Around The Country Without Gasoline

IronChefMorimoto writes "Autoweek has an interesting write up on an Australian man's 16K mile trek around the United States using anything but gasoline to power his variety of alternative fuel vehicles. Featured are bio-diesel Hummers and RVs, a solar-powered canoe, and an excrement-powered scooter." Note that if your car generates electricity, you could conceivably make a few bucks selling juice to the grid at peak hours.

Comments

Not so simple...

[Fux the Penguin]

I've driven and worked on passenger car diesels exclusively for the past ten years. They're robust and reliable, but you can't just fuel them on anything. They run terribly on gasoline!

The most critical part of the diesel is the fuel pump and injectors. They run at 3000-5000 psi with very low volume per stroke, so leakage cannot be tolerated. The fuel has to be filtered extremely well (sub micron). My worry with biodiesel is that it might plug filters due to microbial growth [always a problem in diesel], or the vegatable oil hydrolyze into organic acid plus glycerol. The organic acids will cause corrosion of the injector pump plungers and injector tips. Not good at all. The fuel will also have different rubber swell characteristics, so you may get fuel leaks. I'd try this first on a imetal-to-metal Mercedes with simple to replace rubber rather than a Peugeot or VW with a fuel-lubricated pump and that main O ring soaking in fuel.

I expect vegatable oil could be made to work with additives: a biostat, acid neutralizer plus seal swell control. But it would have to remain a separate product becauase petroleum oil and vegatable oils aren't miscible. If you wanted a blend, you'd need an emulsifier, and the results might be too viscous.

Re:Not so simple...

[CapsaicinBoy]

"But it would have to remain a separate product becauase petroleum oil and vegatable oils aren't miscible. "

Except that biodiesel *isn't* vegetable oil. It is a fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) *made* from vegetable oil. Not the same thing.

I 'splash-blend' biodiesel and petro diesel in my TDI all the time. Pour 5 gallons of B100 into the tank and then top off the rest of the tank with petrodiesel. This is standard practice in the BD community.

And besides, then I get to wear one of these neato t-shirts.

http://www.cafeshops.com/renewablewear/338613

pedestrian czar needed

[SethJohnson]

Here in Austin, TX, the city wanted to hire a pedestrian czar for $30k a year. This individual would review all city development plans to ensure that pedestrian and bike needs are considered. A bunch of SUV-driving tax-obsessed voters complained and now the work is done on an ad-hoc basis by volunteers.

The reality is that in America, our cities are designed to be too dependent on automobiles. If something should happen to the Saudi Royal Family, and our access to oil is lost, America is going to be shit out of luck.

SOLUTION:Support denser development instead of sprawl. Support mass transit systems such as light rail. Reduce our dependence on petroleum.