Doh! We don't need to kill people for oil!

[Glenda]

My friend in the UK recently got a Diesel car, and for fuel, he puts in used vegetable oil, so his car always smells like "fish 'n chips."


This is a cool website:
http://www.bio-power.co.uk/faq.htm

What is a bio-fuel? It is any substitute fuel made from renewable, non-fossil, organic materials.
Using bio-fuels will not add new carbon to the atmosphere. Fossil fuels and mineral chemicals are not bio-fuels.

Waste Vegetable Oil (WVO) is used vegetable oil as collected from pubs, restaurants and chip shops, which is the principle ingredient for our fuel.

Why should I use bio-fuels?
Every time you burn mineral diesel you contribute to global warming, and add toxic wastes to the environment. By changing to a bio-fuel you will help to reduce the increase in atmospheric carbon-dioxide levels, and you will not be adding any toxic materials or heavy metals to the environment. In our view the most beneficial form of bio-fuel is Bio-power MWVF.

Can I burn bio-fuels in any normal diesel engine?
YES, nearly all compression ignition engines will burn BIO-DIESEL without any modification. However, rubber parts in the fuel delivery system may dissolve because Bio-diesel is a very active solvent. Bio-diesel can also remove the protective coatings used in fuel tanks which then block fuel filters.

Can I burn bio-fuels in a petrol engine?
NO, our current range of bio-fuels are not suitable for use in spark ignition engines and will damage the engine, but we know that we can make a fuel that will run in petrol engines.
Ethanol is an alternative fuel for petrol engines, but at present there is a not an adequate tax provision for the economic production or sale of bio-petrols in the UK.

[BlueEyedSon]

1. More links here:

http://www.doomsdayreport.com/links.html

[stellanoir]

2. I heard an interview of a girl who got

her bio-fuel from her local Chinese restaurant and she said her car always smelled like Tempura. She was really funny about it.

[GreenPartyVoter]

3. And check out the veggie bus

http://www.veggiebus.com/

[BlueEyedSon]

4. Just so you know, vegetable oil is an agricultural product

and modern agriculture is ridiculously fossil-fuel and petro-chemical intensive.....

[skids]

5. While the "fryolator" cars may seem silly...

...there is more to the biodeisel thing than VW microbuses running on used clam oil. I used to think it was a bunch of wishful thinking as well, but serious research into algae pond production show how it has the potential to be viable on a much larger scale than your garden variety skeptic gives it credit for.

[htuttle]

8. Golly, how did we ever manage to grow anything before petroleum?

Agriculture CAN be petro-intensive, but it doesn't have to be. Yields would be lower, but the whole process could be optimized for energy production (and conservation during the process).

Right now agriculture is optimized for big tasty vegetables. There is a lot you could cut out of the process if growing for biofuels. For example, there would be little reason to put extensive petro-pesticide on energy crops -- who cares if the 'fruit' has worms in it, etc...

[BlueEyedSon]

10. Well, SHUCKS, we have forced the earth to produce 10-20 times

as much per acre, but since all the natural topsoil in the US is now TOAST, nothing grows without added fertilizer. Don't forget all the diesel-powered machines that prep the soil and do the sowing & reaping (AFAIK biofuel crops need these steps too).

[htuttle]

12. There's a lot of Surburban land that used to be farmland

And a lot of it has basically been sitting fallow for a few decades or more (with a house on top of it).

Since there won't be enough fuel for people to commute from the suburbs anymore anyway, I'd see a lot of that being turned back into farmland. Gonna need that land to grow food, if not energy, for the (remaining) cities. Topsoil can be rehabilitated over time for the rest. And don't forget waste as a source of energy. Vegetable waste, cellulose waste and animal and human waste are all mostly untapped sources of energy right now.

And yes, agriculture does require an energy investment, but so does every other energy source. Solar PV cells need to be constructed (which is still a VERY energy intensive operation, especially considering the materials usually involved), nuke plants need to be built and maintained, and even windmills require an initial investment and periodic maintenance.

There's NO free lunch, no matter what energy source you are talking about. I just don't like people writing off biofuels as an important component in our future energy 'basket'. Biofuels are (physically) extremely convenient for transportation fuel needs, and although you can't expect to power everyone's Humvee and heat everyone's house with it, we could probably power everyone's 100mpg moped.

We are going to need ALL the possible sources if we are to get through this with a standard of living above that common in the year 1800. There's no single source that can replace petroleum.

[BlueEyedSon]

13. Yeah all kinds of stuff is going to have to happen

http://jameshowardkunstler.typepad.com/clusterfuck_nation/

[AndyTiedye]

15. Yeah, but Using Waste Oil for Fuel is a No-Lose Proposition

Obviously, this will not be a solution for everybody, we don't eat
that many french fries.

[maxsolomon]

6. biodiesel is not the answer

it is part of a transitional answer. salute to those using used vegetable oil, but that can only supply a limited amount of drivers.
if everyone switched to biodiesel & kept driving as much as they do now, in the same gas guzzling behemoths they do now, we would have a hard time feeding ourselves.

i don't want to be cynical, but biodiesel is not a long term solution. we simply use fuel on such a fantastically wasteful scale. we've got to stop driving so goddamn much. and nothing would give me more pleasure than telling SA to go fuck themselves.

only solar, the nuclear furnace in the sky, can provide enough energy. in the future, no one gets to drive using combustion engines. and no more BS engines like leaf blowers & jet skis.

except jets. maybe we save the fuel for jet travel.

[BlueEyedSon]

7. Agreed.

[NaturalHigh]

9. Kicking to read later.

[TWiley]

11. Animals would compete with machines for food.

It would probably result in greater starvation in the third world, and impoverished regions of the United States.

Plus, the emmisions would likely leave an oily slime on everything.

[BlueEyedSon]

14. At least CO2 would be "recycled"

[TWiley]

16. I guess I do not understand what that means.

Can you elaborate a bit?
Thanks.