[Mount Athos]

Biodiesel is more plausible than every other alternative (vehicle energy) source mentioned, right now as is with existing infrastructure and engines.

I don't know why it isn't talked about a lot more.

[wayoverontheright]

• Here is a great report on the past, present, and future of bio-diesel.

[markomalley]

And better than the bio-diesel process is the Thermal Depolymerization process. I don't know why this isn't being implemented more than it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization
http://www.thermaldepolymerization.org/
http://www.res-energy.com/index.asp
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/columnist/andrewkantor/2004-01-22-kantor_x.htm

[hubbubhubbub]

Anselmo testifying before congress today.

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060503/to265.html?.v=27

[pabianice]

Average restaurant uses 6,000 gallons of cooking oil per month = 72,000 gallons per year X 189,000 restaurants in US = 13,608,000,000 gallons per year ready to be converted to biodiesel.

http://www.texogatech.com/safuel.cfm

[Conservative Firster]

Tiny Reactor Boosts Biodiesel Production

A tiny chemical reactor that can convert vegetable oil directly into biodiesel could help farmers turn some of their crops into homegrown fuel to operate agricultural equipment instead of relying on costly imported oil.

"This is all about producing energy in such a way that it liberates people," said Goran Jovanovic, a chemical engineering professor at Oregon State University who developed the microreactor.

The device - about the size of a credit card - pumps vegetable oil and alcohol through tiny parallel channels, each smaller than a human hair, to convert the oil into biodiesel almost instantly....

[operation clinton cleanup]

Interesting pre-gas panic from 2000. Cincinnati Buses are running on 80% bio diesel this summer.

City’s buses fuel up with grease
Cincinnati using biodiesel to reduce pollution even though cost is higher

MSNBC, Copyright 2000
August 9, 2000
By Bill Sloat

CINCINNATI, Aug. 9 — When this city’s buses belch, the exhaust isn’t plumes of stinky black smoke — it’s a culinary curiosity laced with the unmistakable aroma of greasy fast food. The 288 public buses are digesting restaurant kitchen waste in an alternative-fuel experiment using reclaimed cooking oil that sizzled everything from chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers, to french fries and onion rings.

“WE EXPECT to operate on this diet for about 2 million miles, from late July through the end of summer,” said Sallie Hilvers, a spokeswoman for Cincinnati’s Metro bus system.

One goal of the $100,000 federally funded test is to see if oil from home-grown products such as peanuts, corn and soybeans can ease the nation’s appetite for imported petroleum. The oil collected from area restaurants is blended with diesel fuel.