Has their been a biodiesel thread lately. I am extremely passionate about B100, and love to talk about it. http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=53732
In Davis CA, the local bus company (Unitrans) is student run with buses owned by the University of Cal.. Right now, both Unitrans and the regular University fleet is somewhere in the process of converting from petro-diesel to biodiesel? I think they are using BD15. There have been some rumors that Unitrans has power-loss problems, but that is attributed to a special low-sulphur formulation.
I'm a pretty vocal opponent of using virgin seed oil to fuel an automobile. I don't advocate biodiesel as a 'solution'. If there were a solution it would be more along the lines of get rid of the cars. I think the the idea that we can take a waste product and turn it into power is what drives me. Reduced emissions buses are great, but the mainstream biodiesel movement cannot continue to grow at the rate it has been, or it's going to lead to food being taken from people's mouths and put into our fueltanks. We should harvest from the land to sustain ourselves, not to fuel our indulgences. If all the arable land in this country were converted to soybean and canola crops for our fuel, we'd still fall far short of our needs. It makes you think about the millions of millions of gallons of fuel we're talking about that gets burnt in this country. Biodiesel, for me, is a way to get by until something better comes along, and I embrace it as a symbol of self-sufficiency, and compassionate ecology. The biodiesel that Monsanto sells, using Round-up pesticide (which works by killing EVERYTHING in it's path )and genetically engineered Round-Up Ready soybeans (which were engineered to be the only thing in a field to survive Round-UP) is not akin at all the fuel that we can make ourselves in our garage using a waste product we got for free. It's apples and Oranges, and the oranges are rotten.
my mommy drives a biodiesel car and we love it. It has a great engine too I drove it over 100 miles today and the engine noise didn't bug me at all. It's alomst as fast as a highest horse power v6 and it's so much better on gas. I only used 1/4 of a tank today if even that.
I believe that we would only need about six to eight percent of the land in the entire United States to produce the necessary crops needed for biomass. As such, I think that we can still have sufficient farmland left over to feed the entire US population and have food available for export as well. One thing to remember is that hemp grown for industrial purposes has been an excellent source for fuel and other products and it can be grown in marginal growing environments where other crops would be more vulnerable. The thing is we must get the oil companies off corporate welfare. I think that their hindrances have prevented biofuel from progressing further than it should have. www.jackherer.com www.hempcar.org In response to 'getting rid of cars,' I don't see this happening anytime soon, if ever. The best that would likely happen is that we need to create incentives for folks to live in the cities, so long as their lifestyle can accomodate it. Cities need to be made more livable and safe. In doing so, many people would be less likely to own multiple vehicles as the public transportation system could meet the needs for most of their travel needs. I'm very suspicious of companies like Monsanto. This is another example of corporate welfare at work.
Many people are also switching to biodiesel to heat their homes. it has many other uses besides fuel for a car. most people don't have any trouble making the switch. sorry...just had to throw that in
Methane from anaerobic digestion chambers is also a good means of turning waste into energy. In addition, the methane can be used to create fuel cells and fuel cells are one of the more efficient forms of energy available. humandraydel
