STRAIGHT VEGETABLE OIL AS A REPLACEMENT FUEL FOR DIESEL: COMPARING TRACTOR PERFORMANCE AND FARM ECONOMIC IMPLICATIONS
Open Access
- Author:
- Julius, Collin Bruce
- Graduate Program:
- Agricultural and Biological Engineering
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- November 03, 2011
- Committee Members:
- Paul Heinz Heinemann, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Paul Heinz Heinemann, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor - Keywords:
- Economic Modeling
Tractor Testing
Energy
Diesel
Straight Vegetable Oil
Canola
Stella - Abstract:
- Straight vegetable oil (SVO) is a promising fuel alternative for diesel farm equipment and has the potential to replace petroleum diesel fuel in as little as one year for some farms. SVO is produced from oilseed crops, which can be grown and processed right on the farm, allowing farmers to have control over their fuel supply. While the feasibility of using vegetable oil as a fuel is well established, many questions remain regarding its power production, fuel efficiency, and cost effectiveness in comparison to petroleum diesel in full-scale agricultural equipment. Using a New Holland T7060 tractor with an Elsbett fuel conversion kit for SVO, tests were run with a dynamometer and by performing field operations. The objectives of the dynamometer-testing phase were to compare the power production and specific fuel consumption (SFC) of the T7060 when operating on SVO to the tractor’s performance on diesel. For the in-field testing, the objective was to compare the SVO and diesel fuel consumption rates for the T7060 as it performed two typical production tasks. The last objective was to create a computer model, using the program Stella, to determine the cost of producing a liter of straight vegetable oil on a small farm and to calculate some design parameters for a new SVO system. The dynamometer tests revealed that the power output of the T7060 was statistically significantly higher for SVO when compared to diesel. This was due to the Elsbett system increasing the common rail fuel pressure and resulted in statistically significantly higher SVO SFC for power production levels above 115 kW when compared to diesel fuel. In the field, however, it was found that SVO fuel consumption was not statistically different from diesel or it was statistically significantly lower than diesel fuel consumption for the two operations tested. Lastly, based on the model, the cost of producing a gallon of SVO on a small farm was found to be competitive with the cost of diesel fuel. SVO is an exciting alternative energy solution and this tractor testing and modeling work will answer some important questions for farmers considering making the switch away from petroleum based diesel fuel.