Kubota approves use of biodiesel, sort of...

[Egon]

DuPont, Mellon, and Hearst:
Diesel expected that his engine would be powered by vegetable oils (including hemp) and seed oils. At the 1900 World's Fair, Diesel ran his engines on peanut oil. Later, George Schlichten invented a hemp 'decorticating' machine that stood poised to revolutionize paper making. Henry Ford demonstrated that cars can be made of, and run on, hemp. Evidence suggests a special-interest group that included the DuPont petrochemical company, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon (Dupont's major financial backer), and the newspaper man William Randolph Hearst mounted a yellow journalism campaign against hemp. Hearst deliberately confused psychoactive marijuana with industrial hemp, one of humankind's oldest and most useful resources. DuPont and Hearst were heavily invested in timber and petroleum resources, and saw hemp as a threat to their empires. Petroleum companies also knew that petroleum emits noxious, toxic byproducts when incompletely burned, as in an auto engine. Pollution was important to Diesel and he saw his engine as a solution to the inefficient, highly polluting engines of his time. In 1937 DuPont, Mellen and Hearst were able to push a "marijuana" prohibition bill through Congress in less than three months, which destroyed the domestic hemp industry.

Quote from the internet. This is where my mention of the diesel engine and hemp oil came from.

 

[patrick_g]

Quote from the internet. This is where my mention of the diesel engine and hemp oil came from.

DuPont, Mellon, and Hearst:
Diesel expected that his engine would be powered by vegetable oils (including hemp) and seed oils. At the 1900 World's Fair, Diesel ran his engines on peanut oil. Later, George Schlichten invented a hemp 'decorticating' machine that stood poised to revolutionize paper making. Henry Ford demonstrated that cars can be made of, and run on, hemp. Evidence suggests a special-interest group that included the DuPont petrochemical company, Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon (Dupont's major financial backer), and the newspaper man William Randolph Hearst mounted a yellow journalism campaign against hemp. Hearst deliberately confused psychoactive marijuana with industrial hemp, one of humankind's oldest and most useful resources. DuPont and Hearst were heavily invested in timber and petroleum resources, and saw hemp as a threat to their empires. Petroleum companies also knew that petroleum emits noxious, toxic byproducts when incompletely burned, as in an auto engine. Pollution was important to Diesel and he saw his engine as a solution to the inefficient, highly polluting engines of his time. In 1937 DuPont, Mellen and Hearst were able to push a "marijuana" prohibition bill through Congress in less than three months, which destroyed the domestic hemp industry.

We have no quarrel. I do not dispute our information. I do
maintain that Mr. Diesel designed his engine to run on coal dust.

Here is the history/pedigree of the "diesel" engine

* 1862: Nicholas Immel develops his coal gas engine, similar to a modern gasoline engine.

* 1891: Herbert Akroyd Stuart,Wally Godfrey was the brains of the diesel engines Bletchley perfects his oil engine, and leases rights to Hornsby of England to build engines. They build the first cold start, compression ignition engines.

* 1892: Hornsby engine No. 101 is built and installed in a waterworks. It was in the MAN truck museum in Stockport, and is now in the Anson Engine Museum in Poynton. T.H. Barton at Hornsbys builds an experimental version where the vaporiser was replaced with a cylinder head and the pressure increased. Automatic ignition was achieved through compression alone (the first time this had happened), and the engine ran for six hours. Diesel would achieve much the same thing five years later, claiming the achievement for himself.

* 1892: Rudolf Diesel develops the principles of his proposed Carnot heat engine type motor which would burn powdered coal dust. He is employed by refrigeration genius Carl von Linde, then Munich iron manufacturer MAN AG, and later by the Sulzer engine company of Switzerland. He borrows ideas from them and leaves a legacy with all firms.

So, Egon, eight years later, after designing his original engine to run on coal dust, Mr. Diesel makes claims for running "his" engine on alternative fuels (Hemp oil or whatever) other than his original fuel, coal dust.

OK, I see no conflict here. Diesel engines will run on lots of stuff.

Note that Mr. Diesel got the compression ignition engine named after him but he was not the first to make a compression ignition engine.

Pat

 

[Egon]

No argument Pat.

We just got finished reading the same article except I got sidetracked on a Daimler Benz 601 engine.

But I do believe Hemp is a very misunderstood plant of very viable production and can cover a wide range of product derivation.

Hemp fumes would most likely just make the breather's eyes smart and give him a raw throat while he's looking for some clean air to breathe!

 

[patrick_g]

No argument Pat.

We just got finished reading the same article except I got sidetracked on a Daimler Benz 601 engine.

But I do believe Hemp is a very misunderstood plant of very viable production and can cover a wide range of product derivation.

Hemp fumes would most likely just make the breather's eyes smart and give him a raw throat while he's looking for some clean air to breathe!

I agree that hemp would have lots of practical applications and can be grown easily on land not too good for other cash crops. The THC connection is the problem.

We used to joke about crewman coming aboard for long voyages and being so into the nautical thing that they even brought their own rope. (Rope being a way to refer to hemp/marijuana.)

 

[crashz]

Hemp fumes would most likely just make the breather's eyes smart and give him a raw throat while he's looking for some clean air to breathe!

...And a big ole bag of Doritos!

Just messin' with ya Egon!

 

[SkyPup]

The U.S. Department of Energy calculates that every 10,000 liters of water produces as little as five liters of ethanol, or one to two liters of biodiesel.

Biofuels are economical nonsense, ecologically useless and ethically indefensible.

 

[charlz]

The U.S. Department of Energy calculates that every 10,000 liters of water produces as little as five liters of ethanol, or one to two liters of biodiesel.

Yep, it isn't about how much land it would take to grow the crops but how much water.

Even production with algae would require relatively 'fresh' water as you wouldn't want your cultures to be contaminated with other non or less oil producing strains.

 

[patrick_g]

I am relatively confident that, in time, sustainable bio-fuel production will be achieved in commercial quantities with little impact on the environment beyond the fact that a fuel supply encourages consumption that does have a carbon footprint.

I think cellulosic butanol is one of the likely candidates.

I do agree that most of the FEEL GOOD, well intentioned but poorly informed activity to produce bio fuels is not a net winner. Unfortunately the only large scale bio fuel projects targeted for gasoline powered vehicles is ethanol from corn and similar food crops. The current ethanol from corn debacle is so incredibly stupid as to exceed my limited vocabulary to appropriately comment.

Pat