Hi, I'm Oliver Piluski.  I live in Randolph, Vermont.
I have been working with vegetable oil as a fuel for about 10 years.
The following is an example of a project that I helped with.
It was the conversion of a maple sugaring operation which used conventional fuel oil to boil sap into a system which uses straight vegetable oil.
My part was to convert the diesel backup generator to run on vegetable oil as well.

Sidelands Sugarbush has been operating on straight vegetable oil since the Spring 2007 maple syrup season.

Originally fueled from wood and then home heating oil, the sugarhouse was converted to use waste or new straight vegetable oil (SVO).

The above image shows the completed burner system. An inline fuel heater delivers hot fuel under high pressure to a pump and nozzle
where it is injected into the firebox.



A large tank provides storage for the SVO. Heated antifreeze is pumped into the tank and warms the oil enough to flow.
The oil then flows through tubing into the sugarhouse, a return line sends unused warm oil back to the tank.



Here the rest of the evaporator is used in its original configuration to process sap into syrup. The conversion is primarily focused on the storage, supply, and heating of the SVO.



During the conversion a large generator was modified for auxillary power to run the entire operation on SVO as well. The generator is capable of producing 100KW of power.



Oil is heated from the coolant of the diesel engine and boosted by another fuel heater for final injection. A return line sends unused oil back to the tank.



Owner Dan Crocker admiring the system in full operation.



Final scene making syrup using waste vegetable oil. 

Site created and maintained by Oliver Piluski 2007-2009 

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