Utilizing Bio-fuel Beyond Experimental Use 384
grumpyman writes "A C$14 million factory near Montreal started producing biodiesel fuel two weeks ago from the bones, innards and other parts of farm animals. At full capacity plant will produce 35 million liters (9.2 million U.S. gallons) of biodiesel a year, the greenhouse gas equivalent of removing 16,000 light trucks or 22,000 cars from the roads."
Automotive fuel (Score:5, Insightful)
For biodiesel, all the steps except generation are already solved and the infrastructure in place, and the generation problems do not seem large. (Even without the existing infrastructure, I suspect biodiesel wins economically.)
Generation from algae is particularly promising, as it doesn't require arable land, and can use salt water.
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2, Insightful)
Biodiesel emits little of the smog of conventional gasoline or diesel fuel and almost none of the heat-trapping gases that most scientists say are driving up temperatures and could cause more floods, storms and rising sea levels in coming decades.
I call bullshit on at least one claim. The primary greenhouse gas is CO2 and biodiesel is still carbon based so it still produces CO2. If that claim is wrong, what about the others?
It may be true that biodiesel reduces our consumption of fossil fu
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:5, Insightful)
Alright, genius, what do you think is going to happen to the carbon in the waste products used here if it isn't used to make fuel?
A damn lot (all?) of it is going to end up back in the environment anyway as it decomposes. That's why this is "carbon neutral."
It may be true that biodiesel reduces our consumption of fossil fuels, but that depends on how much fossil fuel is consumed to produce biodiesel.
If more usable energy comes out of that process than went in, the increase in CO2 in the environment has been reduced.
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
He may have missed the mark with CO2, but cows produce 65 to 85 Tg [ciesin.org] of methane gas a year (which according to the EPA.gov is a greenhouse gas)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Then you've broken thermodynamics!
-Adam
Re:Crazy! (Score:3, Insightful)
Biodiesel really is amazing!
Bzzzt. Back to intro physics for you. To quote MC Hawking:
The earth's not a closed system' it's powered by the sun,
so fsck the damn creationists, Doomsday get my gun!"
Biodiesel is just solar energy, in liquid form.
Unless you knew this, in which case, if you were making a joke, you should have used a smiley.
Re:Crazy! (Score:3, Insightful)
If you put in x energy to obtain the biodiesel, and get x * 3 energy from the biodiesel itself, you win. The energy that is being obtained from the biodiesel is actually solar energy, which, while technically a finite resource, isn't going to run out in our lifetimes, or those of our children, etc., etc. Unless humans survive, what, another 5 billion years?
Re:Crazy! (Score:4, Informative)
Say we have a Thermal Depolymerization Plant [wikipedia.org] (which is what the article seems to talk about). Into the plant I dump animal wastes (offal, bones, skin, etc.) I add a little energy to run the process. Out the other side I get a hydrocarbon soup which is essentially light crude oil (technically not BioDiesel) as well as some other goodies like methane gas, nearly pure carbon (as a solid) and clean water.
Lo and behold, the energy I can get from burning the oil product is greater than the energy I put into the perocess! We can litterally take a portion of our output (usually the methane) and feed it back into the plant to keep it running. How can this be?!
Answer: There is energy in the animal wastes that you are not taking into consideration. Energy that otherwise would be completely wasted. Energy in the animal wastes + energy added to process < energy available as fuel product. This satisfies the laws of thermo just fine. But your USEFUL energy has increased. Looking only at the useful energy, your efficiency is up around 560% (see wiki article). If you consider the energy in the waste as part of the balance, the real efficiency is closer to 85%
Also, since pure carbon solids is a byproduct, you are actually removing carbon from the atmosphere. All of that carbon was once CO2, absorbed by plants and then eaten by animals which you then processed into fuel. Even if you burn all that carbon again there is a net zero change in CO2 levels. Thus, carbon-neutral.
What I find most interesting is how the process could possibly be tweaked to work on nearly anything carbon-based, like plastics. Imagine digging up old landfills and recycling the contents as fuel (organics and plastics) and materials (metals, glass, etc.)
=Smidge=
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:5, Insightful)
Biodiesel emits CO2, this is true.
However, that CO2 was trapped by plants in the last year or two. Any large extent to which we switch to biodiesel will dramatically reduce net CO2 emissions.
Petroleum based diesel emits CO2 that was trapped by plants tens of thousands of years ago (or more). This causes a shift in greenhouse gases. By and large, B100 biodiesel does not.
The real problem, however, is cost. Yellow grease produced biodiesel has a wholesale cost 2-3 times greater than petroleum based diesel, and plant-based biodiesel costs 3-4 times more wholesale. Unless there is a tax or government subsidy for recyclable diesel (diesel in which the CO2 was trapped by plants recently), biodiesel will never take off b/c few consumers will double or triple their fuel costs to use a sustainable energy source.
Peak oil (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless there is a tax or government subsidy for recyclable diesel (diesel in which the CO2 was trapped by plants recently)
Motor vehicle fuels are already taxed. Drastically cutting taxes on biofuels compared to petrofuels can subsidize them without "subsidizing" them, although European countries generally have more room to cut taxes than North American countries do.
few consumers will double or triple their fuel costs to use a sustainable energy source.
Unless worldwide crude oil extraction peaks and the supply curve moves so as to double or triple petrodiesel prices anyway. Then biodiesel will become even more attractive.
Europe (Score:3, Interesting)
And they don't. Cut them, I mean. A friend of mine lives in the UK and has told me stories about how you can go to jail for using biodiesel you make yourself because it isn't subject to the same exorbitant taxes their petrofuels are.
What apparently goes right over Parliament's heads is that they have a huge opportunity to lead the way in alternative fuels technology, but I guess they just don't think their constitu
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Just curious... does this then mean that with bio-diesal, we are releasing C02, some of which is just recycled back to the atmosphere, but some of which might otherwise hav
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
There is nothing cheaper than pumping energy straight out of the ground. The costs associated with biodiesel are far from as simple as you make them out to be, though. The costs of farming and crude oil production are significant. The costs of refining are also significant. And until petroleum costs double (at least), biodiesel will not be a serious fuel except among those who value reducing greenhouse gases more than they
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Spouting misinformation like this really d
Correction (Score:2)
False: the primary greenhouse gas of note is water vapor. Look it up.
Counter-Counter-Correction (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:5, Insightful)
C02 released from burning biodiesel was already in the Earth's carbon cycle. It's like if you were to burn a tree; you're not introducing any new C02 into the Earth's system.
The C02 released from fossil fuels was not previously part of the carbon cycle. It was stored away underground as oil or coal.
That's the key difference.
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:3, Insightful)
The C02 released from fossil fuels was not previously part of the carbon cycle. It was stored away underground as oil or coal.
It seems to me that to have a positive effect on CO2 emissions, your act needs to not only lessen the amount of CO2 being released from otherwise permanently stored materials (oil, coal, natural gas), but
Re:How long until history does not count? (Score:2)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
No way (Score:2)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:4, Interesting)
The second part where the fuel comes from peanut or other oils- I fail to see how that can be beneficial. Farm tractors burn diesel to harvest the peanuts, fetiziliers made from and processed with petroleum are throw into the field, and then energy is needed to harvest the oils. If this can all be done with some much greater output than input- then great- but from what I have seen- often times these other factors are not taken into account.
Farm tractors that burn biodiesel or SVO (Score:3, Interesting)
Farm tractors burn diesel to harvest the peanuts
And farmers can cut the process's net carbon contribution by running their tractors on biodiesel. In the future they may be modified to burn straight vegetable oil [journeytoforever.org], using diesel only to start up and shut down the engine.
fetiziliers made from and processed with petroleum are throw into the field
Not all farming methods use petrofertilizers.
Re:Biodiesel EROEI (Score:3, Informative)
"One MJ of biodiesel requires an input of 1.2414 MJ of primary energy," Which means you consume more primary energy (ie Oil) than the process creates as an output, which results in a net loss.
So what? Every process for extracting or converting energy will result in a net loss; this is a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics. But here, "primary energy" does not mean fossil energy from petroleum. This ratio of 1 to 1.24 counts the solar energy stored in the soybean oil: "The largest contribution
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:5, Interesting)
The real question is, when you factor in all the costs associated with hydrogen - new infrastructure, new vehicles, renewable energy sources to manufacture the hydrogen (without which it is pointless), is there any way hydrogen can be cheaper than biodiesel?
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:5, Insightful)
There are real questions about production capacity. If all the soy in the US were used in biodiesel it would produce 2.8 billion gallons of fuel a year. Or 68 million barrels of oil equivalent. That would last the United States 3-4 days at current energy usage rates. It should be easy to see farmland usage would need to be increased by 1-2 orders of magnitude to make a complete replacement.
Right now biodiesel is just at a trickle. You need to think about capacity questions if it is to be a real replacement.
The same may be claimed of hydrogen fuel. First, it is a high energy density fuel, but it is not an energy source. You still need to produce it in a petroleum-free manner to make it renewable. And production capacities necessary to make enough hydrogen are impossible. You just cannot do it.
By far the most logical choice to handle the downtrend in petroleum is nuke-u-lar production, which is already cost competitive and has a supply sufficient to handle US current energy usage for another 100 years.
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:2)
Meanwhile scaling up biodiesel farm production wouldn't be all that bad. There are (of course) better materials to grow for higher yield and more effecient fuel (for example, rapeseed [canola] oil creates twice as much biodiesel after the conversion process than soy, and palm oil bests all of the below), and this can help a lot with the problems we're currently seeing in yield. But, as biodiesel is also diesel compatible
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, on top of all of this, we are ignoring the fact that the waste is still radioactive, which means we can still draw power from it, even if it's at a much reduced scale. Comb
Re:Automotive fuel (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Experimental? (Score:5, Informative)
Just because no one the submitter knows uses biodiesel doesn't make biodiesel an "experimental" fuel.
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
I've already put 6500 petroleum free miles on my VW TDI.
Just because no one the submitter knows uses biodiesel doesn't make biodiesel an "experimental" fuel.
What biofuel do you use? That link says nothing about that. VW TDI is built to run on diesel.
Were any modifications neccessary to run on biodiesel.
Re:Experimental? (Score:5, Informative)
I found that in my Citroën CX 25DTR T2 (2.5 litre turbodiesel) I had quieter, smoother running, less exhaust emissions and a small increase in power. I could increase the boost (and thus excess fuelling) quite a bit without hitting the smoke point or cooking the turbo. All this from (effectively) free fuel.
Re:Experimental? (Score:3, Interesting)
You put unleaded in with your biodiesel! Does that work? I would have thought you would mix in normal fossil based diesel fuel, NOT unleaded. Surely unleaded would cause damage to your engine.
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
But, on the topic I'd love to start making my own biodiesel and I've been read
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
However, the older diesels even *RECOMMENDED* such a practice.
FWIW, the method usually used to lower gel point on commercial biodiesel is to add kerosene. Kerosene kills your lubricity, but since you're adding it to biodiesel, which has ridiculously high lubricity, you should be fine. I've heard numbers of 20 and 30% kerosene. The advantage of kerosene over gasoline is that kerosene is still closely related to diesel, and will burn in a diesel engine without any iss
why bad on new diesels? (Score:2)
Re:why bad on new diesels? (Score:3, Informative)
If you REALLY want to play the gasoline-in-a-modern-diesel game, here's a thread over at TDIClub on it...
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=123995 [tdiclub.com]
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
(actual argument used by a Dutch mayor)
What laws? (Score:2)
Hope your paying duty on your fuel!
In some jurisdictions, it's likely that use of straight vegetable oil in motor vehicles isn't taxed, on purpose, to promote the use of renewable energy. What are the laws that affect SVO use in US, UK, NZ, AU, CA, or other developed English-speaking countries?
Re:What laws? (Score:2)
In the UK there is an excise duty to pay, of 25.82p/litre. Source [hmrc.gov.uk]
Re:Experimental? (Score:5, Informative)
I've used a mix of commercial ASTM spec biodiesel and homebrew biodiesel that my friend and I have made in our 'Appleseed reactor'.
Appleseed Plans - http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/appleseedproces
The parts kit - http://www.biodieselwarehouse.com/ [biodieselwarehouse.com] $229
"Were any modifications neccessary to run on biodiesel."
No modifications were needed on my stock 2003 Jetta TDI. Better yet, I can 'splash-blend' on the go - that is, I can add 5 gal of B100 to my car and then top off with regular #2 petrodiesel at the pump. They mix completely in the fuel tank and no special blending is needed.
As far a warrantee issues, my dealer knows I use biodiesel (the big sticker on the back of my car might have something to do with that) and frankly, they don't care.
VWoA officially allows up to a B5 blend and rumor has it B20 approval is coming shortly. Like all fuels, petro- or bio-, VW doesn't cover "misfueling" with bad quality fuel. If a tank of bad petrodiesel damages your injection pump, the retailer, not VW pays for the repair. So using biodiesel really isn't an issue as far as that is concerned.
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
I know people with over 100,000 miles of biodiesel use.
All with no modifications to their stock diesel engines.
Our local city and state government use biodiesel in all their fleets.
Here is a list [nwbiodiesel.org] of some local businesse
Re:Experimental? (Score:2)
Indiana State Fair & Biodiesel (Score:4, Informative)
There's a shuttle service of ca. 6-8 tractors towing two trams circling the entire grouds and they've been running biodiesel from local farmers for years.
I think there are plans for an "all natural" city in the northern part of the state, which will be limited to -E, biodisel, fuel cells, etc. due to switch over within the next year or two.
Called manufacturer of "Mr. Fusion" (Score:4, Funny)
Biodiesel Green (Score:5, Funny)
More Information on Biodiesel (Score:5, Informative)
First, biodiesel has a positive energy balance, to the tune of about 3.2 units out for every unit you put in. http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24089.pdf [nrel.gov]
Second, biodiesel is 78% carbon neutral with regard to greenhouse gas emissions (see previous pdf). That is because the majority of the carbon emitted when you burn a gallon of biodiesel was captured from the atmosphere when you grew the plant to make the vegetable oil. However, the methanol used to make the biodiesel (fatty acid methyl ester) is made from natural gas, at least in the US. You could make 100% renewable ethyl ester biodiesel from ethanol, or make methanol from landfill recovery biogas, but we don't currently.
Third, soy and corn oil are crummy crops to make biodiesel from. But that's where the lobbying money is right now. Other plants have much higher yields.
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html [journeytoforever.org]
Forth, no, it isn't a question of "food or fuel"? We can do both! Whenever you hear that argument ask yourself whether the person is well meaning but misinformed, or as been happening recently, is part of astroturf campaign to preserve the status quo of the petroleum economy.
Want to try making some biodiesel yourself?
http://www.biodieselcommunity.org/howitsmade/ [biodieselcommunity.org]
Already making biodiesel and want to show it off?
http://www.cafepress.com/RenewableWear [cafepress.com]
Re:More Information on Biodiesel (Score:2)
Lastest alternate energy/fuel status (Score:2, Informative)
http://www.windsofchange.net/archives/007802.php [windsofchange.net]
It covers: Bio, Electricity, Fossil Fuels, Geothermal, Hydrogen, Nuclear, Solar, Water, Wind
US biodiesel production will reach 75 million gallons in 2005
A former malting facility in Jefferson, Wisconsin will be converted to house an innovative, $200 million ethanol production plant that, in addition to 140 million gallons of ethanol a year, will produce 20
A bit off topic, perhaps (Score:2)
You don't know what you are talking about (Score:2)
Sausages are made from guts. Well - sausage casings are! When you eat polish sausage and breakfast sausage then you are eating innards.
Gutz Gutz - GLORIOUS GTUZ!!! Please pass another sausage?
In other news (Score:2, Funny)
Bio fuel is DECADES old news (Score:5, Informative)
My first bio-fuel powered car was a Brazilian 1983 Chevette with a 1.6 liter motor burning 96% pure ethanol. For over 25 years there have been ethanol pumps in every Brazilian gas station.
Besides the cars that burn strraight ethanol, the gasoline distilled from petroleum in Brazil gets a mix from 20% to 25% ethanol, depending on the season. Today, most new Brazilian cars are equipped with "flex" motors that can burn any proportion, from 0% to 100% ethanol.
Re: (Score:2)
Fuel from cow bones (Score:2)
Big hairy Deal (Score:5, Informative)
The USA uses about 20,000,000 BOPD. Canada and the USA use over 22 million BOPD. This is a drop in the bucket.
If they scaled this up by a factor of 1000 (a $14 BILLION plant) then this would still be small potatoes compared to what we need. Even the Alberta tar sands expansions which will take us to about 3.3 million BOPD with investments in the 10's of billions and maybe 100's of billions by 2015 are small potatoes compared to what we need.
Yes - every bit helps but...
Lets look at the 4 top oil fields:
Ghawar (Saudit Arabia) 5 million BOPD Likely near decline
Canaterall (Mexico) 2.2 million BOPD In decline, 14% per year
Bergan (Kuwait) 1.6 million BOPD In decline, rate unknown
DaQing (China) 1 million BOPD In decline, 7% per year
These 4 feilds produce about 10 million BOPD, or about 12.5% of the world's 82 million BOPD production.
A decline rate of 10% in these 4 feilds translates to a loss of over 1 million BOPD. If we multiply that biodiesel plant by 1000 we still do not make up for the lost production of the top 4 oil fields.
The North sea went into decline in 1999 at a rate of about 14%. The UK became an oil importer this year.
Indonesia became an oil importer this year.
Australia use to be supplied by Indoneasia and since Indonesia can no longer supply Oz, Oz also has lined up at the Straits of Hormuz, hat in hand, asking for middle east oil.
This plant is just a drop in the bucket! If we build a plant like this every day for the next 10 years it won't be enough. That is how big the world oil peak problem is. We do not have a workable energy policy in place.
Has anyone even heard any of the damn pollies even dicusssing it seriously?
The most believable estimate I have is that world oil production will peak in 2007 and this is an optimistic estimate taking into consideration every oil production project on the planet.
2007? (Score:3, Insightful)
But there are projects to unlock the oil sands in Canada, they'll be online and working soon, and they'll certainly take up the slack for any drop in liquid crude pumping.
I'm not nearly as concerned about "peak oil" as I am about the precipitous rise in use. Yes, we're bad in the US, buying so many SUVs we don't get any better gas mileage than we did in the 70s. But the real issue is so many countries that are in
Re:Big hairy Deal (Score:2)
Re:Big hairy Deal (Score:2)
So you claim this is such a big problem that the government needs to step in and force us to move to other fuel sources?
An asteroid a mile wide is a big problem. Poverty is a big problem. Peak oil is not a big problem, especially in a capitalistic economy.
As oil becomes more difficult to source, we'll simply be paying mo
Re:Big hairy Deal (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Big hairy Deal (Score:3, Insightful)
A seismic change would not be a gradual change. You assume that the eventual reductions in oil production will be gradual, leading to gradual increases in oil production. Oil demand is not very elastic, so dramatic changes to supply would cause dramatic changes in price (prices could double or triple very quickly if there was a production shortfall of 20%).
Can you come u
BioDiesel in Dallas (Score:2, Insightful)
Who's next? (Score:2)
Finally, A Solution For Parking Ticket Scofflaws (Score:2)
Biodiesel tax breaks (Score:5, Informative)
In the UK, there is a 20p/litre tax relief for biodiesel, but this isn't enough. Even with current oil prices biodiesel is still more expensive. What we need is to completely drop the tax on biodiesel, that way oil companies and others will see a reason to invest. The tax break would also need to be guaranteed for a decent length of time, say 20 years so that investments would pay off.
There are problems with biodiesel. It would require vast tracts of land, and would probably end up using land in the 3rd and developing worlds to meet our needs for fuel. This land may have been better used for local food production. IMHO, this is not a huge problem, as it would provide much needed investment into developing and 3rd world nations, and of course many ppl would be employed to harvest the crops.
Some interesting biodiesel sites:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html [journeytoforever.org]
http://www.vegetableoildiesel.co.uk/ [vegetableoildiesel.co.uk]
Re:Actually we need the opposite (Score:2)
Yes, we do need to pay our fair share of road usage. In the UK (the nation I was refering to), this is called the Road Tax (Source [dvla.gov.uk]), although for newer cars this is based upon CO2 emmisions. I agree, it should be the same and should also be quite a bit lower, with the extra being made up by an increase in fuel tax. That way ppl might think twice about maki
Re:Actually we need the opposite (Score:2)
Road damage increases quickly with vehicle weight; roughly with the fourth power in the most well known study (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AASHTO_Road_Test [wikipedia.org]). Light cars cause only trivial damage compared to trucks.
Turkey guts (Score:3, Interesting)
One of the statistics that Changing World cited was that if you could convert all the agricultural WASTE in the US to oil, that would do away with the need to import oil. If that statistic is true, then what Rothsay has done is really important. If their process is actually economical then they have beaten Changing World to the prize.
The other thing not to be ignored is that the Changing World process, and this one too presumably, destroys the prions that cause mad cow disease. This process may take animal carcasses out of the livestock feed chain by providing an alternate market for slaughterhouse refuse and dead stock.
On the other hand, their business stinks, literally, and I don't expect that to change. Anyway, I hope they succeed.
They're not the first to do this.. (Score:3, Informative)
Very happy with biodiesel in my VW Jetta TDI (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem currently I have with it is trying to find it in great quantities. I fill up at a CENEX agricultural co-op gas station. They have B2, which is 98% dino diesel, 2% bio. It's still mostly dino diesel, of course, which annoys me. But it's better than nothing. What I really want is B20, which is 20% bio, 80% dino. And during the summer, I want to try progressively higher ratios of bio to dino diesel. Volkswagen officially approves using B5. I'm pretty sure then it can take a higher grade biodiesel.
The problem of availability will be overcome in good time. There are b.d. production centers opening up around the country, everywhere from Oklahoma to Nevada, and one coming soon near Madison, Wisconsin (which is near to me). I'm contemplating opening a biodiesel fueling station in Milwaukee. Anyone interested? I regularly post about b.d./alt.energy on my blog [wisconsinite.net]; you can easily reach me through there.
Is it really a net gain? (Score:2, Informative)
The promotion of "gasahol" here in the US turned out in fact to be a scam. The alcohol (distilled from corn) that we add to our gasoline actually REQUIRES MORE PETROLEUM to run the farm machinery and the stills than the energy content it brings to your tank.
mod parent down (Score:3, Interesting)
Making fuel from corn however is not nearly as good an idea as making it from plants such as hemp.
Re:awesome (Score:5, Funny)
As every car freak knows, its all about horse power!
That's because... (Score:2)
Re:ponies (Score:3, Funny)
On a slightly different note, I wonder what consequences it will have on the utilization of farm animals. Kind of puts a different twist on the idea of horsepower.
Re:ponies (Score:3, Informative)
Some of the people who contracted Mad Cow disease were vegetarians who got it from using fertilizer that (unknown to them) contained cow offal. There's no question that if a prion gets blasted out of someone's tailpipe, it will wind up in the food chain. The prion that causes Mad Cow is extremely difficult to destroy - it's a protein molecule, not a living organism. Even heat as high as 360C will not break it down, and traditional chemical sterilization doesn't work. I would be extremely worried about u
WTF? (Score:3, Insightful)
And, fucking *Insightful* moderation? Jeesus...
Re:mad cow disease (Score:2)
Anyway, I've been behind many Volkswagen Jetta TDIs, and not noticed much exhaust of any kind.
So, just because it's diesel doesn't mean that it's smoky. Direct injection (the DI part of TDI) and a turbocharger (the T part of TDI) can get rid of almost all of the smoke, to the point that the smoke is no longer visible.
urban slang for... (Score:2)
Re:mad cow disease (Score:2)
Re:mad cow disease (Score:2)
Re:Have you ever??? (Score:3, Informative)
This is simply a function of the efficiency of the vehicle in question. It's not a problem of any single fuel. Biodiesel burns quite clean in an efficient engine at operating temperature.
Have you ever smelled a biodiesel vehicle in operation or at rest? Uhg! What a stench.
I have yet to smell one that was offensive to me. The worst I've smelled was a bit remimniscent of carmelization. Diesel smells much worse.
Have you
Re:Have you ever??? (Score:2)
Yes I have.
I've been running my car on biodiesel for more than 5 years now.
I have never had any problems with it and I can recommend it whole-heartedly to everyone.
It's an Audi A4 1.9 TDI which is fully certified on biodiesel, I've been running it for more than 300.000 km now.
Besides giving me the feeling of running an 'environmentally friendly'' car it also saved me a lot of money on my gas bills.
Honestly, I pity anyone that's still driving a 'gasoline car' - Poor guys..
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Yes I have and (Score:2, Insightful)
HTH
The problem with slashdot is that any fuckwit can be a moderator too...
Re:Have you ever??? (Score:2, Insightful)
I'm not sure what Biodiesel vehicles you've been stuck behind in traffic. My only experience with biodiesel vehicles is a local hobbyist who buys (cheaply) used oil from local restaurants and filters/processes it, and it doesn't stink at all when his old Volvo Diesel is buring that fuel. In fact, it smells faintly of french fries. And I've ridden with him many times on the highway; he cer
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Have you ever??? (Score:3, Insightful)
I see one everyday. My VW doesn't smoke unless the engine has coldsoaked for a couple of days below freezing. And then the smoke clears up within the first minute.
Have you ever smelled a biodiesel vehicle in operation or at rest? Uhg! What a stench.
Why yes I have. I've even gotten down on all fours and sniffed my tailpipe. It has a distinct smell, but it doesn't smell like fries or eggrolls, and it smells much much better than the
Re:Have you ever??? (Score:3, Interesting)
I have followed my friend who has a biodiesel burning Dodge/Cummins truck from Nashville, Tn to Dayton, Oh. (among other trips that are 100s of miles) I didn't see any "white smoke".
Have you ever smelled a biodiesel vehicle in operation or at rest? Uhg! What a stench.
The slight smell of french fries maybe, but I like french fries. No worse than any other diesel.
Have you ever driven a biodiesel vehicle? They are a bit quieter than
Re:Animal Rights? (Score:2)
Re:Animal Rights? (Score:2)
Public transit not so good (Score:2)
Pay very close attention to those monsters off peak hours. They weigh in the TONNES and they are typically empty. A taxi fleet driving hybreds might both be cheaper and more fuel effcient - especially if driven by a ROBOT like the Johny Cabs in Arnie's movie "Total Recall".
I think we are pretty close to being abl
Re:Public transit not so good (Score:2)
Re:No silver bullet (Score:3, Insightful)
I think the Vegans are too busy (Score:2)
Re:Biodiesel not the answer (Score:2)
((1.5kW/m^2)/(10kW*hr/l)). So the thermodynamic situation certainly seems within the realm of possibility, and vast tracts of algae ought to cost less to build than similar-sized photovoltaic installations (not to mention less maintenance, *much* less energy needed to manufacture them, etc)
What's the math for that 525mi^2 figure? The numbers I've seen put US consumption at about 60billion gallons/year diesel and 120 billion ga