Since 1993 mustard seed oil has been made in my farm in southern . western part in Finland. My test engines, field tractor Valmet run 1900 hours with lean mustard seed oil in the beginning and with a blend 60/40 MSO/DFO later, old Mercedes 300D run 50 000 miles with a blend 50/50 and combine harvester using Perkins diesel. Turku Polytecnics has made many thesisis upon the matter and I have beeb 3 times telling about the results in SAE-kongresses. Making your own dieselfuel - SVO, straight vegetable oil - should be as natural as making firewood with an axe and saw. As a matter of fact - it is easier ! Visit my homepages www.ekolaiho.fi

Here's a picture from Toronto 5 years ago: <img src="http://personal.inet.fi/yritys/ekolaiho/kuvat/torontoSAE.JPG">

[img]http://personal.inet.fi/yritys/ekolaiho/kuvat/torontoSAE.JPG[/img]

Thanks JorPet ! How did you make it ?

you have to put the url for the image between {img}http://personal.inet.fi/yritys/ekolaiho/kuvat/torontoSAE.JPG{/img} replacing the curly brackets with square brackets.

vainolaiho, welcome to the forums. For some more on inserting pictures, links, etc. into posts, see this thread: http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=4397 Have you looked into what the University of Idaho at Moscow has been doing regarding mustard? They've developed some hybrids that have very high levels of glucosinolates (the thing that makes mustard spicy). These glucosinolates break down into isothiocyanates that are effective biopesticides. The intent is to be able to use the mustard meal (after oil extraction) as a biopesticide. You are apparently running straight vegetable oil rather than turning it into biodiesel?

I have seen articles about Idaho's University. Finnish nobelist Artturi Iivari Virtanen made already in the 1930'ees tests with isothiocyanates. Using SVO based on mustard seems to work quite well. In long run I believe, that the level 5,75% biocomponent in the diesel fuel need no biodieseltreatment. Using SVO is easy, profitable and safe. In my first lesson in Milwaukee in 1997 I was happy to tell that lean mustard seed oil decreases Nox'es ( biodiesel tends to increase them ).

Next image [img]http://www.ekolaiho.fi/kuvat/Nox54.jpg[/img] can be seen in SAE's book New trends in tractor and farm machinery in English. The paper I presented in Milwaukee 1997 is reprinted in SAE' s stores no 972724.

Upper curve is the Nox emission of normal diesel fuel and lower is the result of mustard seed oil. The moter is running 1440 rpm and the load is changed. The plot is in Finnish because of strick SAE rules. The curve is a photo of Mr. Illikainen's thesis. If somebody is interested I can scan the abstract of that excellent work that was graded the best in Finland thatg year 1997.

One important reason why I use SVO - in my case mustard seed oil - is the experience in Finnish cold winter. In the beginning of my test I did not image that I could use my new biofuel in winter. In practise the limit is - 20 degrees Centigrade. The next photo is taken at - 24 degrees C and the run was stopped after 1 kilometer. [img]http://www.ekolaiho.fi/kuvat/mese.JPG[/img]

Being left to stand in cold Finnish winterclimate in the middle of nowhere taeches you to follow weather forecasts a bit better. I was happy to carry my cellular to get help when this happened last time.

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Originally posted by vainolaiho
I have seen articles about Idaho's University. Finnish nobelist Artturi Iivari Virtanen made already in the 1930'ees tests with isothiocyanates. Using SVO based on mustard seems to work quite well. In long run I believe, that the level 5,75% biocomponent in the diesel fuel need no biodieseltreatment.

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I'd prefer to use no diesel fuel at all though. SVO would be considerably more difficult to transition to than biodiesel, since the existing distribution system cannot handle SVO well, and all vehicles would need to be modified.

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Using SVO is easy, profitable and safe. In my first lesson in Milwaukee in 1997 I was happy to tell that lean mustard seed oil decreases Nox'es ( biodiesel tends to increase them ).

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It depends entirely on what the engine is "tuned" for. An engine with the injection timing retarded slightly does not increase NOx when running biodiesel. This can be accomplished easily with sensors to detect the amount of biodiesel and adjust the timing accordingly.

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Originally posted by vainolaiho
One important reason why I use SVO - in my case mustard seed oil - is the experience in Finnish cold winter. In the beginning of my test I did not image that I could use my new biofuel in winter. In practise the limit is - 20 degrees Centigrade. The next photo is taken at - 24 degrees C and the run was stopped after 1 kilometer. [img]http://www.ekolaiho.fi/kuvat/mese.JPG[/img]

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Do you start/stop on pure SVO, or do you use a two tank system to heat the SVO? Also, older diesels such as your Mercedes are far, far more accepting of high viscosity SVO than the modern diesels being sold today.

First - I must tell what I am aiming at. My idea is to test the simpliest possible way to make biofuel and to test what is the real risk for a farmer to use his home-made product pressed from mustard seeds. Only physical methods are used no chemistry ( I am a chemical engineer). I don't fight against biodiesel - I am happy for the great interest biodiesel has gained. The second demand in my tests is - no modifacations are made in the motorsystem and fuel system. In the beginning 1993 I started with lean mustard seed oil, but in 1995 began to use a blend around 50/50%. The reason was testseries that told that it was possible to use this blend in oilheating systems. The thesisis made upon the matter are mainly based on lean mustard seed oil. The positive results in the motor laboratory in Turku have astonished me often. You are right with the new injection systems and the high viscosity of SVO. Do you know if there is any test data on that topic ?

There have been a variety of tests done on running SVO (either pure or blended with diesel) in modern diesel engines. If you go to www.biodiesel.org and to their archived reports section, and search for straight vegetable oil, you can probably find some of these reports there.

Should we do more R&D work to make injection systems with better performance for SVO ? The extra cost making biodiesel is so high and the loss of energy so big that it could be worthwile.

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Originally posted by vainolaiho
Should we do more R&D work to make injection systems with better performance for SVO ?

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The problem is that to make engines with very low emissions and high efficiencies, you end up needing to do things that are less compatible with SVO (higher injection pressures, etc.).

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The extra cost making biodiesel is so high and the loss of energy so big that it could be worthwile.

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The incremental cost for producing biodiesel from oil isn't all that big - currently around 20-30 cents per gallon for industrial plants, including the price of the methanol. Something we are working on here should be able to cut that by a significant margin, perhaps 50% or more. With modern processing plants, the energy required isn't all that much, and new improvements are making it less and less. Another significant barrier with SVO is fuel transport. It simply couldn't be pumped through existing pipelines, and most other transportation options would likely run into problems. Also, there is simply a huge benefit from being able to use a fuel in existing vehicles without needing modifications - a benefit you have with biodiesel, but not really with SVO. SVO is fine for limited applications, where you don't need to deal with the transportation issues, engines (or stationary burners) that can handle it are already in use, etc.

One thing puzzles me: Vegetable oils are widely transported in food industry; what makes it difficult to transport in technical industry ?

Mike - your words: It depends entirely on what the engine is "tuned" for. An engine with the injection timing retarded slightly does not increase NOx when running biodiesel. This can be accomplished easily with sensors to detect the amount of biodiesel and adjust the timing accordingly. Question: When you retard injection timing, how does your motor behave in other aspects - power etc.

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Originally posted by vainolaiho
One thing puzzles me: Vegetable oils are widely transported in food industry; what makes it difficult to transport in technical industry ?

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The transportation method used for the food industry (truck and rail car) is more expensive than the pipelines used in the fuel industry, which would have substantial difficulty with SVO. Filling stations would likely need retrofits to be able to pump SVO well. And of course there's the emissions issue (burning glycerin in engines generally results in higher emissions of some toxic components, such as acrolein).