Posted 2005-05-01 1:26 PM (#24552 - in reply to #24549) Subject: RE: Average cost of deisal right now....
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 455 Location: Ontario - east of TO
Originally written by Terri on 2005-05-01 12:55 PM
That's interesting. What ever happened to the gas made out of corn? Ethanol or something like that. There was a station in San Marcos when I went to college, but it was only there for about a year.
There is actually much more ethanol in the US than Canada, but we have it here to - it's basically a fuel additive at this point - not sure how the % will eventually end up. It's getting more popular and the some 06 GM products will actually have a special fuel package for ethanol based fuels - but any vehicle will run on it. Appearently fuels with more ethanol cause the vehicle to run better and get better milage - but here it is like 10 cents more a litre and is only in the high performance fuel (94 octaine only).
Posted 2005-05-01 2:12 PM (#24553 - in reply to #24549) Subject: RE: Average cost of deisal right now....
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Posts: 2689
Originally written by Terri on 2005-05-01 11:55 AM
That's interesting. What ever happened to the gas made out of corn? Ethanol or something like that. There was a station in San Marcos when I went to college, but it was only there for about a year.
It is still being made, both commercially and as "home brew".
Bio diesel and ethanol production are fairly simple processes that you can (literally) learn at the kitchen sink in litre or so sized quantities. When you get the process right increase the scale, think in terms of 2 or 3 55 gallon oil drums with hoses between them in the basement.
Probably the biggest difference is that corn stock is more likely than waste oil to be consistent, so you might be able to drop some testing once you've got the process down. Waste oil is likely to be very different with every batch; how much it has been used, what has been cooked in it, etc., so you need to test every batch at every stage.
There's also a possible issue with the disposal of glycerol (glycerine if/when you process it to become useful), this can be regarded as a co-product, you'd probably want to find a market for it if you were to try making say 1,000 gallons of bio-D a year. The other thing is soap, but if you get it you've gone wrong, there shouldn't be any soap to deal with once you get past the 'kitchen sink scale' of operation.
Posted 2005-05-01 2:18 PM (#24554 - in reply to #24553) Subject: RE: Average cost of deisal right now....
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Posts: 2828 Location: Southern New Mexico
Don't want to make it, I was just wondering what happened to it since I used to buy it. I think the gas mileage was worse, but it was cheaper and wasn't from oil.
Posted 2005-05-01 6:16 PM (#24560 - in reply to #24554) Subject: RE: Average cost of deisal right now....
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Posts: 2689
Originally written by Terri on 2005-05-01 2:18 PM
Don't want to make it, I was just wondering what happened to it since I used to buy it. I think the gas mileage was worse, but it was cheaper and wasn't from oil.
OK, nothing "happened to it", it is still around and doing well.
Expect more interest as {fill in the blank} progresses and mineral oil based products ALL get even more expensive )-:
Average cost of deisal right now....
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