chewie_nz said:you know you can run a vehicle on cooking oil?
http://www.dancingrabbit.org/biodiesel/Biodiesel
Biodiesel is a clean burning fuel which runs in any unmodified diesel engine. This fuel is an environmentally-friendly alternative to the higher emission petroleum diesel used in large transport vehicles and some cars and trucks. In addition, biodiesel can be made from renewable resources such as vegetable oil or animal fat and even from used cooking oil, an abundant waste product.
Biodiesel is currently being manufactured at an industrial scale by large companies but can also be made on a small scale with simple technology. We hope to be a clearinghouse for biodiesel information, especially the information, skills and technology necessary for making it on a small scale.
Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO)
Diesel engines can also be run on unmodified vegetable oil, if the oil is heated or mixed with other fuels. Using waste vegetable oil this can be an amazingly inexpensive and ecological alternative fuel.
At Dancing Rabbit we have converted one of our vehicles to run on SVO and hope to share our experiences and knowledge with you as well as provide links to other resources on using SVO.
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mikeadd.htmlBy John Wolfson
Seattle Times staff reporter
OLYMPIA -- It sounds like a fantasy tale or the wildest concoction of the wildest environmentalist, but the simple fact is this: With some cooking oil, a couple of chemicals and the right safety equipment, anybody can mix up a fuel that will power any diesel engine. If you drive a diesel car, you can do it, too, for about 60 cents a gallon.
Or you can just buy biodiesel, as the fuel is known, for a higher cost -- just like the drivers who line up at Dr. Dan's in Ballard. It's now available in all 50 states and at an increasing number of filling stations.
Charge 7 said:Renewable resources like biodiesel and ethanol are something we need to be putting more focus on.
MontyB said:Charge 7 said:Renewable resources like biodiesel and ethanol are something we need to be putting more focus on.
I agree.
One of the things the New Zealand Dairy industry has been looking at is ethanol production using the lactose in its waste which is then added to ordinary gasoline as a dilutor to reduce oil dependance it also has the advantage of making good use of the billions of litres of waste; milk processing plants produce.
I hear that here in the USA they smell like french fries.mmarsh said:I know in South Africa they use sunflower oil for farm equipment. Works pretty good except the farmers say tractors their begin to smell like popcorn.
mmarsh said:I know in South Africa they use sunflower oil for farm equipment. Works pretty good except the farmers say tractors their begin to smell like popcorn. .
Spartacus said:Everyone says that ethenol is the answer. But someone pointed out to me that the miles per gallon of ethenol is significantly lower than that of gasoline. So a lower dollar to gallon, but what about dollar to mile?
Not only that, but picture everyone switching to higher (if not pure) ethanol fuel. Increases price of what? Corn. All of a sudden, the gas you put in your car is suddenly competing with the food you eat. Farmers will sell to the highest price. Yes a decrease in fuel cost per gallon, but an increase in food cost. Not just corn-based products, but anything that is derived from it. (Pork, Beef, etc.)
Yes, higher quality corn is what we eat, but our animals eat the low stuff. If all of that stuff is all of a sudden being sent to the fuel factory, what do they get? Probably use some of the higher quality corn to feed cattle, or reduce herd size. Corn, Beef, and Pork prices go up.
Simple economic principle; the more demand for a product, the higher its price.
I think that researchers are looking at the situation from within a paradigm; a combustable engine. Granted there are roadblocks to other energy sources, but it seems as though our main focus has been on a new combustible fuel to use in place of gasoline.
MontyB said:Spartacus said:Everyone says... ... use in place of gasoline.
I am not saying ethanol is the answer I personally think methanol is a better option for fuel as it is easier to produce and requires far less refining.
There are many options for producing low chain alcohols many of which take care of waste streams which in itself is a good thing but I doubt it will be cheap and in the end we will still have to look at a better solution, think of alcohol options as a stop gap measure until fuel cells become viable and not as the final answer.
...A chorus of economists, government officials and elected leaders both conservative and liberal is warning that America's nonstop borrowing has put the nation on the road to a major fiscal disaster — one that could unleash plummeting home values, rocketing interest rates, lost jobs, stagnating wages and threats to government services ranging from health care to law enforcement...
...Many people take comfort in the rising value of their homes, and its spurred record home-building and buying, with new construction making places like Las Vegas the fastest-growing in the nation. But a home translates into wealth only when you sell it — and there's a vigorous debate over whether the housing boom is becoming a bubble that will burst...
...If not, the future poses some frightening what-ifs:
• What if the dollar plummets? Do stocks follow? How about pensions?
• What if interest rates soar? How would all the new homeowners, who stretched to buy with adjustable and interest-only loans, cover their mortgages?
• How would consumers with record credit-card debt make their payments? Would they stop buying? Stop taking vacations? What will happen if they go bankrupt? New rules going into effect later this year make it harder on such debtors.
• How would government, which depends on the taxes of a strong economy to operate, keep all its promises?...
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