinchers Crab Shack" is a local Seafood Restaurant who converted their company diesel truck, used for travel pick up and delivery of their fresh seafood to supply their stores. The conversion cost about $2000 and they use their own waste from the fryers at the restaurants!

[pooja]

1. I work at a hotel.. and there were these 2 guys running around in

an older car that was fueled by vegetable oil... It was pretty cool...

[peanutbrittle]

2. The article says that you can convert a mercedes....

diesel of course, for about $1200. Apparently some guy in Ft. Meyers can do it

Interesting that the local paper has another article that states the community is having a fry waste problem with all the restaurants clogging up the drainage system

[Earth_First]

4. The best part about the 300-series Mercedes is that there is NO conversion required...

The only conversion really is perhaps a tank heater and an anti-gelling compound for those of us in the northern climates.

Any diesel engine can run on bio with no modifications to the engine.

[Earth_First]

3. I'm in the process of building our own biodiesel reactor...

It's an 'appleseed knock off' reactor, 2 55-gallon steel drums for the reactor, a 55-gallon poly wash/dry tank, and 250-gallon holding tank.

It's incredibly cheap to create, I have less than $100 into the venture, the most expensive portion of the project will be the TDi that we plan on purchasing to use our product in.



This is almost our setup, with the 55-gallon steel drums in place of the hot water heaters and in the above picture. The wash/dry tank assembly will be identical to the picture in the far left.

[peanutbrittle]

6. Was curious about cold weather applications.......

Thanks. Could you please elaborate on the bio-diesel reactor setup? Not sure I or others understand. TDi?

Thanks!

[dddem]

5. what's that guys name?

McDonald? hahahaha.
sorry.