As a publication, Usedcarsalesman. com does not exhibit a great deal of editorial discipline. It seems to hopscotch across all sorts of subjects, rather than focus on one thing, say, for example, "cars" (what most people think it's about). Frankly, I'd like to think it's focus is on technology and media, but the reality is that technology and media are not a big enough "town" for Usedcarsalesman.com's only writer. So he has to write about other things too. But, hey, at least it's something new every 4 days, right? Anyway, the subject of this writer's love, today, is kind of about "cars," or at least their fuels. Namely, it's about Biodiesel fuel, yes, the fuel you've been hearing about made of fryer grease, soybean or alternate vegetable oil which can power a converted Diesel automobile.
Biodiesel interests me for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I've paid attention to the impact of the automobile on people's lives. I was born in 1971 and my early formative years around Washington D.C. were the Oil-Embargo, gas crunch, and Jimmy Carter years of the 1970's. The gas-lines, the ideas about electric cars, the human-powered vehicles that people were experimenting with, all of that was going on at the time and made me say, "why not? ..."What's the hold-up, why don't Americans buy this clean-power, new-fuel stuff?"
Then, the Reagan 80's rolled around and the environmental stuff politically took a backseat, not just in D.C. metro area, but seemingly everywhere in the U.S. outside of maybe, Oregon; it seemed that the general U.S. consensus about the enviro-transportation stuff was that it was "bad business," that is was associated with "political weakness" or something to that effect. As for me, in 1980, I discovered Car and Driver and started worshipping -The 10 Best Issue- and that was that. I kind of stayed on that course through the 1990's with the automobile.
Article comments
1 - Dave Nalle
Right now there's some question as to whether biodiesel production can ever be made efficient enough to produce sufficient quantities of fuel to replace or significantly impact the need for gasoline. It takes so much land to produce usable amounts of the stuff that it's been estimated that every inch of land in the US would need to grow biodiesel producing crops in order to eliminate the current demand for fuel oil.
Of course, if you combine biodiesel with other alternative fuels then you might have something.
BTW, since the 2004 model year Dodge diesel trucks have been able to run on Biodiesel, CNG, Ethanol, LP Gas and anything else you can put in them - probably even methane if you can find some bottled.
Dave
2 - Carolyn
I have been using 100% biodiesel in my VW golf since 2002. I drove my car off the lot, put in b100 and have logged over 30,000 miles. There were no conversions involved or added expense.
I purchase my biodiesel from a local distributor who has recently partnered with a national natural potato chip company to provide it's waste oil for biodiesel production. The waste oil is refined into an ASTM certified fuel which would have otherwise ended up in a land fill.
Given today's current demand for fuel we couldn't grow enough feed stock to power all of the worlds autos, however, hybrid technology teamed up with diesel engines could help in the transition from fossil fuels.
3 - Doug Parker
Mr.Nalle may not be aware that American farmers are currently paid not to grow excess crops--and we still export(give away)huge amounts of grain.Worldwide,I certainly do believe biodiesel crops can be grown.As noted,lets not forget the hybrid.Diesel technology is also producing much more efficient engines.Locomotives have employed diesel electric power for some time,and nobody can deny their efficiency.I see diesel elctric heavy trucks and pickups in the near future..I've read that certain crops such as palm oil produce several times the fuel per acre as soybeans.Before we dismiss something as "can't be done" let's study it This is in an infant stage,just now starting.
4 - Dave Nalle
I'm very aware of the farm subsidies system and like any sensible personthink they should be done away with. I'm all for biodiesel, and I know that it CAN be done and done profitably. The question is whether it alone can ever fill our need for fuel, which I think is genuinely debatable.
Dave
5 - Narsi
I think Dave's point about the capacity available for biodiesel production is valid...to put things in perspective, the world currently needs about 5 billion tons of biodiesel per year to completely replace all petro fuels...but only 0.06 billions T of vegetable oils is produced worldwide right now, and most of it is anyway used for other purposes...that is only about a hundredth of the required volume is produced currently and land areas required for very large scale veg oil production could be considerable...however, there are some interesting developments...
biodiesel production from algae is being tried out...the beauty is, the yield from algae is over 200 times the yield (per acre) from conventional oilseeds such as soybeans! So perhaps there is hope after all
One web site you might want to look at it is the Biodiesel Encyclopedia
Hope this helps
Narsi, BPO
Narsi,
6 - Plant Oils
You are right...biodiesel is starting to become big business now...not just biodiesel, any form of biofuel...
A lot of research is beginning to happen, with useful projects like biodiesel porduction from algae & related species, as well as experimentations on other feedstock ( see BDPedia.com for a list of latest biodiesel feedstock being tried)...I think this will all lead to something useful and who knows, perhaps even some breakthrough which can end our dependence on fossil fuels
You are right...the interest in biofuels is having its effect on a whole lot of related fields, and demographies...this could also be an opportunity for poorer continents like Africa which are blessed with wonderful natural diversity to make a mark...
CO @ Biodiesel from Castor Oil