Chevronbuysbiodiesel stake
Biodiesl is gaining more attention these days as crude hovers around $70.00 a barrel. Chevron announced they purchased 22% of a Biodiesel firm in Houston TX. A drop in the bucket certainly for the likes of Chevron, I just hope their motives are in the right place. Output from the Biodiesel plant that will process soy beans and other agricultural products is expected to be 20,000 gallons of Biodiesel fuel a year with a total capacity of 100,000 gallons.
Hog sewage has always been the bane of hog farmers and their neighbors, ever since there have been hog farmers. Overflow from pig-poo-pools have created enviormental devastation that would make the Exxon Valdez disaster seem like a glass of spilled milk. What's worse, who has the stomach to clean that up? "Well," some enterprising sorts have figured out a way to make crude from hog poo. Only in America, where good ol'e Yankee engineering turns crap into fuel for the old 55 Chevy! I'll try to learn as much as I can on this topic for future blogs. Right now commodity traders are bidding "pork bellies" all over the US. "I have to wonder," what part of that critter they will be yelling in the trading pits if this new product goes to market?
Well, it's been said, necessity is the "mother of invention". And speaking of invention, I watched "Mythbusters" the other night. They tested a few fuel saving devices on National TV. They tested the magnet on the fuel line device, didn't work. They tried acetone as an additive, worse mileage. They tried this fuel saving carb, worse mileage. They tried a hydrogen producing product which didn't appear to work either. But, I have to say all the hydrogen producing devices I've seen are only designed to work in concert with gasoline or deisel providing a more combustible air fuel mix reducing the amount of liquid fuel needed.
They picked up some restaurant cooking grease and filtered it. They ran some regular diesel through a Mercedes and it ran as usual getting an impressive 33 mpg. They then ran some straight filtered but unprocessed grease or fryer oil. It ran just fine but registered about 30 mpg. Remember, there are some very known issues with straight fryer grease. At room temperature it appears fine. Cool it down and it can develop other unwelcome properties. Read post.
More later.
Hog sewage has always been the bane of hog farmers and their neighbors, ever since there have been hog farmers. Overflow from pig-poo-pools have created enviormental devastation that would make the Exxon Valdez disaster seem like a glass of spilled milk. What's worse, who has the stomach to clean that up? "Well," some enterprising sorts have figured out a way to make crude from hog poo. Only in America, where good ol'e Yankee engineering turns crap into fuel for the old 55 Chevy! I'll try to learn as much as I can on this topic for future blogs. Right now commodity traders are bidding "pork bellies" all over the US. "I have to wonder," what part of that critter they will be yelling in the trading pits if this new product goes to market?
Well, it's been said, necessity is the "mother of invention". And speaking of invention, I watched "Mythbusters" the other night. They tested a few fuel saving devices on National TV. They tested the magnet on the fuel line device, didn't work. They tried acetone as an additive, worse mileage. They tried this fuel saving carb, worse mileage. They tried a hydrogen producing product which didn't appear to work either. But, I have to say all the hydrogen producing devices I've seen are only designed to work in concert with gasoline or deisel providing a more combustible air fuel mix reducing the amount of liquid fuel needed.
They picked up some restaurant cooking grease and filtered it. They ran some regular diesel through a Mercedes and it ran as usual getting an impressive 33 mpg. They then ran some straight filtered but unprocessed grease or fryer oil. It ran just fine but registered about 30 mpg. Remember, there are some very known issues with straight fryer grease. At room temperature it appears fine. Cool it down and it can develop other unwelcome properties. Read post.
More later.
posted by suntango at 4:05 PM
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