Blog/Articles

There are many WVO conversion systems on the road that need an operation manual to run them.  Wait until this gauge is...then turn this...10minutes before you stop...Make sure....ect.  When I set out to develop the system for my truck, I coined the phrase "wife proof operation".  Now don't get me wrong, my wife is a very intelligent woman; medical degree and everything.  However, in order for her to drive my truck (and use WVO) on occasion, the system really has to do it all. 

Fast forward about two years: My wife and I are driving home from a weekend in Florida (1000 WVO trip) and I made the comment.  "I am really impressed how reliable the WVO system is on this truck!".  I almost heard the bell toll.

A week or so later, we were in the process of getting my wif

I shut myself in my design cave for the past few weeks and now am ready to leak you what I have been working on:  The RPC 210 - Thats 210oz collection capacity in the bowl.  By spec its about 10x the size and performance of the standard RPC 22 (22oz) so you can expect un-heated WVO flowrates at 50-100gph. 

But wait there is more: also in the design is a self purge option that will evacuate the bowl of the collected materials.  Obviously, this is machine is not for everyone, but if you are looking for automated 24/7 operation or need to clean serious amounts of oil; this is the answer. 

Finally, the best part:  I am looking at a base price of $5000 for a machine that will compete with centrifuges costing  4 times as much. 
If you are interested in getting one of these brutes, I will be taking orders for pre-production during the month of March.  I will do a batch of up to 10 units at $4000 each.  Reserve your machine with a $2000 deposit

I have been wearing my pointy little geek hat quite a bit this month.  Re-worked the structure of the website and installed a new cart system that is integrated with my warehouse.   Bla Bla Bla What all that means is that you will have stock visibility, same day shipping and a calculated shipping cost (rather than a high flat rate).  I know there will be bugs but it is the foundation to support me providing you with the whole gambit of veggie related equipment.  We have active projects running to find cost effective components now and they will be showing up on the site as they are available.

The second part of this re-work is to organize the education Wiki portion of the website.  I have complete designs for conversions and equipment available but the organization has always been a problem.  Even with this challenge, hundreds of people have downloaded these designs and I know of a good many that have used them verbatim or as a starting point for their conversions.   While I

2009 Was a crazy year to start a business!  Nuf said.  I would have to write a book to go over all the changes at WVO designs this year but it has all been in the right direction and our mission and role in the community is clear.

WVO Designs will continue to develop and distribute products and designs to the waste oil and biofuel industry.  Expect to see an acceleration of products and design offerings through 2010.  Last year we worked out the system, now we are going to focus on filling it. 

We will maintain a focus on the community.  The best part of my day is talking to people that share my passion for biofuels and alternative energy.  Expect to see an organization and expansion of the free WVO conversion designs, there are only a handful of WVO suitable vehicles in the US and I am going to try to get a design documented for each of them.  They will all be released to the community "open source" and I encourage commun

[embed]http://vimeo.com/5188520[/embed]

A refreshingly funny and very well produced video. Good thing I am not this funny or I wouldn't get anything done..
-Leon

I have been thinking, or rather fascinating about how the diesel engine works.  If you are like me; you can't help but visualize the inner workings of mechanical devices.  While driving down the road, I can literally "see" the injectors pumping veggie oil into the compression chamber a little before the piston reaches the top of its stroke...I did a two day road trip a couple weeks ago and the mind wonders...

Anyway, it got me to thinking about some of the workings of diesel engines and the differences between diesel fuel and WVO.  It is a beautiful think how well vegetable oil works in the diesel engine and it still puts a smile on my face every time my truck switches over from diesel to veggie.  However, I never really looked into the properties of the fuel other than the energy content and viscosity.  It is common knowledge that the primary issue with WVO is the difference in viscosity and that pre-heating the oil to 160F is necessary to match the viscosity of d

My first mistake was leaving the house without the roll of paper towel, I had it under my arm at one point but must have set it down before it made it to the truck. Oh well, I was on my way now and no turning back. The focus on centrifuge manufacturing has taken my attention from oil collection and now my supplies have run dry. I was headed to meet up with another local Greaser that had an extra tote of oil for me.

I had met Randy about a year previously when we both spoke to a community environmental group at the College of Charleston. Randy is a retired doctor that started using and collecting oil about six years ago. Starting with cubies then moving on to 55gallon drums then finally to 275gallon totes he has a nice clean shop with about 2000 gallon capacity. Randy's collection method is quite unique in that he actually gets the oil directly from the fryers after hours and replaces it with fresh oil. This allows him to have absolute quality control and ultimately,

Pardon me while I get a little philosophical; fact is, the business part of this website ( The Raw Power Centrifuge) is doing very well and I thank my many happy customers for their show of faith.

However, while the centrifuge and its aggressive pricing has contributed to the WVO community in a positive way, the original purpose of this site was to be a community hub for the development of designs relating to WVO. ie, vehicle conversions, collection systems, filtering systems, ect. The concept is that if the community contributes to the designs, the designs will be Open Source and free to the community. Kinda a “many hands makes light work” and everyone benefits.

Where I am coming from:

Two years ago, when I woke up and told my wife “I wanted to drive a vehicle on vegetable oil” I got on the net to gather information on how to do it. Almost immediately I found two things:

Thursday afternoon, 7pm, dusk, and I just closed the hood to my truck after changing the diesel fuel line check valves mounting on engine heads. One had broken allowing veggie to be pumped into the diesel tank (see last post).

Tomorrow, I was planning a 500 mile trip up to Washington DC to attend the Collective Biodiesel Conference. So, I kinda left it to the last minute..again. I even left it to the last minute of the day, and didn't start the process until almost 3pm. Luckily, since I had done this once before, I had a good idea of the process. To access the front drivers side, you must loosen the alternator mount and push it forward. To access the passenger rear, you must remove the turbo manifold. You should do the front one first to get your wrenches and method figured

For the forth of July weekend, my wife Ann and I decided to go camping outside of Asheville, NC. For the 800mile trip, I ran a batch of oil through my trusty Raw Power Centrifuge and filled up my 90Gallon tank. I had not been doing much driving lately and had a little less that a quarter of fuel in the diesel tank. As always, I brought along a light tool box however normaly it contains a replacement filter; I had used my last filter coming home from the Keys and had neglected to get a replacement. (ominous foreshadowing)

We hit the road out of Charleston, SC Thursday in the midst of the 5pm rush (as usual) but made good time to Spartanburg where we started for a quick dinner. Then things got interesting: When I started the, now hot, truck back up and flipped the veggie system back on. The veggie pump came on as per normal but the diesel pump did not turn off. After a few moments of flipping things on and off