Bio fuel injection and generated voltage change of series hybrid electric vehicle with plant oil electric generator

We are developing a range extended electric vehicle using a diesel engine electric generator with plant (vegetable) oil (named as bio EV). The vehicle design concept is a series hybrid electric vehicle. A diesel engine rotates a DC motor by using plant oil to generate electricity, and the developed vehicle runs by using the generated electricity. It is possible to run a long distance without refueling, and plant oil fuels are sustainable natural resources. Generally, a fuel mixture consisting of light oil and plant oil is used as bio fuel. However, in this study, we only used plant oil (SVO: straight vegetable oil or WVO: waste vegetable oil) as bio fuel in order to reduce fuel cost, and avoid using fossil fuel. As the viscosity of SVO or WVO is higher than that of general light oil, it is essential to examine the phenomena of fuel injection and generated voltage change. This paper reports the examination results of the bio fuel injection phenomena and the generated voltage change phenomena.