*mope*
Watching The Daily Show – Indecision 2004 last night did not decrease my general cynicism and despair. Surprise.
Neither did listening to NPR this morning. A chemist has been running his vehicles for 10 years on home-made biodiesel, made from the used vegetable oil of community restaurants, and he is now producing the machines for other groups to do the same. It requires no retro-fitting of vehicles (I presume they must be diesel cars), and apparently costs 1.40 a gallon to produce. What. The. Fuck. People.
It apparently has a negative CO2 impact, considering the plants grown to create biodiesel use up 2/3 more CO2 than the biodiesel creates.
We’re destined for doom, and it’s all because no one can see beyond their short-sighted, short-term self-interest, personal or corporate. At the end of the day, blame for marketing blockades and legal battles to prevent low-cost alternatives to a hellish future can’t be blamed on corporations. Decisions for a corporation aren’t made by AI computers. They’re made by people. Human beings with names and addresses, who make decisions based on their own perceived bottom line.
I’m sick of hearing that some group or another has made some horrifying decision. Reporters should insist on accountability by determining who has the ultimate responsibility for particular actions in government and
corporate bodies.
Bleh. Today, I could really dig a firehose that spits lava.
for economies of scale.
The diesel engine was orignally designed to run off of peanut oil.
The only problem with making your own, is that the gubment may crack down on people for making their own fuel, and not paying taxes on it (some of those taxes go back into fixing the roads).
http://www.biodiesel.org/
Aside from needing to add a little bit of regular diesel into the mix during the winter, most new engines can run off of “biodiesel.”
Blame peoples greed for $$ as the reason we’re still not switching from oil.
I know, disgusting isn’t it. We’ve contemplated biodiesel, and CJ even looked at diesel cars last year when he got a new one. Next year, when I get a newer car (I have to to cart this table about) we’re going to look into the biodiesel options again, the only problem is making it, or finding a source. But a $1.40, I’d being willing to buy it somewhere.
Also, yeah, people suck. I’m not sure when or how money became more important than continued quality of life, but I think it had something to do with the Industrial Revolution, some 100 odd years ago. But that might just be my opinion…
You don’t have to do anything special to a diesel car to run biodiesel. If anything, you may have to top it off with a little petroleum diesel to keep it running smoothly. Realize that the diesel engine will substantially increase the initial cost of the vehicle. There are diesel-electric hybrids on the drawing board, but the simultaneous cost of using hybrid technology and a diesel engine might very well double the cost of a car that is typically sold to people who are looking to economize. If you’re interested in reducing emissions and economizing on fuel costs, you might also consider one of the gasoline hybrid electric vehicles.
We’re aware of the initial cost – we’re planning on buying used, with any luck, though may purchase a gasoline hybrid is it works out better.
My next car will be biodiesel or a hybrid. The trick is finding one that will hold my business stuff – table, samples, etc.
We’re hoping, well, I am anyway, that Saturn churns out a hybrid soon, and I can get a wagon or VUE hybrid. It’ll mean a new car purchase at time when ideally we don’t want one, but it might be worth it for the mental and emotional relief I’d feel.
Try the newly released Jeep Liberty diesel or the Volkswagen Passat. From ConsumerReports.org:
*sings the Doom song from Invader Zim*
and me without a Gir icon…so instead I give you a picture of a cute girl in a Gir t-shirt and a wav file of the Doom song.
I heard part of that biodiesel program, too. Realize that part of his math depends on the free supply of cooking oil, and there’s only so much of that around. Besides that, it’s often difficult legally speaking to setup a biodiesel processing plant. Even though biodiesel is basically harmless to spill and nonvolatile to produce, local and state laws often treat small biodiesel plants the same as highly volatile petroleum refineries. And even if we converted all of the U.S.’s farmland into biodiesel-producing crops, it would still be less than a tenth of the current supply. It’s true that this chemist has achieved something of a breakthrough in the cost of production; it’s usually more expensive to produce biodiesel than to buy petroleum diesel at the pump. However, petroleum diesel is even cheaper to produce, but taxes, transportation, and supply/demand raise the final prices to what you see at the pump. Adding these costs to biodiesel would still deliver biodiesel at the pump more expensive than petroleum diesel. If biodiesel from algae proves feasible, algae farming could (maybe, possibly) replace petroleum diesel on a large scale.
Algae? I didn’t know that was an option being explored. Fascinating.
Hemp too
http://www.hempcar.org/
Yeah, but hemp isn’t nearly as cheap as algae would be, as algae don’t need to waste food energy on making stalks and seeds. Algae can be cultivated more intensely, too.
Right now biodiesel just isn’t a valid mass-market option; you just can’t even come close yet to the final price of petroleum-based diesel fuel as Clayfoot pointed out. You also have to factor in the increased particulate and NOx emissions; diesel engines are “smoggier” than 4 stroke engines. (But not nearly as smoggy as 2 strokes, if I remember correctly.) However, the fuel economy is much greater than gasoline engines of any stripe… dunno how this will balance overall.
— Steve points out that early experiments with diesel engines even tried coal dust as a fuel; let’s all celebrate the demise of that brilliant idea.
ooo algae! I hadnt thought of that. I had pretty much writen of biodiesel as a viable option for large scale replacement of gasoline simply on how much biomass would be nessicary. But algae farms is a great idea.
You know, I have no problem paying more for biodiesel. My peace of mind can come at a high price, that’s fine with me. In fact, I have little issue paying what we do at the pump now for petroleum – because I pray it effects driving habits for those who drive gas guzzlers, though I’m sincerely conerned as to what will be done with all the old cars…
Algae, how cool.
[autumn is suddenly aware how much more research she needs to do on the topic, once the current situations have passed]
In addition to the previously mentioned biodiesel.org, there’s lots more good stuff at Wikipedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodiesel
My private nightmare: a biodiesel Cadillac Escalade.
— Steve thinks that it’d be zero-sum at best.
Oh, c’mon.
Even the four-part correspondent harmony?
Man! I was expecting them to do something goofy, but that was good for… y’know, correspondents!
Could barely hear Samantha Bee, though.
*nod* I watched the center-extras, and I watched Samantha Bee’s extras (witha nd without commentary), but the others will have to wait, it was already way late when I stopped.
I sincerely wish Mr. Black had a larger role in the whole thing, or even just in the extras. Of course he’s become a big-name comedian now, and some of his stuff just doesn’t fly like the rest, but he’s good at his particular style, and I just can’t get enough of that weird finger-jab-goes-awry-to-the-left thing.
I LURVE Lewis Black.
But not in the way I love Jon Stewart.
Another viable alternative (that I’ve heard of) involves a little bit of do-it-yourselfer initiative, and some money, but I am thinking it will pay off in the long run. You see, I heard about (and can probably find a link to) a group of guys who were modifying hybrid vehicles to be primarily electric, rather than vice versa. They upgraded the batteries, added the charging system, and I think played with the control strategies (but maybe not). The result was a vehicle that could go for some crazy amount of time (3 months, maybe) without needing to be fueled.
I guess they could get the typical electric-car 20 to 30 mph before the batteries even got low enough to require the engine to start. For me, at least, that is the equivalent of getting to work and back, all without ever starting the gasoline engine.
I really like* the hybrids that are out there, and looking at demand vs. supply, everybody else does too. It’s a beautiful thing.
*Note: the idea and the fuel economy, for the most part, the styling is lacking that certain something. When the time comes, though, the hybrid part of the technology will probably influence me more than the styling, and I would guess that is what companies count on.
One thing that (or so I’ve heard from those in the know) a lot of consumers are missing with the hybrids is that by merely purchasing the hybrid vehicle, you’re not going to see that instant 20 mpg jump in fuel economy. The posted numbers (as generated by the gov’t tests) also require a change in the average American driving style. You really need to take advantage of that regenerative braking, and smoother (read: slower) accelerations to maximize your fuel economy. So, if your hybrid doesn’t give you that boost, don’t return it for warranty, check your driving style.
I’ve done a fair amount of research into biodiesel, and it’s totally feasible. Not quite sure about the farmland needed to produce 18 million barrels a day, but even a 1% market penetration is huge considering our current usage of petroleum is so astronomical.
If anyone wants to put their money where their mouth is (actually, a couple thousand someones is what it would take) shoot me $100, and I’ll make it happen in Lansing, MI. Guaranteed. We’ll produce it, do conversions, and sell it at a pump. I believe that any dent is better than none…but I haven’t seen enough people who were actually willing to invest in the technology *BEFORE* it’s mainstream. Not sure it would ever be mainstream anyway, but it sure beats the hell out of hydrogen.
Any takers?