I'm game. Although not as gamey as the cats in this story.
A valid point is made about biodiesel being made from pretty much anything. It's only a matter of time before this kind of thing becomes more common.
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I knew cats had to have a good reason for being on this earth. Not seen one till now.
Seriously tho.
If biodiesel can be produced from any fatty materials, how long before we get our act together and recycle thrown away food and other fatty household waste?
Does this mean, that diesel engines cars are the only sustainable power plants going forward?
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Does this mean, that diesel engines cars are the only sustainable power plants going forward?
Far from it. In Brazil many petrol engines are converted to run on ethanol. www.cat.org.uk/catpubs/extract.tmpl?sku=pp
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My brother and his missus have 8 cats, popping round to fill up tonight.
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Just to divert slightly. Sky News ran a piece about alternative fuels this week, including LPG and new or used vegetable oil.
It claimed that pubs and similar establishments were always glad to get rid of used vegetable oil FOC and that after it had been cleaned and filtered, it would be perfect (you should also advise Customs and Excise about the duty for which you were liable!) for use in your diesel engine.
Certainly the pub visited came up with the necessary used vegetable oil rather than a pint and it was all systems go after that, working out at 2p a mile cost wise.
Sky News stated that litre bottles of vegetable oil were 71p in the shops, but stores such as Aldi and Lidl sell it much cheaper.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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Brasil has cut back on its ethanol production made from sugar cane as it would only run properly in cars designed for it ,they all have a badge on the back with the word"alcool".The problem was it Kn??????? the engines and consequently nobody would by one.Also it was not much cheaper than petrol.The wine in O'Malleys Sau Paulo was pretty good fuel though.
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Sssshhhhh! I was waiting for the pumps to go dry before selling the crates of mazola stocked in my workshop. How long before Shell starts buying up chip shops?
In all seriousness, there is much more scope for conversion of waste products into usable fuel than many people realise. There are those that argue against, on the grounds that most bio-fuels require large swathes of land to grow, but most biofules are a byproduct of an existing production process.
It's the one shining light at the end of the tunnel as far as I'm concerned.
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I own a v6 Omega petrol auto - not the most economical car, around town at least. I recall learning on an Omega forum, with some envy, that the 2.5 BMW 6 cylinder diesel would run quite happily on cooking oil. Can't recall whether it was new oil or not or whether it was ok neat. I've tried to find the threads on this but the thread search on the forum is hopeless.
I don't know how accurate this is and I recall it may be something to do with the 'old' indirect injection technology of the 2.5 unit.
Anyone know if this is correct?
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I recall learning on an Omega forum, with some envy, that the 2.5 BMW 6 cylinder diesel would run quite happily on cooking oil.
- Sorry forget to mention that the above engine was the standard diesel unit fitted to the Omega up until about 2000 when a more modern 4 cylinder one was introduced. (Guess what, I gather it wasn't as good)
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"I recall learning on an Omega forum, with some envy, that the 2.5 BMW 6 cylinder diesel would run quite happily on cooking oil"
Perhaps if you got it chipped..?
:-)
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Perhaps if you got it chipped..? :-)
Nah - on reflection sounds a bit 'fishy' to me!!
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I was asking about this topic on the indirect injection thread:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=4&t=34...3
Apparently, the viscosity of vegetable oil is higher than diesel so it forms relatively large fuel droplets. The high degree of air turbulence in the IDI pre-chamber helps these to break up and burn more quickly. However DI electronically controlled injectors rely on correct diesel fuel to give correct spray pattern and injection volume which are critical on these engines.
You can run most DI engines on vegetable oil but it produces much more harmful deposits and acids than diesel when it's burnt. Vegetable oil also solidifies at a much higher temperature and so it will wax-up even in mild winters.
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"it forms relatively large fuel droplets"
You could try this...
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=33064&...e
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"most bio-fuels require large swathes of land to grow,"
So how about using the 15% of British land which is "set aside" - and the 15% of the rest of the EU for that matter??
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There's lots of info on the web about making fuels from old matter, just try doing a search for thermal depolymerization.
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Not something I'd discuss in detail here as it's straying a little too far from motoring. Have you considered how much space is taken up in livestock production? Not just the pasture land but the fields and fields of cereal crops grown solely to feed the livestock.
If we switched a fraction of our protein intake to cereals/vegetables we would free up both livestock land and livestock dependancy land. Rearing animals for meat production provides just about the lowest nutrional value per acre you can get.
I'm not a veggie, far from it. I've tucked in to many a meal that I've personally killed. But the above argument is fairly compelling.
In a nutshell, we can produce biofuels without upsetting food production, it just requires a small adjustment to the foods we take in. Imagine if meat became a treat, not a daily meal of mediocrity due to the intensive farming techniques employed in its production. And in doing this we improve our living standards and become less open to external market forces (OPEC & Uncle Sam).
Now picture the savings if we import less foodstuffs. The resources that are consumed in importing those goods get freed up for industrial import and export and bring prices down.
Food for thought, if you'll pardon the pun.
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