Ed Laver, 21, has taken the phrase ‘chips with everything’ to a new level and converted his car to run on used cooking oil, which he collects from local fish and chip shops. Now he plans to market his conversion kits commercially.
“There are conversion kits out there that convert cars to run on vegetable oils but they can cost over £1000.”
One way Ed is keeping the price down is by using cheaper, more easily sourced components that he believes can do the job just as well – such as household copper piping for the heat exchange unit.
The prototype kit fitted in his 1987 1.6 Fiesta (with its fetching ‘The Joker’ bonnet) has already made the journey from his home on the English South Coast to the South of France and back and foiled a burglary. “When thieves broke into my car they didn’t know how to turn on the fuel, so they couldn’t drive away.” He’s now fitting the kits to other family members’ cars.
The car runs on both used chip oil and diesel, which gets round one of the potential problems involved when using this type of waste oil as fuel. Diesel is used when the cold engine is first turned on, before switching over to chip oil. Towards the end of the journey the driver then switches back to diesel to flush the system and remove any residue.
Transition technology
Ed views his chip oil converter kits as transition technology, while a new generation of clean fuels is still being developed. “I understand that the carbon footprint of chip oil is lower than diesel and it’s using something that would otherwise be a waste product that would have to be disposed of.”
There are also cost savings. Ed is paying between 5p and 0p a litre to chip shops for his ‘fuel’. “Some shops just give it to me but I’m not sure how long that will last. You can also buy it on the internet for 20-30p a litre for unfiltered and 50p a litre for filtered oil.”
Fish and chip shop oil is better quality than oil from other fast food establishments. “If a shop cooks a lot of meat then the meats fat gets into the oil, which is not ideal,” Ed explains. Currently Ed is looking to see if he can obtain a grant to further develop the commercial potential of his invention and he hopes to launch his own website soon, so people can buy the kits online.
You can contact Ed at smartfuelsolutions@googlemail.com
Posted by Car converted to run on used chip oil | Make it and Mend it | ALL DIESEL TECH (unregistered) on December 29, 2009 at 4:15pm
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