Running farm vehicles on vegetable oil

Press, 20 November 1981, Page 12

Running farm vehicles on vegetable oil

By

SELWYN PARKER

in Dublin

Even if the price of diesel hits $lO a gallon, there's no need for the farmer to worry, according to researchers in Ireland. Just run the tractor on rape oil. That’s the advice of the Agricultural Institute in Carlow, where two researchers have successfully run a Mas-sey-Ferguson 135 and a Toyota Landcruiser on either undiluted rape oil, or on a 50/50 mix of rape oil and diesel. The machinery seems happy on either. The purely rape oil-powered tractor suffered a slight loss of efficiency, the researchers said,

citing their findings in “Farm and Food Research” magazine. But the 50/50 mix actually pushed up the revs a bit. They argue that rape oil (made from the seeds of the rape plant which is fed to sheep) is a readily available fuel if the oil wells ever dry up. They also quote in support none other than Rudolf Diesel, the pioneering German engineer, who actually foresaw 80 years ago a demand for rape oil as a fuel, especially in poor, agriculturally-based economies. However, some development

work is probably required before farmers start pouring rape oil into their diesel tanks. The researchers admit that they didn’t give the Massey Ferguson or the Toyota a longterm test. Indeed, there’s no guarantee that, without appropriate modifications, the engines might not blow up. “It is not possible to predict,” they write, “how engines will react over several thousands of hours running.” Although an exploded engine might leave a farmer feeling a bit sheepish, the idea is still food for thought.