Posted on 11/02/2005 2:05:01 PM PST by rightwingintelligentsia
A moped -- or hoofing it -- are not the only answers to the energy crunch. If you own a diesel-powered car, truck or SUV, salvation may be as close as your local greasy spoon.
It's possible to run a diesel engine on used -- albeit filtered and otherwise prepared for internal combustion -- fry oil, also known as Waste Vegetable Oil (W.Va.). There's also Straight Vegetable Oil (aka "SO" and a bit less stinky), a mix of grease and diesel -- or "biodiesel," which is also sourced from vegetable oil or animal fat.
The upside to "going greasy" is liberation from the tyranny of OPEC and $3 per gallon fuel; theoretically, you may never have to visit a gas station again.
The downside -- well, downsides -- are that fry vat fuels only work in compression-ignition (i.e., diesel) engines -- and that there's "some assembly required." You can't just pour "Mickey D High-test" into your tank and motor on.
But it can be done -- and it does, indeed, work.
The fact is that the inventor of the diesel engine -- Rudolf Diesel -- intended his design to run on vegetable oils. But vegetable-based fuels were supplanted by petroleum-based diesel fuel, principally because it was (at the time) a more effective fuel. And of course, at the dawn of the automobile age some 100 years ago, fossil fuels were both incredibly cheap and incredibly abundant. The United States produced more than enough to provide for its own needs; there was no OPEC -- and no worry about Middle Eastern oil barons, terrorism or dwindling supplies.
(Excerpt) Read more at site.aol.com ...
A couple weeks ago the French were complaining their wine is only good for fuel.
And your exhaust smells like french fries!
BTTT
Diesel has a HIGH! HIGH! pollutant output compared to the refine octane of the common ICE vehicle. The manipulation of information that comes with the hypocricy of "bio diesel" is worthy of ridicule.
Diesel produces more CO2, diesel engines (that aren't 3 inches thick) require more maintenance, and the Bio-Diesel has a by product, I forget which one, but it is either a major caustic compound, or a major acid. The same people who say that coal is killing the world (despite the advances in degassification) are gonna say it is okay to polute the world with these side affects.
I'm working off of faulty memory, can someone who knows a thing about chemistry support me please?
Keep in mind that Capone went to prison for tax evasion.
Eastman Chemical Co announced last week the production of Biodiedel fuel from Arkansas soybeans. Their inplant diesel trucks already run on the fuel.
They did a cost per mile test here in the UK with a variety of fuels, from compressed natural gas, to petrol, to standard diesel, to vegetable oil. Vegetable oil was by far the cheapest.
Regards, Ivan
My brother is currently working on a veggie oil system for his old Dodge diesel truck. He's found a restaurant where the owner will give him about 20 gallons of old oil per week.
He's got the tank, filters and line heater elements. I'll ping you once he gets it running and let you know how it turns out.
Vegetable oil is not all that cheap or abundant, that it could completely replace the petroleum-derived Diesel fuel.
But what could be a major player as a source of Diesel fuel in coming years is to send methane, a fraction of natural gas, through a "reforming" process, that converts the methane molecule, CH4, into long-chain hydrocarbons, say like C10H22, decane, which is a clear, sulfur-free, rather non-volatile organic compound, which with almost no particulate matter (soot) at all. What particulate does escape the combustion chamber could be burned in an afterburner that adds O2 to the exhaust stream.
WHy not. -I- pretty much run on cooking grease.
"While no one likes the New Jersey Turnpike ambiance of an idling diesel engine,..."
I always liked the smell of a diesel engine. : )
Major Components of diesel exhaust
Carbon dioxide, ID-172
Carbon monoxide, ID-210
Nitrogen dioxide, ID-182, NIOSH 6014
Nitric oxide, ID-190, NIOSH 6014
Particulates, NIOSH Sulfur dioxide, ID-200
Minor Components
Acrolein, OSHA 52, NIOSH 2539
o-Anisaldehyde
Benzene, OSHA 12, NIOSH
2,3-Benzofuran
Coumarin
Formaldehyde, OSHA 52, NIOSH 2539
4-Hydroxycoumarin
m-Hydroxyacetophenone
2-Hydroxy-4-methoxyacetophenone
Menadione
6-Methoxytetralone
6-Methylcoumarin
3-Methyl-2-cyclopentene-2-ol-one
Trimethylbenzene
Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, OSHA 58, NIOSH 5506, NIOSH 5515
Acenaphthene
Acenaphthylene
Anthracene
Benz[a]anthracene
Benzo[b]fluoranthene
Benzo[k]fluoranthene
Benzo[ghi]perylene
Benzo[a]pyrene
Benzo[e]pyrene
Crysene
Dibenz[a,h]anthracene
Fluoranthene
Fluorene
Indeno[1,2,3-cd]pyrene
Naphthalene, OSHA 35
Phenanthrene
Pyrene
anyone can make biodiesel for around 55-65 cents per gallon
Interestingly enough, the "progressive democrat" arkansas legislature is bragging about beginning to build a biodiesel plant and is planning on selling it for ....
$2.65 - $2.75 per Gallon!!! Gasoline is under $2.50 right now
There are several independent locations that make it for farmers in Arkansas but if you use it, you are NOT allowed on the roads .... it isn;t taxed.
The democrats are the "party for the people" -- only if they get all your money.
BUT ....
Where the hell are the republicans? Hello!??! ahem? Hey republicans - Where are you? The party of smaller govt and lesser taxes is SILENT!
At 50 - 55 mpg on ol' #2, I'll stick with diesel.
french fry exhaust BUMP!
I wonder if this is what Jane Fonda planned to run her anti-war bus on.
ROTF.....................
THANK YOU!
so Bio Diesel is GREEN? OH! thats right, the big story about "bio diesel" is that it has ZERO "net" affect on the atmosphere because the plants from which the fuels are produced, only RETURN to the environment what has already been taken. . . .Another question for a chemist or someone who knows a lot more than I. . . .Are all of those chemicals returned to the environment in the same state in which the plants took them?
For instance are the sulfurs, and nitrogens, and such returned AS the sulfurs and nitrogens that were taken?
Pardon me, but I don't think that the "natural" course of things mandates a manipulation of basic chemical properties prior to combustion. The Greenies pushing Bio-diesel are just plain liars.
>Bio-Diesel has a by product, I forget which one, but it is either a major caustic compound, or a major acid. <
If I'm not mistaken, the by-product created by the biodiesel process is glycerin, a component in soapmaking.
Quick NOTE! that doesn't mean that bio chemical manipulation doesn't have POSSIBILITIES! but Bio-diesel is diertier than petroleum diesel.
Yeah, I'm really afraid of carbon dioxide.
If you meant CO, biodiesel produces considerably less CO than standard diesel.
theres a lot of by-products, and I was thinking "lye" but that is one of the chemicals used in manipulating basic "OILS" into diesel, I think the side affect a stable combustible chemical that creates one of the Acids. and I don't think Glycerin (spelling) is either caustic or acidic, and in fact I think that glycerin is fundamentaly unstable ( I know, I know, it isn't NITRO, but I think glycerin breaks down rapidly,) once again defering to someone who can explain.
Point, Bio-Diesel is not Green, in fact it is LESS green than ANY petro chem.
well i paid 2.17 today, my wife paid 2.13/gal. btw.. every time i've seen the solar-loonies bio-diesel vehicle, it's broken down on the side of the road... no thanks.
It takes MORE energy to grow the plants that make bio-diesel that it takes to make straight diesel
Which is why most folks using biodiesel obtain used oil.
Me too... I wonder why that is? Is it a kid/family road trip truck stop for breakfast thing?
>every time i've seen the solar-loonies bio-diesel vehicle, it's broken down on the side of the road... no thanks.<
There are 2 different methods of using vegetable oil to fuel a diesel. One simply entails taking vegetable oil, and heating it with a tank heater. The vehicle is started on petroleum diesel (in a separate tank), then, once it's running, the driver switches over to the tank with the heated vegetable oil. Before the vehicle is turned off, the tanks are switched and the petroleum is run through the system, so the truck/bus/car will start. I have a feeling the solar-loony bus is fueled by this method.
The 2nd method, uses biodiesel, which is chemically changed vegetable oil. You can start and stop a biodiesel powered vehicle with no petroleum needed.
I like the idea of biodiesel, as it keeps petrodollars out of the Saudi's and Hugo Chavez' greasy palms. Any way to make us independent of Middle East and Venezuelan oil is ok by me.
20 million barrels of oil a day. That's a lot of rancid cooking grease.
It is CO2 emissions that is at the heart of the Kyoto Treaty.
"And your exhaust smells like french fries!"
It does! I was behind an old MB deisel not long ago and kept smelling intense french fries. Then I noticed a sticker on the car stating it ran on veg oil! (kind of stinky, really)
I saw an infomercial on a vegetable oil->diesel converter kit, and it looked pretty kewl, but my one question was this: how many vehicles/town can the local french-fryers supply?
Is that the same Low Sulfur already in use in Europe? Will this standard ACTUALLY be in place and enforced by June?
That's a great question. Veggie oil vehicles won't expand past the novelty stage until bio-diesel is available for purchase at prices below petroleum derived fuel.
Yeh, I just bet cooking oil works really well. NOT.
It works very well if you pre-heat it prior to introducing it into the combustion chamber.
Not to mention it keeps soy beans from being used for evil purposes.
Dino-diesels produce less CO2 than standard gasoline. Veggie-diesels produce less CO2 than dino-diesel. CO2 emissions are not a viable ojection to bio-diesel.
Right now the Sulfur regulations are 500 parts per million and the Feds say it must be at no greater than 50 parts per million by June, 06.
I'm not sure what the regs are in Europe.
Wouldn't work in Alaska or other areas that get brutal cold temperatures during the winter. That oil would turn to frozen sludge.
Any opinions on the smell of napalm in the morning? :
Biodiesel is alright because there is no net change in the CO2 content of the atmosphere. If you are burning plant products to get CO2, you only replace that which was removed in the growth of the plant. Fossil fuels are different becuase it reintorduces CO2 that has been out of circulation for millions of years.
Not practical since the three Wendy's shut down due to the Stryker deployment. One of the McDonalds is also down for reconstruction, and one in Anchorage likewise. At least the Burger Kings are back in business, but the Crisco shortage will continue until the troop withdrawal from Iraq gets serious.
During the Japanese occupation people in the Philippines used to run diesels on coconut oil without modifying the engines, as was often pointed out back in the energy crisis days.
And this is a bad thing? ;-)
I just saw something about this on TV. There's a guy out there somewhere who makes a regular stop by the local restaurant who deep-fries a lot of stuff. Gets his fuel for free, by helping to drain the machine 2-3 times a week and cleaning it down fully.
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