Biodiesel at home? (off topic)

The sawmill where I worked as a teenager had two Massey Harris tractors which had small tanks for gasoline and water and a larger tank for kerosene. The son of the owner and myself worked on one of them till we got it running on gasoline. we had lots of fun with it till the owner came home and demanded his turn driving. He hauled a load of slabs away back in the yard and ran out of gas - gave us the devil for not putting enough gas in it. We never did try to run it on kerosene. Gerry :-)} London, Canada

So what accounts for the fact that in CA, diesel costs more than regular, whereas in other states it costs less ? A refinery shortage (which certainly exists), would affect everyone evenly.

I had a friend who believed that his allergies had got worse since MTBE went into the fuel, to which I of course replied that he could determine that by walking over and taking a good whiff of a car's exhaust and see what happens.

In any case, you got your wish, MTBE is gone now (in CA at least).

CA has had its head up its rear with respect to current events. Very refinery hostile, CA has been/is also diesel hostile, but has had to backpedal wildly in the face of Biodiesel, which our own Caltrans agency uses. I can't prove it, but I am convinced from the news I have read of late that half of the government in Sacramento is pushing to stop diesel usage entirely, and the other half is working to promote it.

Hey, we are working hard to pass New York and Massachusetts as the most over regulated, overtaxed, screwed up states in the union. Against considerable competition.

And in NY state as well.

At one point the state DEP made a statement that they were not going to prosecute any gas stations for contaminating private wells with MTBE, and they were not going to force any cleanups.

At this point the citizens got out the torches and pitchforks and the DEP changed its mind. One step ahead of a lynch mob.

Jim

That's a great story, too. AIUI, they were working on a reformulated gas to meet emissions without MTBE, and Unocal was very helpful, working with the state to come up with a good way to do it.

Problem was, Unocal had another team in the next lab over patenting that very method. And right after the state came out and said "You have to make reformulated gas this way", Unocal said "And that method is patented, you have to pay us royalties to use it. Surprise!"

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You can find any number of theories about this that are quite damning to the powers that be, but the most plausible one seems to be this is a seasonal thing. Every summer, diesel costs less than unleaded. Every winter, as northern heaters fire up with fuel oil (basically the same as diesel), demand goes up and so do prices. If it makes you feel better, diesel here in TX is costing about the same as premium unleaded (more than "regular"). It's nationwide. Now, it may be that you will still pay more in CA after the prices go down here, and I can't offer any special insight there. Except to say that the filthy garbage fuel sold in this country as #2 diesel has caused people who should be in favor of efficient diesel technology to demonize it and attempt to legisate it out of existence.

All points in favor of biodiesel, IMO. Locally produced, clean-burning, biodegradeable, CO2-neutral, farm-grown fuel that lubricates the engine better and keeps it cleaner internally. What's not to like? (easier said in TX, I grant you, since we have little or no concerns about fuel gelling in cold weather).

keith

I wouldn't mind, however, I suspect that qatar's GTL solution is far more practical. The reason why: Brasil. Brasil went in for Ethanol, derived from natural sources, in a big way. All the cars where (re)fitted to run on pure Ethanol.

What they found out was that this is a great way to pay high (huge) prices for fuel, and to suppress food production for people because it was being used to make cars run.

I'm a convert, probally because I just got my first diesel truck. So I say bring on the biodiesel, the blends, the GTL, everything that makes sense. Diesel engines are more efficient, and their wide appetite for fuels make them a worthy and practical way to move forward into better and cleaner transportation. Europe figgured this out a while back, USA has not, but I suspect the times they are changing.

One of the BD benefits is NO retrofitting--unless your car is so old it still has rubber fuel lines, you can pour any proportion of BD/petrol into the tank of any diesel engine and it will run virtually the same.

The low-sulphur fuel we've been about to get for a few years now will help a lot. First, people will not have as much black smoke coming out of their tailpipes, so others won't get turned off. Next, the VW diesels that have been around for awhile but don't like our rotgut fuel will perform better with less intake clogging, making them more appealing (if more people drove a TDI, there would be a lot more diesel converts already). Third, more diesels are becoming available, and they are light years ahead of the old 1970's monsters (I hear the new diesel Mercedes is about as good as it gets, but won't personally be testing that theory any time soon because of budget). All the big mfgs have diesels in other parts of the world, so if the demand goes up it would not take long to see more choices brought over.

Also in light of the low-sulphur fuel, (back to my pet project) BD will be a natural even if used only as an additive. At B1 or B2, the veggie fuel serves as a supplement to the lost lubrication, while yielding a more complete burn of the petrol. That doesn't sound like much, but if one out of every hundred gallons of diesel sold was BD, it would add up to a huge dent in our petrol deficit. Once we get more people to understand it (the worst part of using BD is that mechanics want to blame every problem on the fuel without even testing their theory, so you have to become your own mechanic unless you are lucky) it could easily become common to find B20 or better at service stations, as it currently is in certain parts of the midwest and elsewhere. Down the line, local production facilities could take crops straight to the "refinery" and we'd save even more in terms of transport costs/waste.

Not that I'm pushing an agenda, or anything ;-)

Dad and Grandfather's John Deer A (on iron wheels until about '48) had a small gas tank and a main fuel tank for "power fuel".

Pain to start it cold if it had not been shut down running on gas even with the the fuel drains to bleed off the power fuel and cylinder petcocks. At least for an 8 year old.

Hugh

Kerosene. At today's prices it's starting to look like a good idea again..

Heh.. You started an "A" at 8 years old? I'm impressed. I could start my Grandfather's "B" when I was about 12, don't think I could have done it at a younger age. I wasn't exactly a strapping lad though..

I got a Minneapolis-Moline out back with the kerosene tank, gonna get it going and use it someday.. it's an "R", I guess it to be about equal to a Farmall "H", maybe not quite equal power. Cool little tractor, has the hand clutch like the JD's.

Dad had a "D" John Deere with the same arrangements for fuel. To start it. you opened all the petcocks, made sure it was connected to the petrol ,not the power kerosene tank,grabbed the flywheel, put one foot against the rear wheel and pulled as hard as you could. Then you repeated it until your shoulders gave out. It was a milestone in your youth when you finally managed to start it un-assisted.

Tom

Posts like this are one reason I read usenet, and in particular, RCM.

Thanks John and Hugh

~D