Team Lister Green was formed in the spring of 2006 as part of the fulfillment of the Mechanical Engineering senior design curriculum at Columbia University.  A group of five students outfitted a lab with a Listeroid Engine and a basic testing setup.  For their design project they created a microcontroller based preheating kit that allows a Listeroid to be fueled off of straight vegetable oil.  Their initial efforts provided the platform for further research into the area of biofuels and Listeroid engines for developing country type applications.

Today Team Lister Green, still under the advisement of Vijay Modi, continues to investigate biofuel processing and its potential in the CS 6/1 type Listeroid engine for developing country type applications.

November 29, 2006

Take a Survey

We are trying to gather qualitative data concerning Listeroid engine wear & failure from use with straight vegetable oil (or waste vegetable oil).  If you have used SVO or WVO in a Lister or Listeroid engine, please fill out this survey.

Update Presentation

These slides provide some explanation into the specific projects we’ve been working on the last few months.  More details to come as we finish up the multiple on-going projects we are pursuing.

Our project looks into vegetable oil as a sustainable, rural energy solution.    In many parts of the world, including Africa and India, diesel engines are relied on heavily for mechanical power, which is used to grind grain, pump water, and generate electricity.  In these parts of the world, single cylinder engines like the Lister are popular for their reliability and longevity.

We are developing a basic, inexpensive modification kit for the common Listeroid engine so that it can run on untreated vegetable oils.   This may allow remote villages to power their engines more reliably with locally grown products instead of fossil fuels.