Green Transportation Basics: Vegetable Oil Conversion

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Looking for a more sustainable way to drive? In this excerpt from “Green Transportation Basics,” read how you can perform a diesel vehicle conversion to run your vehicle on vegetable oil fuel. A recommended Book for Wiser Living by MOTHER EARTH NEWS, this guide details how to make a veggie oil conversion, where to look for waste vegetable oil fuel, places to buy conversion kits, and so much more. 
Looking for a more sustainable way to drive? In this excerpt from “Green Transportation Basics,” read how you can perform a diesel vehicle conversion to run your vehicle on vegetable oil fuel. A recommended Book for Wiser Living by MOTHER EARTH NEWS, this guide details how to make a veggie oil conversion, where to look for waste vegetable oil fuel, places to buy conversion kits, and so much more. 
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If you have a diesel car, consider converting it to run on waste veggie oil from restaurants in your area for an incredibly cheap and sustainable way to drive.
If you have a diesel car, consider converting it to run on waste veggie oil from restaurants in your area for an incredibly cheap and sustainable way to drive.

True to its title, Green Transportation Basics by Dan Chiras (New Society Publishers, 2010) provides information on everything you need to know about sustainable cars and driving. Covering hybrids, boidiesel, and a host of other green car options, this book is a must-read for anyone looking to travel more sustainably. The following is an excerpt from Chapter 7, “Straight Vegetable Oil.”

If you own a diesel car or truck or are in the market for a diesel vehicle, you may want to consider powering your vehicle with vegetable oil. Yes, the exact same oil you use to whip up a healthy stir-fry or prepare artery-clogging fried chicken can be used to power a diesel vehicle.  

Vegetable oil burns surprisingly clean in diesel vehicles, and is renewable and much more environmentally sustainable than gasoline or ordinary diesel (aka petro-diesel). To run a vehicle on vegetable oil, however, you’ll need to first install a conversion kit — don’t just pour vegetable oil in your tank. And remember this, too: Only diesel cars and trucks can be converted to run on vegetable oil. Gasoline-powered vehicles cannot. Period. 

Vegetable Oil Fuel Terminology 

Advocates of veggie oil cars use a number of terms, often interchangeable, to describe this fuel. The term waste vegetable oil, or WVO, is sometimes used, but only refers to vegetable oil that’s been discarded from restaurants. Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is the term more commonly used. It refers to both waste vegetable oil from restaurants and refined vegetable oil — that is, oil that’s not been used previously.

  • Published on Sep 9, 2011
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