Soybean Oil (bio-diesel)

[rbargeron]

In the "fuel additives" thread, I mentioned using soybean oil for fuel. The product is envirodiesel from pure soybean stock (not recycled from McDonalds' or Buger King). There is a website http://www.worldenergy.net with lots of good info and links.

The price takes a little getting used to - the product is immature so the distribution infrastructure doesn't exist yet. If you run a fleet (like the City of Nashville) they'll deliver by rail tank car at about $2.45 a gallon. But smaller quantities take more handling so the price is higher.

I get it in 55-gallon drums delivered by truck freight, so packaging and shipping add to an already premium price.

But I can say to the neighbors that I'm putting no carcinogens into their air, and not propping up the oil cartel either - so it's worth it, especially in the relatively small quantities I'll use.

Besides, it smells like there's something good cooking.

The only drawback is that in cold weather, it doesn't flow as well as dinosaur diesel. In Spring and Fall I can use 50-50 mix and in winter (MA) just dino.

 

[r0GuE]

My money is gonna burn dead dinosuars till we run out of dead dinos.
I have to think that when you burn a carbon (soybean oil) you exhaust carcinogens. Maybe not as many, I dunno. If there is less carcinogens, there is probably less oxidation (burning) of carbon. That means less BTU/HP/work.
But hey, think how cool the neighbors will think I am.
Sorry, no offense but tree hugging is silly. Not an evil thing, just silly.

Rogue

 

[rbargeron]

No offense taken. And I agree tree hugging is silly. I don't think the neighbors would ever think I was cool - I'm the conservative on my road.

But as a tractor operator, I'm the one getting the biggest carcinogen dose from the dinodiesel, whether I'm sucking up exhaust, or changing a fuel filter. I have no idea whether we can believe this propaganda, but the paragraph below is quoted from worldenergy's website:

"On June 22, 2000, Congress announced that biodiesel had successfully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The tests affirm that biodiesel poses no health threat and that the fuel is non-toxic, completely biodegradable, and contains no sulfur or carcinogenic compounds."


Of course that's before it's burned. Does anyone have more than an opinion about the combustion products?

 

[StoneHeartFarm]

Has anybody tried making their own bio-diesel? (Against the time when OPEC decides to totally cut us off?) The websites and magazine articles I've seen make it look fairly simple.

SHF

 

[toddler]

On the site you listed they have a tier 1 study that looks like the B100 has 50-85% lower aromatic compounds. Other dangerous emisions are also much lower. Looks great on paper! The only downside is 15% higher nitrogen so if diesel were a big player in California smog and ozone, they might have to beef up the catalytic converters. Read the article. It's interesting, and if I could get the stuff here in really small quantities to mix B20 for my B2710, I'd try it. Super bump in lubricity and equal power. Sounds good to me, and probably wouldn't bump the price more than my marvel mystery oil.
Todd

 

[rbargeron]

We have some woodchucks in the next town who go around to restaurants and collect their old cooking oil - and they burn it directly in their veedubya. I guess they are "making their own" biodiesel.

The drawback could be all that water absorbed from the cooking - unless it gets boiled out first, will it make extra acid in the engine and presumably cook that too?

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and I've got as little as anybody.

 

[fishman]

Rogue,

'My money is gonna burn dead dinosuars till we run out of dead dinos. . . tree hugging is silly. '

No offense, but that if everyone had that mentality, we'd still be burning leaded gasoline, insulating with asbestos, and spraying entire towns with DDT. Not that a lot of the things we do now as a species are much more intelligent, but how can ANYONE be against renewable energy sources? Perhaps your comments are directed at the Greenpeace types, which do little other than raise money and be noisy. However, there is a lot that the average person can do. I for one recycle my cans/plastic/cardboard/oil. Will it "save" the planet? Dunno, but I feel better and I know it's better than putting it in a landfill. /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif Kinda off topic here.

 

[jdkid]

hi ya
bio fuel is only part of newer fuels, H powered cars ..as a full time farmer selling stuff to joe public you have to start listerning to some groups, lower chem use, better soil understanding ,green house gases etc etc even with that inmind people can go to far ,people in bigger towns/ citys all say ya can't do this ya can't that forgetting farmers are only trying to make a buck .most of the people on this list would know what i'm talking about you all have small blocks of land that you farm and care for .we do what we can sometimes better fuels and or ideas have a cost factor to them that puts them out of reach for most farmers if the tree huggers want us to use them they should be working to make it cheeper instead of makeing new rules and acts that drive the people off the land ..also think about this how much of your rubbish ends up in a landfill?? is your place clear of all trees ?? farmers and small block owners are alot greener than most people in citys would ever think
catch ya
JD Kid

 

[r0GuE]

Ahhh leaded gasoline... the good old days.
Just kidding. I'll say this about this site. We disagree politly!!
I suppose I would have to see some honest to god science on the input, output, milage, wear, corosiveness. And even then, I wouldn't pay more for it. If you think we pollute, go to South America or the far east. We are crying indians (obscure reference #76294.28) compared to other nations. I don't dump my used motor oil on the ground. I bottle it up and take it to the recycle plant. They sell it to a "processor". They sell it to the government. They drive by my house and spray it on the side of the road to keep down dust. I pay the government to do it! ARGH!! Whether I burn soybeans or dinosaurs doesn't matter, at all, really, I mean it,. Electric cars produce more pollution and solid waste being built, and a good rainstorm doesn't make solid waste disappear. Nobody ever looks at the back side of an item like this. There is always a back side. Probably attracts ants!!!
If you get the obscure reference listed above, I salute you. Bravo!
-------------------------------------
Rush Limbaugh is a little too liberal for me. ;^)

Rogue

 

[MJB]

Looking up #76294.28 in my obscure reference pocket handbook.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif I believe this is a reference to an anti-pollution commercial from about 25 years ago, which showed an Indian standing by the side of a superhighway with trash and debris strewn all over. The camera does a close-up on the Indian to show a tear running down his face./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif There wasn't any mention of bio-diesel however./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Computers don't make mistakes.... What they do, they do on purpose.