Hi,

I am from Brisbane, and I was referred to this site by a friend of mine from the Brisbane Photography community.

As I am concerned about the considerable increase in petrol prices, I have given up any hope of them ever returning to normal.

I am looking for advice on what would be the best biodiesel to use for my car. I drive an automatic 1990 Ford Laser Ghia sedan, and I need an alternative energy source for it. Being an environmentalist I naturally want something that is not going to eliminate toxic fumes into the air, and is economically viable.

I would be glad of any help and advice from others on here.

Thanks all.


Dario Western

first of all you start reading foreums and web sites sew you no the basics like you need a diesel car not a petrol one then when you work out how you make biodiesel and you go find a sauce of oil because without the raw material you cant do anything and when you find oil you get a diesel car and all the bits you need to make the stuff.

if you are one of those greenys why would you want to keep putting toxic fumes into the air? i thort you fellas didn't want to do that and the only way that is going to happen is if you walk or ride a bike everywhere and dont fart.

Dario I'm not sure you should have a drivers license, or at least don't drink and surf the net.
And ?what is a Normal? fuel price, in or out? of Peak oil & global OIL Wars.

Hi Dario. Welcome to the forums. And fancy meeting you here . I haven't seen you since confest.

Did you know I drive my car on WVO?

Anyhow, it would be lovely to see you learn about vegie oil conversions. I bought a car to run on WVO. I can tell you though, the fumes aren't much less toxic, though I am yet to see a study confirming this.


Just read the forums and have a think about everything. There are lots of lovely helpful people around.

Viola

Dario,

While you have been admonished by others for your lack of knowledge on this subject, I do not plan to do the same.
This forum is full of information which will help you learn about biofuels, including ethanol, biodiesel and vegetable oil.
Your main need now, is information. The best way of revealing the information you need, is to use Google to search within this domain for the words you choose. With Google you can search for phrases, and do boolean (and,or,not) combinations (eg "biofuel" AND "diesel").

You can run your car on ethanol with some modifications. The biggest problems you will have with ethanol is developing your process to provide a good supply and/or being able to do it legally.
You currently have a car which is using petrol as fuel, and it produces pollution. If you change to a bio-fuelled vehicle, that vehicle will also pollute.
The exhaust emissions of both Spark Ignition (SI) and Compression Ignition (CI) engines are similar for an engine type, regardless of the fuel, but vary significantly depending on the state of tune of the engine.
The big differences in the environmental impact of the fuels, is the carbon source and the energy balance of the fuel production.

In descending order of carbon addition to the atmosphere, the fuels are:

• Waste Vegetable oil - the carbon footprint of the new oil is assigned to the first use (cooking) and processing of dry oil can be done without any additional carbon emissions,
• Biodiesel made from Waste Vegetable Oil - a minimum of around 15% of the carbon emitted is from fossil fuels (methanol from natural gas, electricity from coal or nat'l gas generation),
• Biodiesel made from "first use" animal fats or "new" vegetable oils, I don't have the numbers, but the proportion of the carbon emitted by the production of the animals or new oils, associated with the fat/oil proportion of the feedstock is attached to the biodiesel as well as the carbon from the methanol and the processing,
• Ethanol from high sugar crops (eg sugar cane)
• Ethanol from corn.

Here are some more points to consider:
While there are better sources of carbohydrates from which to make ethanol, these are not in general usage at the moment.
Butanol is a better alcohol than Ethanol, for use in SI engines but is not in commercial production as a vehicle fuel yet.
Algae is a potential source of oils for producing biodiesel, or as straight vegetable oil fuel in a CI engine or jet turbine and can utilise the CO2 emissions of power stations to increase algae production. Again, this is not in commercial usage at the moment, with harvesting being on of the issues to be resolved.
A number of tree based oils are being promoted for biodiesel production, but there is necessarily a long lead time in developing suitable varieties for a particular climate and excluding those which will possibly be invasive.

I hope this helps your quest.
The best advice was provided by Dave:
If you are one of those greenys, why would you want to keep putting toxic fumes into the air? i thought you fellas didn't want to do that and the only way that is going to happen is if you walk or ride a bike everywhere and don't fart.
Walking and riding a bike do not add to the carbon loading of the atmosphere and do not add other pollutants either.