Biofuels

[magenta flame]

I found this to be an exellent site for information. They answered my question "I don't know anything about biofuels" intelligently and politely.

http://www.biofuelsforum.com/


"""Vegetable Oil as fuel:
Simply, crops like Canoila can have their oil pressed out of them and their vegetable oil is liquid energy.

Diesel motors compress an oil/air mixture to the point of combustion, thus converting the energy to motion.
Diesel engines can run on vegetable oil if it is liquid. Many here just filter new or used vegetable oil and use it in their vehicles. The vehicles are modified to stop the vegetable oil from solidifying at low temperatures in the fuel tank, fuel lines, fuel filter and injection pump.

Biodiesel:
Removing glycerine from the vegetable oil molecule makes it more 'runny' extending the range of temperatures where it remains liquid and doesn't solidify. Biodiesel is the name given to vegetable oil that has had its glycerine removed. A diesel vehicle run on Biodiesel doesn't require any modification.

Making Biodiesel is a simple, quick and easy process."""

[Muddypause]

Biofuels have quite a lot of appeal - particularly the fact that you can make some of them in your garden shed with easily available raw materials.

But a lot of us have serious concerns if this stuff becomes more mainstream. It may be theoretically carbon neutral (or at least less carbon unneutral), but put it in the context of sustainability.

The back of my favourite envelope shows that here in the UK we would need 5 times our entire arable farming area to produce enough biofuel on a commercial scale for our current transport needs. If biofuels are to become a serious part of our energy needs it means that huge tracks of - inevitably - debt laden third world countries will be given over to monocultures of cash crops, which the GM companies will be delighted to supply (look how successful capitalism depends upon keeping people poor).

Just look at how easily we have wars and skirmishes over crude oil, and imagine how it will be when the cash-rich nations feel the need to control international biofuel production.

Changing the type of fuel we use may have some short term advantages, but actually it just avoids the issue that we need to grapple with - we have to restructure society to use less.

Much less.

[catalyst]

well put muddy.
theres no avoiding the fact thas as oil runs out we will have to travel less, consume less of everything that we cant grow or make locally... and inevitably there needs to be less of us!!

so, a village or other small community could use a small part of its land to make biofuels, for necessities like ploughing etc
but on a commercial scale so people can still drive to the shops or to work, it aint viable, and is simply burning someone elses food to fuel our lavish travel expectations...

[Smooth Hound]

Biofuels have quite a lot of appeal - particularly the fact that you can make some of them in your garden shed with easily available raw materials.

But a lot of us have serious concerns if this stuff becomes more mainstream. It may be theoretically carbon neutral (or at least less carbon unneutral), but put it in the context of sustainability.

The back of my favourite envelope shows that here in the UK we would need 5 times our entire arable farming area to produce enough biofuel on a commercial scale for our current transport needs. If biofuels are to become a serious part of our energy needs it means that huge tracks of - inevitably - debt laden third world countries will be given over to monocultures of cash crops, which the GM companies will be delighted to supply (look how successful capitalism depends upon keeping people poor).

Just look at how easily we have wars and skirmishes over crude oil, and imagine how it will be when the cash-rich nations feel the need to control international biofuel production.

Changing the type of fuel we use may have some short term advantages, but actually it just avoids the issue that we need to grapple with - we have to restructure society to use less.

Much less.

well said

[circlecross]

particularly depressing edition of ecologist for Spetember has article on how biofuel production is becoming like cocaine - killings over the control of it.

Find a local chippy and open a biofuel station on your front lawn!

(we are still agonizing over the car issue - and looking at Cumbria's pathetic bus/train system is more depressing still!)

[LSP]

Check out these articles. Some overlaps, obviously.

Biofuels for Oil Addicts: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BFOA.php

Biofuels: Biodevastation, Hunger & False Carbon Credits: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BiofuelsBiodeva ... Hunger.php

Biofuels Republic Brazil: http://www.i-sis.org.uk/BiofuelRepublicBrazil.php

[Des]

So... Does anyone here brew their own biodiesel? Encouraged by the success of our early attempts at home-brewed beer and washing detergent*, I've been giving it some thought (more as a way to make good use of a resource which will otherwise be wasted than as a solution to the "big picture" addiction our society has with moving stuff around) and a tip or two would probably be appreciated...

My major concerns at the moment relate to storing and using some pretty hazardous substances (caustic, flammable, poisonous etc) in the same place where our two-year-old is busy pushing back the boundaries of experience. To put that another way: He gets into everything and I'd be worried he might touch something truly nasty...

Is it just a case of reading up the various websites? The only trouble I have with these is that the people who write them all seem to live in ranches and smallholdings with outhouses and the like. Ours is a rather more suburban situation...

So. Hands up who's tried this, and how'd you get on? Worth trying?

*These were two seperate projects, I hasten to stress. The beer doesn't taste soapy, and it doesn't do a great job of shifting stains either...

[Enormous Sage]

It's the Methanol you need that's the nasty stuff, the other ingredients are fairly easy to get hold of.
I've looked at making it myself (live on a farm), but the consequences of accidental Methanol poisoning have put me off. As little as 30ml (ingested) can be fatal, and you can absorb it through the skin.

See http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html for more info.