Thought I'd better go ahead and make a post about biodiesel, since that's what I came here to do.
And more specifically...the necessity of testing fuel (yes, a plug for Fleet Fuel Testing, but a worthwhile one).
In Ashland, Oregon, where I live, there seems to be a big underground culture of home fuel brewing. Which is awesome. Depending on the raw materials you're using, you end up with a wonderful, renewable fuel for 70 cents to $1.50 a gallon. And this fuel is an excellent solvent, so it helps clean your engine and lines at the same time. Some studies even show it to out-perform diesel #2 in certain situations. And all you need to create it are a few simple tools and some time and experimentation.
However...
...there is a chance that something could be a little off in your brewing. And before you put the fuel to use, you need to be sure that it's not going to damage your engine. That's why testing is so important. Gasoline and Diesel fuels are kept in spec by tests done at refineries. They've mastered the art of making fuels that are clean and engine-ready...and not biodegradable (although Diesel is susceptible to water and microbial contamination). So why shouldn't we perform simple tests on our home-brews and local products? It's a small price to pay for reliable fuel performance.
The other reason that testing is so important (and I know I've gone off about this before) is that making sure that Biodiesel is in specification helps build a good reputation for Biofuel. There are, in my opinion, two main reasons why this alternative fuel has not been explored more:
1) Many people assume that the oil required to process Biodiesel must come from crops that need to be grown on thousands of acres of land that we need desperately for food crop production.
2) People have seen less-than-perfect Biodiesel destroy engines.
The first problems can be addressed with simple facts: Biodiesel can be produced from many different kinds of oil crops (including algae, which reproduces at a remarkable rate and can be grown in standing vertical tanks), as well as from waste oil, which is normally just thrown out.
The second problem will take some more doing. We are so used to filling up at the pump, letting cars sit for weeks at a time, being able to drive with ease in all weather without regard to the condition of our fuel. This is a huge benefit of gasoline -- you just don't have to worry about it. It's so convenient. But Biodiesel is a way of life. You make modifications to your schedule to get out to that pump that's ten miles down the road. You bring 5 gallon containers with you to fill up, and they're damn heavy to lift (*benefit: biodiesel can be stored almost anywhere since it's far less volatile than gasoline). You end up spending extra money on the fuel (unless you're home-brewing), because although it's relatively easy and inexpensive to produce, it's still so difficult to market. And you pay a little extra to test it, for your own sake, and for the sake of the fuel itself.
But I take pride in all of this. The inconveniences amount to a small sacrifice that I'm willing to make for the sake of...yes...the planet.
--Nell
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Oregon. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Theater/Travel
Just got back from Portland and seeing The Seafarer at Artists' Repertory Theatre -- pretty exciting play.
I am gearing up for a two-month trip to Cincinnati Playhouse to do a play of me own: The Foreigner, by Larry Shue. I am GUNNING to get there...luckily, Fleet Fuel Testing has been cool with this prolonged absence from the start. I'll continue to work by computer, phone and snail mail from Cincinnati. I've never been there. Sometimes I'm startled by the sheer size and diversity of this country. Really, how can one entity expect to govern it all? We are so different, our land is so different. When the constitution was written, we hadn't even acquired much of the territory that now makes up the US. We weren't commonly mixing races. We weren't so many. How can those old words still stand? But they do...
Which brings me to the airing-out of some guilt here: I fly on commercial airlines frequently. I wish that I planned better, that I had the fortitude and patience to work a 3-5 day train ride into my schedule. That's another big change I'm going to make. Auto or Train only. And it's funny: I dont' even like flying anymore. I necessarily had to travel through Kennedy airport several times right after 9/11. I fell prey to the hysteria. It was SO tense. And then, on top of that, my father mentioned in some casual conversation that smoke, flames and loud noises are indications of major trouble mid-flight. Which forever destroyed my peace of mind. And now we see just how threatening geese are above the Hudson river. My little body shouldn't be flitting around thousands of miles up in the air anyway. 'Sunnatural, I say, 'sunnatural!
But on to renewable news: I remembered reading about solar paint in one of my grandfather's science magazines awhile back (I can't remember which one). Here's a little article that I found at New Scientist online. It's dated March 2008. At that point, the companies involved were postulating that a commercial version would be available in 2.5 years...which means that in some cases, expensive solar panels may not be necessary (its application would be probably be with very large buildings). I originally thought that conventional photovoltaic cells would somehow be involved in solar paint...this article sets me straight. Googling around, I find that people have been talking about this for several years. This makes me think that the technology is still a quite ways off from being affordable and practical for most companies (the article above even admits that dye-based solar cells are less efficient than their traditional PV counterparts). But if it does happen, and an effective, productive solar cell can be worked into a paintable liquid -- the possibilities seem limitless. And in any case, it's an imaginative, exciting idea.
--Nellamity
I am gearing up for a two-month trip to Cincinnati Playhouse to do a play of me own: The Foreigner, by Larry Shue. I am GUNNING to get there...luckily, Fleet Fuel Testing has been cool with this prolonged absence from the start. I'll continue to work by computer, phone and snail mail from Cincinnati. I've never been there. Sometimes I'm startled by the sheer size and diversity of this country. Really, how can one entity expect to govern it all? We are so different, our land is so different. When the constitution was written, we hadn't even acquired much of the territory that now makes up the US. We weren't commonly mixing races. We weren't so many. How can those old words still stand? But they do...
Which brings me to the airing-out of some guilt here: I fly on commercial airlines frequently. I wish that I planned better, that I had the fortitude and patience to work a 3-5 day train ride into my schedule. That's another big change I'm going to make. Auto or Train only. And it's funny: I dont' even like flying anymore. I necessarily had to travel through Kennedy airport several times right after 9/11. I fell prey to the hysteria. It was SO tense. And then, on top of that, my father mentioned in some casual conversation that smoke, flames and loud noises are indications of major trouble mid-flight. Which forever destroyed my peace of mind. And now we see just how threatening geese are above the Hudson river. My little body shouldn't be flitting around thousands of miles up in the air anyway. 'Sunnatural, I say, 'sunnatural!
But on to renewable news: I remembered reading about solar paint in one of my grandfather's science magazines awhile back (I can't remember which one). Here's a little article that I found at New Scientist online. It's dated March 2008. At that point, the companies involved were postulating that a commercial version would be available in 2.5 years...which means that in some cases, expensive solar panels may not be necessary (its application would be probably be with very large buildings). I originally thought that conventional photovoltaic cells would somehow be involved in solar paint...this article sets me straight. Googling around, I find that people have been talking about this for several years. This makes me think that the technology is still a quite ways off from being affordable and practical for most companies (the article above even admits that dye-based solar cells are less efficient than their traditional PV counterparts). But if it does happen, and an effective, productive solar cell can be worked into a paintable liquid -- the possibilities seem limitless. And in any case, it's an imaginative, exciting idea.
--Nellamity
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
