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Have Your Bacon and Drive It Too
An anonymous reader writes "Love ham, bacon and/or sausage? Now you can share that joy with your car. Smithfield is going to turn the waste from 500,000 hogs/year into biodiesel. For those of you who don't know about biodiesel check out this site on how to make your own."
If you're in the Portland, OR area and are interested in making, distributing and using biodiesel then you're welcome to join the GoBiodiesel Cooperative. You can get more info at the website, GoBiodiesel.org. We're about 6 weeks from having a processor that will be capable of producing up to several hundred gallons of biodiesel per week.
Since we're a cooperative and a new one at that, there are opportunities in all aspects of biodiesel: sales/marketing, engineering/processor design, oil collection, administrative stuff, etc. Whatever floats your boat (or drives your car).
Exocet Industries - Taking over the world, one computer at a
The headline is misleading and the equivalent of saying that hydrogen and oxygen can be made into beer, neglecting to mention that they are first combined to make water, then used in the traditional manner to make beer.
Articles like this (the original, not /.) make me shake my head in disgust. The production of the methanol from the hog waste has to stand on its own against the more efficient production of methanol from natural gas sources. I doubt it can.
Disclaimer: I have a vested interest in biodiesel and this article raises my blood pressure. Go to www.biodiesel.org to learn about what biodiesel is or is not.
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dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
Not to flame, but you haven't done any homework in this area, have you? Fortunately I (and many others) have.
i odiesel.pdf)
...Which means that biodiesel can be produced from vegetables grown locally - just about anywhere people live.
What we need less of, MUCH less of, is gasoline and gasoline engines.
I can list off more benefits of biodiesel than there is space for this comment. So I'll stick to just the highlights:
(From http://www.epa.gov/otaq/consumer/fuels/altfuels/b
- Use of 100% biodiesel will reduce CO2 emissions (when compared to regular diesel) by 50 percent
- Use of 100% biodiesel will reduce particulate emissions by 70% when compared to regular diesel).
- Again, use of 100% biodiesel will reduce Total Hydrocarbon (THC on your DEQ test results) emissions by 40% compared to regular diesel.
- 100% reduction in sulfate emissions when using 100% biodiesel!
"Other" benefits:
- Biodiesel is produced, distributed and locally used. Don't want a war in some middle eastern country with people you've never met? A way to avoid such conflicts is to be self-reliant in terms of fuel.
- Biodiesel can be produced from damn near any vegetable oil you can think of. See: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html
- Biodiesel can be produced from waste vegetable oil. This helps to "close the loop", meaning that that WVO doesn't end up in a landfill.
- Biodiesel represents a "closed carbon cycle". Regular diesel and gasoline come from oil, which has been safely buried in the ground for millions of years. When it comes up and we burn it, we're adding CO2. When Biodiesel is burned, since it came from living plants or animals it doesn't represent an increase in CO2 - just a redistribution.
- Use of biodiesel requires zero modifications to a late model diesel vehicle and only minor upgrades of fuel lines and other rubber bits to older diesel vehicles.
I could go on and on, but I won't. Any benefit you can think of for regular gasoline or diesel, biodiesel will trump. And biodiesel is available RIGHT NOW, as opposed to hydrogen-based fuels cells or other good-idea-but-not-yet-practical green technologies.
Exocet Industries - Taking over the world, one computer at a
biodiesel is just so derived from vegetable products OR animal fats.
From the very top of link of a google search using searchword biodiesel:
http://www.biodiesel.org/ (catchy url, yes?)
What is biodiesel?
Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.
How is biodiesel made?
Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products -- methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerin (a valuable byproduct usually sold to be used in soaps and other products).
Is Biodiesel the same thing as raw vegetable oil?
No! Fuel-grade biodiesel must be produced to strict industry specifications (ASTM D6751) in order to insure proper performance. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments. Biodiesel that meets ASTM D6751 and is legally registered with the Environmental Protection Agency is a legal motor fuel for sale and distribution. Raw vegetable oil cannot meet biodiesel fuel specifications, it is not registered with the EPA, and it is not a legal motor fuel.
For entities seeking to adopt a definition of biodiesel for purposes such as federal or state statute, state or national divisions of weights and measures, or for any other purpose, the official definition consistent with other federal and state laws and Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) guidelines is as follows:
OFFICIAL DEFINITION
Biodiesel is defined as mono-alkyl esters of long chain fatty acids derived from vegetable oils or animal fats which conform to ASTM D6751 specifications for use in diesel engines. Biodiesel refers to the pure fuel before blending with diesel fuel. Biodiesel blends are denoted as, "BXX" with "XX" representing the percentage of biodiesel contained in the blend (ie: B20 is 20% biodiesel, 80% petroleum diesel).
and so on, and etc....
I don't know how to code, but alternate energy is a hobby of mine.