David, believe it or not, you may have just spared me the added expense of grid tie in light of power outtages in effect shutting down my power plant in deference to the safety of someone who might be working on a powerline (big ole duh design wise, huh?). Looks like I'd be better off independant entirely, with reduced costs to boot. That is, until they invent the proper switch so I can maintain my powerplant and not get some poor lineman killed. Neccesity is the mother of invention.
snorp, biodiesel isn't a crop thats grown for the sole purpose of fuel. Go to the supermarket, buy fresh corn oil for $7 a gallon, it kinda defeats the point of saving on fuel costs lol.
Biodiesel is created from reclaimed waste food oil (McD's french fry oil, chinese food oil, etc) that normally would have gone in the waste stream. Instead of these companies paying for removal of 'haz waste' because municpal waste systems had to special handle it, independant folks show up and take it off their hands for free, a win win win situation for the town, the biz, and these independants. Crudely explained, it's then brewed with lye, to segregate the glycerine and water out of it. those byproducts are now vastly environmentally neutral, the glycerine being soap, even if its a nasty tempora french fry scent.
what remains is biodiesel, which is now an 'extender' for home heating oil, or can be used straight in an old school diesel engine. like marine or truck diesel, it needs an additive meant to serve as an antifreeze to prevent it from jelling at cold temps.
The oil biz in NY- we were mixing 10% biodiesel blended (NYS law limits the blending %, not sure why) in with regular high sulphur oil, the oil company given multiple tax incentives to do so, plus this was like stomping on chopped meat with hamburger helper. we made more product to sell and (the bastards) kept the price the same. the benefits were that it reduced NYS demand for petroleum, brought up our flashpoints, lowered our sulfur content, and they're making more profit (along with the state because taxes are also imposed at point of sale). the downsides are that if the specific gravity (API) were too low, the whole batch had a tendancy to stratify, and if water content not remained after refining it tended to suspend in emulsion form until cold hits it, then it separates.
Raw biodiesel needs to be kept in an insulated tank, tends to be inconsistent in quality (we got huge batches barged into our tanks, from sources all over NJ. It was a collective mix from various sources. One batch flashes at 140f, another flashes at 210) and is succeptable to bacterial blooms the same as home heating oil and low sulfur diesel if it sits around. Bactracides are added, same as with regular fuel, to compensate for this problem if it arises. Most don't know they have a problem until their fuel filter is clogged, ask any sailor.
Home brewers use leftover hot water tanks reclaimed from the junkyard, and believe it or not they work! My mad scientist buddy tried it out, and has been running his late model volvo for 6 yrs on his home brewer. He also adds it in his home heating oil tank, but won't mess with NYS regs specifying 10%, otherwise it will nullify his home insurance policy if his house ever caught fire. There is some indication that NYS decided 10% based on NFPA recommendations, but no one I know has ever been able to explain the who, where, what and why to me. Diesel and home heating oil are distinguished in ny by being taxed differently, sulphur contents, oil having dye added. Truck gets pulled off the road with red dye in his fuel tank he gets slammed hard with tax evasion.
Newer diesel engines might be too persnickety to use it on, because they're designed to run on s-15 (S-15 means super clean low sulphur less than 15 parts per million). Judging from its scent and consistency, I think it also has added detergents. Trucks on the highway burn S-500, which is 500 ppm, the engine design
requiring the suphur for slip of its moving parts. There is some concern that biodiesel isn't compatible with new engines despite it's tendancy toward lower sulphur. chemistry problems i suspect are might be related to cetane index and olefins for tighter engineered engines.
Frankly, I think they're more willing to risk an engine worth $500 with a flubbed batch of biodiesel vs a new $40k truck whose warranty was voided by using non standardized fuel. That depreciation rate is akin to totalling a vehicle.
There are other websites more layman friendly, but I think this one is more thorough because it addresses chemistry.
Make your own biodiesel: Journey to Forever
Biodiesel production is limited by the supply of waste oil in your community, the work people are willing to do to extract it, and how retarded the gov't is about taxing it. I heard in VA they put some folks in jail for a spell for selling small scale biodiesel without taxing it, and have since figured out a new policy for green energy taxation.
somehow I got the impression that corn meant for a stove wasn't nutritionally viable (USDA standards for nutrition make it unsalable for anything beyond fodder), which was why it was so cheap. The union for concerned scientists website had a huge problem with food grown as fuel right from the get go, but the entire thread of info was shutdown wholesale overnight from pressure by unamed sources. You can guess who, it smacks of Oprah in texas, and y'all are no stranger to this sort of politicking. There goes free speech.
As for the switchgrass deal- there's a chance thats already happening locally. Pellet dealers offer 'biobricks', which seems to be an acronym for bio mass fuels, and when I googled switchgrass fuel, they reference it in terms of biomass pellets used in a stove. The same benefit of replacing hardwood choices with bamboo floor- augment hardwood pellet fuel with quick growing low nutritional value grass grown on lesser soils- I really like this idea for a dozen reasons. The challenge they say they have right now is high ash, but if you see that clean byproduct as garden maintenence/soil amendment, it's a positive thing. What the heck is 'clinking'?
this is what canadians are saying about switchgrass
http://healthandenergy.com/biofuels.htm (broken link)
Another old school idea is seeing a resurgence. Newspaper log rollers fell out of favor because the inks used in the press were very toxic. Now newspapers are trending toward recycled pulp, less chemically processed bleached product, and soybean based inks. If your neighbors would be spared an hour at the burn barrel, they might be grateful you took it off their hands, or if municipal waste systems are involved, the landfill less taxed with volume and transport costs. More win win win. YAY!
The problem with wind/water/solar right now is that each one of them have times where they suffer from what I call 'doldrums of horse latitudes', and America has been spoiled by on demand convenience. I don't blame you for getting that 2.4k generator, but reducing your power consumption, and using alternative means when they become economically available to you, will result in less dependancy on foreign oil and savings to you. It's going to keep american dollars in our own backyard. Change is hard, and initially expensive, but change has to come.
America isn't only fighting a war using it's military, but also lamely in the economic war silently declared with sucker punches from our own national religion= capitalism. We work for OPEC right now when all our money is sapped out of our economy lining their pockets all because we're oil junkies. Shame on them for fooling us, but shame on us forever until we get our act together and quit this dependance.
Think about it- how is this not different than an addiction to coke, only on a national scale, over 4 generations? Our existence revolves around the infrastructure & delivery system of high volumes of consumption feeding them. It's making us all sick, killing our economy, and we're still doing it willingly to ourselves. The very definition of insanity.
No way america can live without some oil, petrochemical derivatives translating to plastics, roads, medicines, etc, but NEEDING them too much makes us a sitting duck for market manipulation. The better we can insulate ourselves as individuals from being caught in the middle of this economic war, the better off we the people will be.
I think it's americas greatest shame that a motorcycle invented in the early 1900's getting 75 mpg is locked up in a patent vault to aid and abet an oil industry protecting their profit margins in a volume economy. That motorcycle currently resides in smithsonian museum, dusted weekly in washington DC. How pathetic!
IT GETS WORSE!!!!!!!!
"The [motorcycle] collection is completed by a 1982 Rifle/Yamaha, highly modified for fuel efficiency. Powered by a 185-cc, 4-stroke engine and completely enclosed in a 19-lb. aerodynamic fiberglass fairing, the 175-lb. bike achieved an astonishing 372.22 mpg at the 1983 Vetter Fuel Economy Contest in California." ~smithsonian museum website
Wouldn't it be nice if detroit, wanting to pick itself up by the bootstraps, could put this 470 mpg motorcycle from link below into commercial production? It's a modified honda, I have no clue how much it costs, or how to buy one, and why a consumer doesn't have availability is a question I just emailed him about. I can foward his reply by email if anyone's interested, just ask.
http://www.craigvetter.com/pages/470...nomy-main.html
Another example, rent the dvd documentary "who killed the electric car" known to be available via netflix and blockbuster online.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokille.../electric.html
American business is deliberately playing to lose supressing technology and sticking with built in obsolescence blueprints because it's more profitable short term, and our gov't is sponsoring this duplicity in the name of a tilted faux 'free market'.
I'll take Nancy Reagans advice and just say no to crack every chance I get.
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This is SO sad.
