other alternative fuels

[Mikee]

Does anyone know if it is possible to run a diesel engine on a vapor fuel entirely. Such as Propane or Hydrogen.

[rvassar]

The diesel combustion cycle can be made to work with just about anything that burns. It's even been done with limited success using coal dust.

The problem is injectors. You have to have injectors that will handle the fuel you wish to burn.

[Mikee]

Would you need to use deisel to start the combustion and heat up the engine before injecting the vapor. Or can you initiate combustion with the vapor?

[OMCUSNR]

With the costs involved, why would you want to?? Not trying to dis the others, but bio is the best bang for the buck.

[rvassar]

[ QUOTE ]
Would you need to use deisel to start the combustion and heat up the engine before injecting the vapor. Or can you initiate combustion with the vapor?

[/ QUOTE ]


You could start an engine on propane or hydrogen. But again, you're talking about a major engineering effort to come up with injectors that will handle these fuels.

You can't just toss the fuel vapor down the air intake. Mixed with the intake air, it wouldn't ignite until you hit the LEL, and then it would detonate on the compression stroke and bend a rod or break a crank. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shrug.gif[/img]

[mike223]

I was reading an article in the local paper about burning cooking oil. Evidently there is a company that will install a separate tank for the oil and route it through your radiator to preheat the oil to thin it out so it will go through the injectors. They also said you had to start with diesel, push a button to switch to cooking oil, and then switch back to diesel before you shutdown to flush the injectors. Does anyone have any experience with this? The article had a woman in a Jetta TDI who got her oil from a Chinese restaurant, and just strained it for debris and water, and that was it.

[95_stroker]

[ QUOTE ]
I was reading an article in the local paper about burning cooking oil. Evidently there is a company that will install a separate tank for the oil and route it through your radiator to preheat the oil to thin it out so it will go through the injectors. They also said you had to start with diesel, push a button to switch to cooking oil, and then switch back to diesel before you shutdown to flush the injectors. Does anyone have any experience with this? The article had a woman in a Jetta TDI who got her oil from a Chinese restaurant, and just strained it for debris and water, and that was it.

[/ QUOTE ]

Mike,

Welcome to the site, this forum was recently created so that we could have a formal place to discuss these topics. Here is a link to a site that has products on the market for us guys wanting to burn veggie oil.

Greasel

Mike

[Birken Vogt]

[ QUOTE ]
Does anyone know if it is possible to run a diesel engine on a vapor fuel entirely. Such as Propane or Hydrogen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Municipal trucks and natural gas pipeline compressors can be made to work this way. They carburate the vapor fuel and then either add spark plugs, or inject just a tiny bit of diesel to get the fire started in the cylinder as "pilot oil". It is a well developed technology if a little unreliable in road trucks.

Birken

[Nerocavallo]

The conversion to propane costs about $3k. Better be gettin' over 30 mpg in the city alone for that kind of money!