BioDiesel
From: firepiston@juno.com
Date: Sat 27 Mar 2004 - 15:35:05 EST
I just received the following e-mail from a Mr. Marc Franke, a BioDiesel
enthusiast who bought a custom plexiglas fire piston from me for visual
demonstration of the Diesel principle in his lectures. Some of you diesel
owners may be interested in the info and may want to convert your Peugeot
to BioDiesel and save some $$$ and help the environment. Petro prices are
projected to go up by 100% within a few years so the time to look into
conversion and line up sources of waste frying oil now. Anyone on the
list running their Pugs on BioDiesel?
Steve
www.geocities.com/firepiston
From:"Marc Franke" <franke@southslope.net>
To:"'Steve Leung'" <firepiston@yahoo.com>
Subject:BioDiesel
Date:Sat, 27 Mar 2004 05:28:05 -0600
Steve wrote:
"I have an 84 Peugeot 604 turbodiesel. Is it practical and economical to
run
it on biodiesel (deep fry oil) in CT in the summer time?"
Certainly, you can run it.
1st...it's important to understand two different approaches
1. Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO)
To run SVO from a fryer (or other sources), the first thing to know is
that
SVO is too thick at room temperature to run through a modern diesel
engine.
Actually, Rudolf Diesel's original demonstration engine ran on peanut oil
in
1898 but that was before modern fuel injection.
[did you know that Rudolf Diesel got the idea for the "diesel" engine
after
seeing a demonstration of a fire piston? ...which was already an antique
at
the time...since the invention of the match in Europe?]
So...SVO has to be heated to 165F to work.
People do that. They have two fuel tanks; one to start the car on regular
fuel, and one they heat from the engine coolant. Once the oil is up to
165F
they switch fuel sources. They have to switch back about 5 minutes before
they stop the engine...else wise it won't start the next time.
People do it. I talked to one fellow last summer at an energy fair that
had
been doing it for 3 years. He has hardly spent a dime on fuel in that
time.
2. BioDiesel (BD)
Biodiesel is SVO that is reacted with a strong base (lye) and re-bonded
with
an alcohol (methanol or ethanol) to create a thinner fuel more like
diesel
fuel. BD can be run in any modern diesel engine with no modification
what-so-ever. Diesels from before 1995 will probably need to replace the
fuel lines as the biodiesel is an excellent solvent that will attack
rubber
if exposed to it long enough. Since 1995, manufacturers have been using
"Viton" synthetic fuel lines.
You can make it yourself or buy it pre-made. I buy it by my local mall.
As for its economics... if you make it yourself, the ingredients cost
about
40 cents per gallon (but you have to collect the oil and do the work of
reacting it). I know two people personally that make their own. One guy
gets
sesame oil from a natural healing massage place...very clean! Most
restaurants are happy to give you the oil since they have to pay to have
it
hauled off and disposed of.
Every year, America creates 3 BILLION gallons of used fryer oil. It
either
goes into landfills (yuch) or gets rendered into pet food.
I've only been buying mine. It is "manufactured" biodiesel that is made
from
surplus soy oil (only 200 million gallons of surplus soy oil per year).
Last
year the U.S. made about 32 million of that into BD.
The manufactured stuff costs more. I just paid $2.60/gallon last week.
So why pay more?
Here are my reasons:
1. Burns very cleanly (no smoke, no odor)
2. Handles VERY cleanly (spills are like salad oil)
3. Runs quieter and smoother
4. Extends engine life (better lubricator)
Those were the "premium fuel" aspects.
5. Organic sourced oils recycle the CO2 thru plants
...(CO2 is up 30% in the last 150 years)
6. No supertankers (and no spills)
7. Stronger economy...$2 BILLION/wk for imported oil
8. Jobs...new BD plants, new BD jobs
9. More security (no more Arab Oil Embargo)
10. Fuel dollars...
All of Bin Ladin's personal fortune was based on oil revenues. Most of Al
Queada's funding came from oil rich nations. We sent money for fuel...and
Osama used the cash for his purposes. I don't like that. I only got
really
interested in BioDiesel since 9-11.
What about the winter?
BioDiesel gels up sooner than petroleum diesel; depending on the
feedstock,
somewhere around freezing.
I use this blending scheme (diesels will run on ANY blend):
>40F = 100% BD...B100
>20F = 50% BD...B50; buy 5 gal of petro...add 5 of BD
>0F = 20% BD...B20; buy 8 gal of petro...add 2 of BD
Below zero F, straight winterized petro diesel.
This is a very conservative blending scheme and I've had NO problems
what-so-ever. Some blend at MUCH higher levels in the winter.
BTW...I'm researching winter BD formulations. Canola oil reacted with
ethanol seems promising. Maybe won't gel above zero F. Just got to make
some
test samples! This last winter, I felt "dirty" every time I had to add
petroleum diesel to my tank. I want to get off of petroleum entirely.
It is warming here in Iowa. I'm running B50 right now.
My next tank will be B100.
That will be "Fuel Freedom" day for me.
That's good.
Last year, I cut my use of petroleum by 75% using BD.
I actually would like to get a Battery-powered Electric Vehicle (BEV)
too.
But...no one produces one and won't until our already existing technology
(rechargeable Lithium Ion or Lithium Polymer) batteries get incorporated
into production vehicles. Who knows when that will be? I'm big on Solar
panels for the home and large scale wind for the rest of our electricity.
Well, Steve... a pretty long reply.
Thanks for the custom fire piston. I really appreciate it and I know the
people that attend my lectures will enjoy it too! If any get excited
about
the fire piston...I will definitely send them your way!
Marc.
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