Biodiesel. Why dont we use it?

I am currently watching a 2 hour movie on youtube right now. Called "Fuel"


Biodiesel starts at 6:50 in the movie.

In the movie, Jock Tickell started explaining about "Biodiesel" and how it can be used to power cars.
Biodiesel can be made out of only Vegetable oil and only a few other ingredients. But i was wondering, if it is so easy, why isn't anybody making this a big deal? Shouldn't somebody start making a Biodiesel industry and sell that in tanks rather then diesel fuel.

And i was also wondering why are government isn't doing anything, we only have 1 planet, and obviously they are not getting that.

Food shortages are caused by bio fuel production due to the amount of land that has to be turned over for its production.

reply to post by christina-66


Wouldn't that be less of a problem then pollution? There could be biodiesel farms.

because you still need to grow the vegetables that the oil comes from.. generally bio diesel is used vegetable oil.

My friend is an ex pat living in Mexico and he converted his truck to run off of the used frying oil from the restaurants. Normally, they pay to have it disposed of so he made a deal to pick it up on Mondays. He converts it, or whatever you have to do to it, in his garage. He did the conversion himself for a couple grand I think and he hasn't paid for gas in a couple of years.

I work for the city and county of denver and we use it in all of our diesel truck fleet. Thats over 300 vehicles. We have been using it for about 6 years now.

reply to post by lellomackin


That's what the guy in the video did.

Because hydrogen is the way of the future//

McDonalds has been using bio diesel in certain markets for years. Not sure if they are implementing it in the US though. So far, the UK, Austria and the UAE converting the recycled fry oil to biodiesel to fuel its delivery fleet. The same trucks that deliver the food also pump the fry oil to be delivered to the refinery. Makes sense.

I think we'll see it in commercial fleets first. Who knows? It probably makes to much sense ...

Originally posted by Nightstalker44
reply to post by christina-66

 

Wouldn't that be less of a problem then pollution? There could be biodiesel farms.

its a great idea but in reality it wouldnt work.. the amount of farms needed to supply the amount of vehicles we have would be unbelievable.. in a world full of food shortages it wouldnt be ethical..

anyway we can make vehicles that run on water but the big oil companies wont allow it to happen, they only allow solutions which are not really feesable..

My friend actually posted videos of him doing the process on his facebook page so it was cool to see someone I know doing it. He says his truck smells like french fries, lol.

Originally posted by AllUrChips
I work for the city and county of denver and we use it in all of our diesel truck fleet. Thats over 300 vehicles. We have been using it for about 6 years now.

Where does your truck fleet get the oil from? If it is possible to get enough to fill 300 trucks regularly, then if there was a bigger corporation doing the oil farming then that would be enough to fill a big amount of cars.

reply to post by Misterlondon


Hasn't a engine that runs on water already been made? Is there some sort of company that sells green engines and green fuel like water? I'm going to research that, if there isn't then there really should be. we don't need to shut down oil company's, we just need to make green things BIGGER (and more cheap, everybody likes cheap things
:lol.

Originally posted by Nightstalker44

Originally posted by AllUrChips
I work for the city and county of denver and we use it in all of our diesel truck fleet. Thats over 300 vehicles. We have been using it for about 6 years now.

Where does your truck fleet get the oil from? If it is possible to get enough to fill 300 trucks regularly, then if there was a bigger corporation doing the oil farming then that would be enough to fill a big amount of cars.

To tell you the thruth im not sure where they get it but also have a friend thats works in a surrounding suburb and that city uses it as well. You know the US has already tried this alternative veggie source and it put quite the crunch on the worlds corn supply. E-85 is a corn fuel and now were paying the price because all the corn is going to that and not on peoples plates like it should. We have oil already, maybe we shoul grow food to feed people with again just a thought anyway

Originally posted by Nightstalker44
reply to post by Misterlondon

 

Hasn't a engine that runs on water already been made? Is there some sort of company that sells green engines and green fuel like water? I'm going to research that, if there isn't then there really should be. we don't need to shut down oil company's, we just need to make green things BIGGER (and more cheap, everybody likes cheap things
:lol

.

everybody but the government

Alright, I guess i'm starting to get why it isn't being done. The guy in the movie just made it sound like such a great idea but didn't explain all this stuff you guys are telling me here. I'm still interested in that water oil, it should be made and released....now.

I didnt watch the video, so sorry if any of my information was already mentioned.
It is a good idea, but not on a massive scale in my opinion (like nationwide truckers). My girlfriends parents own a restaurant and have amassed quite a bit of grease that I could use. I would like to get a diesel, but funds are tight now... But I see a lot of small groupds of people doing this, and thats where it makes the most sense. A lot of grease is discarded, so those that have access to waste grease should take advantage of that, instead of relying on the production of more grease, for numerous reasons stated above.
Anyway, the main PROBLEM with biodiesel is, that in temperatures under 50 degrees F, the biodiesel turns to sludge and cant burn properly. This requires a mixture of diesel and biodiesel... however, in the winter, forget using biodiesel altogether, at least in Ohio where I live. Even in the summer months, it is still advised to use roughly 30 percent diesel, but some people run straight biodiesel if its warm enough.
I know of a few people around here who do use it, and even sell it to friends, Ive heard 10 bucks a gallon, which grants a nice profit, people buy it because its a very good gum and tarnish solvent for your fuel system.
On average it costs less than a dollar per gallon to make, and is far better for your engine and fuel system as it cleans it out, where just diesel gunks it up. You give up about 5-10 percent fuel economy though. But with the savings and benefits, its well worth it.
Its also very hazardous to make yourself, as one of the ingredients in doing so is lye and other chemicals.

Please do not be confused with using biodiesel and running straight grease with the conversion kit. Personally Im a bigger fan of biodiesel because those conversion kits Ive checked, are over 1000 bucks.

We have a bio diesel bus service round here - you can pay for your fare with cash or some old vegetable oil (1ltr usually). It's useful and great marketing for the bus co. - but it is NOT the answer en masse for the reason I stated above. I'm sorry I just don't eat enough french fries to run my car.

Biodiesel is not used in a majority of motor vehicles because no one wants to rape the top soil to drive their car. It is bad enough to find that some gasoline filling stations use as much as 15% ethanol, of which nearly all is produced from corn.

Modern commercial ethanol use began when California regulatory entities decided that methyl tert-butyl-ether (MTBE) had to be taken out of gasoliin blends. California has the second largest refining and processing capacity behind Texas. So once California mandated MTBE's be taken out other refineries across the country naturally went along, including New York.

en.wikipedia.org...

MTBE removal from groundwater and soil contamination in the U.S. is estimated to cost from $1 billion[13] to $30 billion,[14] including removing the compound from aquifers and municipal water supplies and replacing leaky underground oil tanks. In one case, the cost to oil companies to clean up the MTBE in wells belonging to Santa Monica is estimated to exceed $200 million.[15] In another case, the City of New York estimated a $250 million cost for cleanup of a single wellfield in Queens, NY.[16]

The demand to replace MTBE is the most significant market for food derived fuel - biofuel. There was a lot of hoopla years ago made about biofuels. There were some farmers and organizations that supported biofuels because the increase in food prices would mean increase in revenue, subsidies and other government help (farming ain't exactly self-suffecient).

If I remember correctly some gasoline refiners in 1990's experimented with ethanol blends but they began causing vapor lock (water in the fuel line). In fact, the vapor lock problem was one of the biggest hurdles in blending such large quantities of ethanol in gasoline. I guess 10 years ago someone found a way to get past that problem.

So, biodiesel, why don't we use it? Because I'd rather eat.

Soaring Price of Used Grease Attracts Thieves

Grease prices have nearly quadrupled since 2006

The high price of food and fuel has made a valuable commodity out of an unexpected resource: the price of used vegetable oil from restaurant fryers is so high that people are stealing it.

Just ask grease truck driver Benjamin Dorsey. He picks up used fryer oil for Valley Proteins in Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C.

These days, when Dorsey drives behind a restaurant to empty one of the company's big metal containers for used grease, he’ll often find someone has beat him to it.

Of 15 scheduled stops on a recent morning, four had been hit by thieves.

"If you don't pick up any grease, the company doesn't make any money," Dorsey says. "Other people are taking from you."