So..........When will Exxon Let me Buy This in the USA??

[greg]

Texas Proud:

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#start

http://dieselblog.net/biodiesel-information/

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Greg Texas Proud: http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html#start http://dieselblog.net/biodiesel-information/

On a quick read... seems like to much trouble for the little you get... if you don't have a process that is more 'hand off'.... then this is not for me...

BTW, where would you get cheap vegtable oil anyhow

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud On a quick read... seems like to much trouble for the little you get... if you don't have a process that is more 'hand off'.... then this is not for me... BTW, where would you get cheap vegtable oil anyhow

There is another way (maybe in those links too, I did not get to look yet). All you do is filter the used cooking oil (from restaurants), fill your tank - no other work to do - to the fuel....

The downside is, you do need to modify the vehicle, but it is pretty simple. A small tank for regular diesel to start and stop on. The main tank holds the cooking oil. The problem is, regular cooking oil is too viscous for use in a regular diesel *until* you warm it up a bit. So they just run the cooking oil through a coil heated by engine coolant. But you do need to start *and* stop when you are switched over to regular diesel, then switch to cooking oil when the car is warmed up, or you will leave the lines full of cooking oil and you won't start.

So, simple, but not so simple. Oh, and it will void your warranty (at least engine and fuel related stuff).

I think it would be better as home heating oil (some links on that in there too).
More info in here, I think -

http://www.biodieselnow.com/default.aspx

edit - or try:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=Google+Search

-ERD50

[greg]

Yep, and if you like the smell of french fries you'll probably think you died and went heaven every time you switch over to the used cooking oil from MacDonald's. And don't forget that you're honor bound to send in any state and Federal fuel tax for home made fuel used on public roads. But if you're from Texas and mostly drive around in a circle in the backyard with the windows rolled down, don't worry about anything except the kerosene on your pants cuffs .

I really do like diesels. The only servicing that I've needed with the Jetta in the first 70K miles have been oil changes and brake light and blinker bulbs that burn out regularly. I'm supposed to have the timing belt replaced soon, but I'll wait for about 90-100K miles on the odometer.

[Texas Proud]

With the new diesel engines, I think it would be better than a gas.... but there are not any being sold today...

I would love to get a diesel HYBRID... now, would that be a good combo?? Maybe diminishing returns... and maybe they can not stop and start like the gas ones can...

[Bimmerbill]

Quote:

I'm supposed to have the timing belt replaced soon, but I'll wait for about 90-100K miles on the odometer.

Don't wait on the timing belt. Do a little reading on www.tdiclub.com if you are not familiar with the site.

New diesels are on the way, 2008 to 2009 model years will be all state compliant.

[greg]

Bimmerbill: Thanks. Wonderful site. I've always assumed that my Jetta wouldn't be hurt (valve damage) if the timing belt broke on the road--at worst a tow job to the dealer/mechanic. But it appears not.

[greg]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud With the new diesel engines, I think it would be better than a gas.... but there are not any being sold today... I would love to get a diesel HYBRID... now, would that be a good combo?? Maybe diminishing returns... and maybe they can not stop and start like the gas ones can...

I suspect we'll have to wait a few years for that one. I've always hoped for the same thing. But I suspect that with the diesel engine significantly heavier than an equivalent gas one, plus the weight of storage batteries and electric motors on the wheels, that the weight of such a vehicle may just be too much--losing a lot of efficiency in the complexity and redundancy of the thing. Maybe lighter batteries and perhaps an aluminum alloy diesel engine may be in the works some day?

I would prefer either a smallish, four cylinder diesel minivan or a smaller (Toyota Tacoma size) four-five cylinder diesel truck with some decent towing capacity--plus decent mileage--as my ONLY or primary vehicle.

[Jarhead*]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bimmerbill Don't wait on the timing belt. Do a little reading on www.tdiclub.com if you are not familiar with the site.

Good advice. Anybody that has experienced a Valve busting Timing belt
break isn't likely to forget the experience.

Not cheap, but well worth it in my opinion.

Our 3 cars each have well over 100,000 miles on them, but the fact that I've replaced the timing belt in all of them gives me some ammunition to counter my wife's idea of reliability.

[TromboneAl]

From an editorial I read today...

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles.

The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

“The acid rain around Sudbury was so bad it destroyed all the plants and the soil slid down off the hillside,” said Canadian Greenpeace energy-coordinator David Martin during an interview with Mail, a British-based newspaper.

All of this would be bad enough in and of itself; however, the journey to make a hybrid doesn’t end there. The nickel produced by this disastrous plant is shipped via massive container ship to the largest nickel refinery in Europe. From there, the nickel hops over to China to produce ‘nickel foam.’ From there, it goes to Japan. Finally, the completed batteries are shipped to the United States, finalizing the around-the-world trip required to produce a single Prius battery. Are these not sounding less and less like environmentally sound cars and more like a farce?

Wait, I haven’t even got to the best part yet.

When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl From an editorial I read today... [url=http://clubs.ccsu.edu/Recorder/editorial/editorial_item.asp?NewsID=188]Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. As already noted, the Prius is partly driven by a battery which contains nickel. The nickel is mined and smelted at a plant in Sudbury, Ontario. This plant has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has used the ‘dead zone’ around the plant to test moon rovers. The area around the plant is devoid of any life for miles. The plant is the source of all the nickel found in a Prius’ battery and Toyota purchases 1,000 tons annually. Dubbed the Superstack, the plague-factory has spread sulfur dioxide across northern Ontario, becoming every environmentalist’s nightmare.

T-Al, I came across a forum discussing that article with the author. Can't find the link now, but the whole article fell apart very quickly under a little inspection.

A few points I recall:

The author *assumes* that the hummer will last 300,000 and the Prius only 100,000 - so everything on the Hummer gets amortized over 3x the lifespan, making everything related to the Prius look 3x worse. Why 300,000 vs 100,000? Because the prius batteries are warranted for 100,000. Hmmm, what is the warranty on a Hummer? Vehicles don't live past their warranty? So, pretty fishy from the get-go.

Next, the author makes a big calculation on the environmental impact of shipping the nickel from Canada to Japan and back to the USA for sale in the car. But, he assumes everything in a Hummer is locally home-grown, w/o any data to back it up.

Third, he focuses on that nickel mine (only a small portion of the nickel produced in that mine goes into Prius batteries) but does no research on any environmental impacts of materials that go into a Hummer. And, obviously, that mine has been in operation longer than Prius has been around.

Does he provide any references or show his calculations for peer review? Nope.

All in all, it is a hatchet job, and done with a pretty dull instrument. The guy just wants to defend his use of a Hummer.

-ERD50