Oiling a dirt road?

jgbndaudio · #1 07/25/05, 04:19 PM

Hello,

I remember from my past that a couple times a year that someone would bring a tanker truck and spray oil on our dirt road to keep the dust down.

Since I have access to nearly unlimited quantities of waste vegetable oil, I was wondering if I could I spray this on my dirt road to keep down the dust?

Comments?
Scott

PS. WVO is compostable so I'm not to worried about runoff problems.

LisaInN.Idaho · #2 07/25/05, 04:26 PM

We pay to have our road "oiled" but it has to be by a county approved contractor. It also isn't really oil but usually PEP which is an asphalt emulsion, and hardens like asphalt after going down looking and smelling like oil. This year we switched contractors and they are using something called envirotech which is a by product of paper making and very environmentally friendly. It also works better, and smells better than the PEP.
I would think vegetable oil would make a really slippery mess of the road.

kmaproperties · #3 07/25/05, 05:39 PM

Is it cooking oil, say from frying meats. if it is you may get a bunch of critters comming by to take a taste.
we dump our cooking oil in the compost and we always have animals digging in it.

norris · #4 07/25/05, 06:28 PM

The county put oil on the gravel road that leads to my property in Montana and a local contractor told me it was vegetable oil they were using because the road winds along a stream and petroleum oil would pollute it. It has not been down long enough for me to comment on it other than it was done for dust control and is effective so far.

CBRYANT · #5 07/25/05, 08:39 PM

Maybe you could use some of that used oil as biodiesel (svo) some minor injector adjustments and it looks like you have free fuel

texican · #6 07/26/05, 12:20 AM

I've put vegetable oil on about 2/10's of a mile of my road. Waste oil from the bakery. Really binds the gravel with the clay and topsoil. If it soaks in real good on a hot day, it'll set up hard, and shed water. Also keeps my gravel in the road instead of the ditch.

Diesel hasn't gotten expensive enough yet, to try the bio diesel thing...and I don't really want to risk my expensive diesel engine on saving a few bucks... done a cost/benefit analysis and the time it'd take me to filter the oil (cornmeal/donut goo/etc.) add the lye (a cost!) process it, and then filter again...the time involved, if I work the equivalent time, would buy a lot of diesel...

what I want is a good hog lard diesel conversion...

rambler · #7 07/26/05, 12:37 AM

You are on the right track, but:

In my state & county, you would get letters, visits, & probably fines these days if you did so on your own. They have a very narrow approved list of things that can be sprayed, & by whom. It is a public road, & you ain't supposed to be messing with it your private self.

Might want to look into what your county allows before proceeding.

--->Paul

Oilpatch197 · #8 07/26/05, 02:09 AM

Hey talk to the local Oil producer! down here in the Illinois basin, we have salt water separtators, salt water is a enemy of Oil producers, it is a waste product.

Somtimes they reinject it back into the ground, but on the smaller leases, they either haul it off to the SWD unit, or oil the road!

and it is neat stuff, after a few oilings on the road, the road will be "soft" like if you walk on it, you can actually feel the softness, tire leave tracks etc. Has to be applied like once a year, it will eventually errode, but it is very nice.

EDIT: salt water= salt Brine, Salt brine is what they put down.

jgbndaudio · #9 07/26/05, 05:42 AM

Hello,

svo = straight unused vegetable oil
Biodiesel = wvo or svo, mixed w/ Lye + methanol.

I have made this twice but don't like handling the methanol. That's why I opted for a wvo kit for my diesel. For me it was worth it to modify the vehicle once instead of the wvo everytime. Also since I can get hundreds of gallons of wvo a month, I'm looking for other things to do w/ it.
Scott

PS. the use of the wvo or biodiesel required no injector adjustments at all, as is usually the case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CBRYANT

Maybe you could use some of that used oil as biodiesel (svo) some minor injector adjustments and it looks like you have free fuel

shadowwalker · #10 07/26/05, 08:15 AM

They used to use oil on dirtroads in Wyoming in the late 70's and very early 80's. It does cut down on dust and holds together the dirt and clay, ect. But you wouldn't believe the "oil trails" off the roads and the amount of contaminations through the ground as it seeps about. And I have seen them take this out of the crude tanks to do this. There is some places that the oil companies haven't put dirt on to cover over this, but they are really out in the boonies up there. shadowwalker.