I saw a story a few months ago about some guy in Tampa that is producing his own biodesiel in his garage. I may be wrong about this but I thought it said he went around collecting grease from restaurants. Does that sound right?
I saw a story a few months ago about some guy in Tampa that is producing his own biodesiel in his garage. I may be wrong about this but I thought it said he went around collecting grease from restaurants. Does that sound right?
A lot of people are doing that now, Top Gear did a segment about it a few years ago its pretty interesting.
I saw a story a few months ago about some guy in Tampa that is producing his own biodesiel in his garage. I may be wrong about this but I thought it said he went around collecting grease from restaurants. Does that sound right?
It can be made with any fat/veg oil (triglyceride). The problem with used grease is that it is high in free fatty acids (ffa's). The ffa's combine with your catalyst and form soap. Getting the material cleaned up is the trick. You don't want any lye or soap in the fuel or you will have big problems.
Whats with some of the Sunoco stations now posting little green "10% Ethanol" stickers? Is it only Sunoco that is doing this?
To be truthful about the whole deal: Gas prices are something I don't really care about. Granted, that has alot to do with my situation as a "college kid," but prices go up. I'd be interested in seeing how drastically these prices have really risen, in comparison to the CPI. Anyone have numbers on that?
EDIT: I dont some extremely amateurish number crunching and found out that gas really isnt that pricey, so stop bitching, I'm sick of it.
Last edited by Emanon : April 9th, 2006 at 01:23 AM.
Beaver sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time. Seems like you might be this time. I hope you do extremely well and if you do it benefits all of us. I like this higher octane. Then I can run a little more boost and timing.
Their are many "flex fuel" cars and trucks on the road right now, Ford has been selling them since at least 02 in some of their most popular cars and tucks.
The problems are most do not know they own one or what it means and no one in New England has it.
It would be much cheaper in cars that run on premium fuel. I would run it in my exploder but cannot find it.
Whats with some of the Sunoco stations now posting little green "10% Ethanol" stickers? Is it only Sunoco that is doing this?
To be truthful about the whole deal: Gas prices are something I don't really care about. Granted, that has alot to do with my situation as a "college kid," but prices go up. I'd be interested in seeing how drastically these prices have really risen, in comparison to the CPI. Anyone have numbers on that?
EDIT: I dont some extremely amateurish number crunching and found out that gas really isnt that pricey, so stop bitching, I'm sick of it.
To answer your first question 10% ethanol is exactly that 10% ethanol and 90% petroleum based. Most cars can run on this. If you have been running regular unleaded be prepared to change your fuel filter atleast once if you start running this.
The interesting thing about bio fuels is that I wholly believe the agriculture in this country would rise to the production challenge. We have steadily been able to outproduce demand year over year. With better seed genetics we have increased crop yields per acreage several times over during the past 10 years. And with better science, ethanol production can be done with more than just the grain, like the stalks and leaves and everything else (was a recent article about this).
This would hopefully mean an end to the continuous disappearance of farms in this country, though there are other contributing factors as well. I'm all for the American farmer, and like was said, I'd rather the profits stay here in this country than make the sheiks rich.
I agree with Mark even if gas prices continue to rise I would rather see some money staying here with ethanol instead of going overseas to fund somebodies collection of g-wagons. And also like mark said everything from corn is used to make ethanol, the cobs are used to fuel the fire to make ethanol and the stalks are ground back into feed.
I agree with Mark even if gas prices continue to rise I would rather see some money staying here with ethanol instead of going overseas to fund somebodies collection of g-wagons.
A lot of people say that but when it comes to actually putting their money where their mouth is they aint gonna do it. Not saying you but most people. Most definitely if an ethanol station was selling fuel for $2.75 right next to a gas station selling for $2.70 the ethanol station would go out of business. And it wouldn't matter if the ethanol station was waving an American flag and the gas station had a giant statue of Allah.
All of our gas stations here have 10% ethanol at the pumps and about 50% carry E-85. I use the 10% blend usually because it is about .10 cents cheaper than regular (and I am a cheap ass!). If I had a car that could take it I would run the E-85 because right now it is running around 2.14 per gallon compared to 2.55. These prices might only be because SD is a major ethanol producing state though they maay be higher in states where the fuel needs to be shipped distances.
A lot of people say that but when it comes to actually putting their money where their mouth is they aint gonna do it. Not saying you but most people. Most definitely if an ethanol station was selling fuel for $2.75 right next to a gas station selling for $2.70 the ethanol station would go out of business. And it wouldn't matter if the ethanol station was waving an American flag and the gas station had a giant statue of Allah.
Your right about that. Ethanol is relatively cheap to make. With feedstock prices where they are now, a large ethanol plant should be able to make their product for about $1.20 a gallon on the high side. Add $.40 for taxes and $.20 for distribution and marketing and it should sell for less than petro based gas. That is wholesale, by the way.
The interesting thing about bio fuels is that I wholly believe the agriculture in this country would rise to the production challenge. We have steadily been able to outproduce demand year over year. With better seed genetics we have increased crop yields per acreage several times over during the past 10 years. And with better science, ethanol production can be done with more than just the grain, like the stalks and leaves and everything else (was a recent article about this).
This would hopefully mean an end to the continuous disappearance of farms in this country, though there are other contributing factors as well. I'm all for the American farmer, and like was said, I'd rather the profits stay here in this country than make the sheiks rich.
Just to add to that, find the seed that produces the purest raw material, clone it and you have flawless raw materials that need little to no refinement.
Your right about that. Ethanol is relatively cheap to make. With feedstock prices where they are now, a large ethanol plant should be able to make their product for about $1.20 a gallon on the high side. Add $.40 for taxes and $.20 for distribution and marketing and it should sell for less than petro based gas. That is wholesale, by the way.
Can anyone answer the question of the efficiency of making ethanol? For example, it will take 1/2 gallon of ethanol to make 1 gallon? It seems a fairly complicated as you have to make the machinery, transport the feed, etc. How does it compare to oil?
About 80 miles off of the coast of Louisiana lies a mostly
submerged mountain, the top of which is known as Eugene Island. The portion
underwater is an eerie-looking, sloping tower jutting up from the depths of
the Gulf of Mexico, with deep fissures and perpendicular faults which
spontaneously spew natural gas. A significant reservoir of crude oil was
discovered nearby in the late '60s, and by 1970, a platform named Eugene 330
was busily producing about 15,000 barrels a day of high-quality crude oil.
By the late '80s, the platform's production had slipped to less
than 4,000 barrels per day, and was considered pumped out. Done. Suddenly,
in 1990, production soared back to 15,000 barrels a day, and the reserves
which had been estimated at 60 million barrels in the '70s, were
recalculated at 400 million barrels. Interestingly, the measured geological
age of the new oil was quantifiably different than the oil pumped in the
'70s.
Analysis of seismic recordings revealed the presence of a "deep
fault" at the base of the Eugene Island reservoir which was gushing up a
river of oil from some deeper and previously unknown source.
Similar results were seen at other Gulf of Mexico oil wells.
Similar results were found in the Cook Inlet oil fields in Alaska. Similar
results were found in oil fields in Uzbekistan. Similarly in the Middle
East, where oil exploration and extraction have been underway for at least
the last 20 years, known reserves have doubled. Currently there are
somewhere in the neighborhood of 680 billion barrels of Middle East reserve
oil.
Creating that much oil would take a big pile of dead dinosaurs and
fermenting prehistoric plants. Could there be another source for crude oil?
An intriguing theory now permeating oil company research staffs
suggests that crude oil may actually be a natural inorganic product, not a
stepchild of unfathomable time and organic degradation. The theory suggests
there may be huge, yet-to-be-discovered reserves of oil at depths that dwarf
current world estimates.
The theory is simple: Crude oil forms as a natural inorganic
process which occurs between the mantle and the crust, somewhere between 5
and 20 miles deep. The proposed mechanism is as follows:
Methane (CH4) is a common molecule found in quantity throughout
our solar system - huge concentrations exist at great depth in the Earth.
At the mantle-crust interface, roughly 20,000 feet beneath the
surface, rapidly rising streams of compressed methane-based gasses hit
pockets of high temperature causing the condensation of heavier
hydrocarbons. The product of this condensation is commonly known as crude
oil.
Some compressed methane-based gasses migrate into pockets and
reservoirs we extract as "natural gas."
In the geologically "cooler," more tectonically stable regions
around the globe, the crude oil pools into reservoirs.
In the "hotter," more volcanic and tectonically active areas, the
oil and natural gas continue to condense and eventually to oxidize,
producing carbon dioxide and steam, which exits from active volcanoes.
Periodically, depending on variations of geology and Earth
movement, oil seeps to the surface in quantity, creating the vast oil-sand
deposits of Canada and Venezuela, or the continual seeps found beneath the
Gulf of Mexico and Uzbekistan.
Periodically, depending on variations of geology, the vast, deep
pools of oil break free and replenish existing known reserves of oil.
There are a number of observations across the oil-producing
regions of the globe that support this theory, and the list of proponents
begins with Mendelev (who created the periodic table of elements) and
includes Dr.Thomas Gold (founding director of Cornell University Center for
Radiophysics and Space Research) and Dr. J.F. Kenney of Gas Resources
Corporations, Houston, Texas.
In his 1999 book, "The Deep Hot Biosphere," Dr. Gold presents
compelling evidence for inorganic oil formation. He notes that geologic
structures where oil is found all correspond to "deep earth" formations, not
the haphazard depositions we find with sedimentary rock, associated fossils
or even current surface life.
He also notes that oil extracted from varying depths from the same
oil field have the same chemistry - oil chemistry does not vary as fossils
vary with increasing depth. Also interesting is the fact that oil is found
in huge quantities among geographic formations where assays of prehistoric
life are not sufficient to produce the existing reservoirs of oil. Where
then did it come from?
Another interesting fact is that every oil field throughout the
world has outgassing helium. Helium is so often present in oil fields that
helium detectors are used as oil-prospecting tools. Helium is an inert gas
known to be a fundamental product of the radiological decay or uranium and
thorium, identified in quantity at great depths below the surface of the
earth, 200 and more miles below. It is not found in meaningful quantities in
areas that are not producing methane, oil or natural gas. It is not a member
of the dozen or so common elements associated with life. It is found
throughout the solar system as a thoro
