A clip of the BBC Prime show Top Gear is (like everything else) now available on YouTube. In this four-minute clip, the subject is biodiesel and the host is interested in discovering if a diesel engine can really run on waste vegetable oil. The unmodified Volvo test car does run on WVO, and the oil itself is apparently only modified by the addition of a non-kerosene based solvent, white spirit. This surprises me, as I thought you either needed to turn WVO into biodiesel or modify a diesel engine to accept WVO. The show makes you think you can just pour WVO (with white spirits) into the tank. Tip submitter Robert Krickus asks, "Would adding a solvent as demonstrated alleviate the clogged injector problem of biodiesel? I'm assuming there is a difference in sensitivity to the quality of fuel between the old 740 engine and current direct injection."
There are two more questions the show doesn't answer: the first is why one participant says that used vegetable oil is better than new, the other is why does it take about 16 people standing around the table to pour WVO from one container to another.
[Source: YouTube, with thanks to Robert Krickus]
There are two more questions the show doesn't answer: the first is why one participant says that used vegetable oil is better than new, the other is why does it take about 16 people standing around the table to pour WVO from one container to another.
[Source: YouTube, with thanks to Robert Krickus]
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