Is Biodiesel possible??

[53flyingcloud]

[quote=72 tradewind]Diesels were originally designed to operate on corn, soy or peanut oil (I can't remember exactly which one ) then when the diesel was bought over to the states, someone with an intrest in the refinerys got ahold of it and we have petroleum diesel. We own a 2000 Beetle tdi and the owners manual says explictly not to use cooking oil or twill void the warranty![/QUOT]
Your last choice is the correct one..
Peanut oil was the original fuel of choice in the early diesel engines in Europe.
53FC

[Minnie's Mate]

I think the original reason for the switch to petroleum based diesel in U.S. may have been a simple one. In the mid-late 19th century, petroleum distilleries basically had one marketable product: kerosene for lamps. The cost of a gallon of whale oil was about $3-$5/gallon. The cost of kerosene was $.03-$.05. Bear in mind that J.D. Rockerfeller became the richest man in the world selling kerosene by the turn of the 20th century! Anyway, gasoline and other "waste" by-products were routinely disposed of by pumping them into ditches and setting fire to them. With the advent of the automobile, there was finally a market for the waste gasoline. And of course with the implementation of the diesel engine in heavy equipment, there became a new market for the cheap waste product petroleum based diesel which was way cheaper then than peanut oil. Even today, peanut (and other biodiesel alternatives) is at least two to three times the cost of petroleum based diesel.

As was earlier mentioned, the amount of petroleum based product that goes into the growing of biodiesel alternatives exceeds the product itself. So the only way we will have a biodiesel alternative is to recycle. For decades the cosmetic industry has collected used fryer oil to recycle for its products. With the rate of consumption in America, if we suddenly started supplementing diesel with recycled fryer oil the cost of cosmetics would skyrocket and the restuarant industry would stop giving it away and start charging for it. That would take away any economic advantage to recycling the oil. I also doubt that the restaurant industry could keep up with demand since most restaurants would only produce 5-10 gallons/week, if that much, and there just aren't enough restaurants to produce enough fryer oil to go around. You would probabaly need one restaurant per diesel engine in the U.S. and I just don't think there are that many restaurants in the U.S. (including fast food restaurants).

So we would be back in the spot we are right now. High priced diesel and at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

[norbert]

your comment on using diesel to produce soy beans has some merit.... you are in the "right church, but the wrong pew".....large agricultural companies have the advantage of economy of scale....in other words, out of $1.00 worth of corn, they are able to produce $2.50 worth of value. processing corn produces not only ethanol, but other products such as lysine. with the leftover recycled as animal feed...surely the same economy will be employed with soybeans....
norby

[wahoonc]

MM,
I agree and disagree I can get approximately 65 gallons of biodiesel from an acre of soybeans, if I am using a diesel powered tractor (got one of those) and a diesel burner on the transgenerfication plant, diesel truck (need one of these ) I should be pretty self sufficent and will be able to produce more than I consume. The by-product from the transgenerfication process is glycerin...a major component in soap and cosmetics as well as the leftover soy pulp that can be used as animal feed or???....Also based on personal experience a typcial fast food restaurant generates upwards of 40 gallons of SVO a week!. We do have a by products processor here in NC they not only pump the oil holding tanks and grease traps they pick up the cutoffs from the butchering process as well as the poultry processors....I am sure I don't want to know the full story of what they do with it. As far as pricing and price structure is concerned, right now because of the small scale of production a gallon of pure biodiesel costs between $3-$4 to produce. Dino diesel is artifically low because of the tax stucture that subsidizes the oil industry. IMHO I think reality falls somewhere inbetween B100 and say a B30 blend....

Aaron