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Top 15 Unexpected Uses For Biodiesel
gas2.org — While virtually everyone is familiar with the use of biodiesel as a substitute for diesel fuel, there are a few novel uses that may not have crossed your radar. Biodiesel can produce hydrogen, clean up oil spills, degrease your tools, heat your home, and more.
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- JackStowe, on 03/27/2008, -5/+6This is great!
- IglooBurner, on 03/28/2008, -1/+0or you can just give the crops to the poor and use solar.
- louiebaur, on 03/27/2008, -3/+5Removing Paint and Adhesives sounds like a use full application
- BruceDude, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2There are already chemicals to do that. Much cheaper too.
- frooo, on 03/27/2008, -6/+516) Barbecue your neighbours cat!
- Bukowsky, on 03/27/2008, -2/+2I just shoot them with my BB Gun... it's more of a slow, painful way to run them off, but still makes me smile! ;)
- salesnet, on 03/27/2008, -6/+2I think people that use biodiesel are sexy!
- ieure, on 03/27/2008, -3/+1What about the bad-boy image one gets from conspicuous consumption, driving a massive vehicle which gets less than 10mpg?
- knobtwiddler, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1unfortunately if this catches on, we're not going to be making it out of used french fry oil. its going to be directly produced in place of farmed food products like ethanol... unless maybe they improve one of these algae techniques.
at any rate... solar/wind/geothermal electric power is better... or using those technologies to generate hydrogen is ideal for combustion engines, if you ask me.. or electric browns gas generators that electrolyze water into HHO gas.. there are many viable technologies that do not involve burning hydrocarbons. we have to get away from all hydrocarbon fuels.- konspence, on 04/05/2008, -0/+1We do not have the existing equipment to run solar/wind/geothermal in our cars. There are tons of diesels, which biodiesel can run in. Your argument is logical for a better world where electrical cars are dominant. But for now, you're comparing apples to oranges. It's not a choice of biodiesel OR wind. They have completely different uses.
- utdrew182, on 03/27/2008, -2/+14It's like they got to 8 and then decided it was time to head to the bar.
- Adwt0125, on 03/27/2008, -5/+5Seriously car companies know this stuff works and still force us to pump petroleum into our cars...f*ck the oil companies
- jjmelch, on 03/27/2008, -3/+4You can't be that big a twit! Do a little research. If about 25% of our vehicles ran on bio-fuel then it wouldn't be very long before there wouldn't be enough food to feed the country. There are vast supplies of oil available to us and we won't drill for it. Do you realize that oil is being created right now? Do you think all of the oil in the earth was created millions of years ago? Wise up. If we don't drill for oil and build more refineries and produce more petroleum based fuel we will be a fourth or fifth world country before too long. That is if Mexico doesn't make us one first!
- Gerz1219, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Is ignorance bliss? You make it seem like it hurts.
- SwedishNinja, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2Then please move from Iowa to Minnesota and buy a car that can run on E85 if you're so concerned. Almost every station in Minnesota has an E85 pump. Sure, it's cheaper and better for the environment in the short term, but biofuels actually decrease your fuel economy to such a degree that these positive effects are negated. Also, as jjmelch said, biofuels wreak havoc on global food supplies.
Also: The Hawkeyes suck. :D
- jjmelch, on 03/27/2008, -3/+4You can't be that big a twit! Do a little research. If about 25% of our vehicles ran on bio-fuel then it wouldn't be very long before there wouldn't be enough food to feed the country. There are vast supplies of oil available to us and we won't drill for it. Do you realize that oil is being created right now? Do you think all of the oil in the earth was created millions of years ago? Wise up. If we don't drill for oil and build more refineries and produce more petroleum based fuel we will be a fourth or fifth world country before too long. That is if Mexico doesn't make us one first!
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -5/+17Please... Biodiesel = Bollocksdiesel
It take approx 15.33 acres of soya bean crop to run 1 car /year on Biodiesel. Please somebody tell me where the ***** we're gonna grow all these crops.
Besides it makes your car smell like you've been cooking french fries on the bloody engine block.
It's not a solution to any problem... unless of course you want the world to have a soya bean infested, french fry smelling future?- mechman, on 03/27/2008, -6/+4So, tell me. Where are we going to grow all the crude oil? What's that? Oh, you mean we /can't/ grow crude oil? Interesting. Perhaps you should realize that alternate fuel sources are just primarily beginning. Get off you oil-horse and think.
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -2/+6I didn't say that...all I'm saying is Biodiesel ain't the future it's cracked up to be.
- Beanbones, on 03/27/2008, -0/+4Or we could, I dunno, invest all that money in making fossil fuel engines more efficient? Make nuclear power plants safer and more efficient? Develop technologies that allow us to harvest hydrogen-3 from the moon as a fuel for clean fusion reactors? In terms of resource efficiency, biofuels are seriously lacking.
- BruceDude, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2"Get off you oil-horse and think."
You sir, are an idiot.
There are more alternatives to oil. Wind, solar, algae biodiesel. And these don't rape our planet as much.
- nekochan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+7also, biodiesel, especially that french fry-smelling kind, can be made of used cooking oil. the soy/canola/whatever was already used for food, and will be dumped if not put into a car or something.
and also, which would you rather have? chokingly acrid smog, or a nice potato-y smell?- borez, on 03/27/2008, -1/+4Fine, I'll recycle my cooking oil, it should get me to the end of the driveway after a couple of months or so.
- nekochan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2just stop by mcdonalds or something. they let biodiesel car owners take their waste oil free.
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -1/+1Try telling that to the numb nuts who hasn't been told at Bugger (sic) King.
You want to do what sir?
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -1/+1Try telling that to the numb nuts who hasn't been told at Bugger (sic) King.
- nekochan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2just stop by mcdonalds or something. they let biodiesel car owners take their waste oil free.
- ferrite, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1As if Americans weren't getting fat enough, now I have to go through rush-hour with the munchies.
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -1/+4Fine, I'll recycle my cooking oil, it should get me to the end of the driveway after a couple of months or so.
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -0/+7Corn and soy are horrible sources for biofuel. It seems no one has heard of biodiesel from algae.
Crop Oil in Liters per hectare
Castor 1413
Sunflower 952
Safflower 779
Palm 5950
Soy 446
Coconut 2689
Algae 10000
Source: http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/yield/yield.html- Beanbones, on 03/27/2008, -2/+7Just for the heck of it, let's do some math.
Total number of cars in America (as of 2003) = 231 million
Total arable landmass on earth (in acres) = 7.66 billion
Acres needed to fuel one car for one year = 15.33
15.33 * 231m = 3.5 billion
3.5 / 7.66 = 45%
In other words, to fuel the cars in America alone, we'd have to devote almost half the earth's arable landmass exclusively to biofuel crops. Either my numbers are really, really far off, or the people promoting biofuels are full of [great ideas].- borez, on 03/27/2008, -2/+1Exactly, it's a waste of time. It's a cop out to get a few people thinking they're actually doing something for the environment by filling their cars up with this stuff in the first place.
No solution..at all. - klco, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3I think something a lot of people miss is that this isn't THE solution. Its, at best, a temporary fix, or an improvement. Just because we couldn't 100% replace our oil consumption with bio-diesel doesn't mean we should abandon the technology.
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Yes your numbers are wrong.
10 000 liters = 2 641.72052 US gallons
On average a US drive drives 11000 miles per year. Lets say our car gets 25mpg.
That's 440 gals per year. Some strains of algae have been found to produce well over 10k liters per acre (google is your friend).
So at the average rate 1 acre of algae would feed 6 cars for a year. Also it does not take a year to produce algae. Corn takes anywhere from 50 to 90 days to harvest. Corn = bad biofuel. Get your facts stright. You can't lump 20 types of fuel into one catagory and say all biofuel is the same.
Additionally biofuel is ONE part of the massive solution for alternative energy. Everyone saying it is not a fix is correct, there is no ONE magical fix. You have to change the whole system.
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -2/+1Exactly, it's a waste of time. It's a cop out to get a few people thinking they're actually doing something for the environment by filling their cars up with this stuff in the first place.
- raintheory, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Nice even 10000?
Odd, don't you think?
- Beanbones, on 03/27/2008, -2/+7Just for the heck of it, let's do some math.
- mechman, on 03/27/2008, -6/+4So, tell me. Where are we going to grow all the crude oil? What's that? Oh, you mean we /can't/ grow crude oil? Interesting. Perhaps you should realize that alternate fuel sources are just primarily beginning. Get off you oil-horse and think.
- Picer, on 03/27/2008, -1/+13Biodiesels are bad in terms of emissions and because they drive up world food prices. :(
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Algae.
http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/yield/yield.html- borez, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2Algae supports the major ecosystems of marine life. We start scooping that ***** up in large amounts to power our engines and we really are gonna be *****!
- nekochan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2if lake algae can be used, it would be great. people around here are too dumb/shallow to stop dumping fertilizer on their lawns. it all runs off into the lake, causing a massive algae bloom, choking everything, killing fish, making the water stink, and making it impossible to swim.
take our algae, please.- ihavebeenseen, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1new Texas Oil
http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2008/03/ ...
- ihavebeenseen, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1new Texas Oil
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1You don't harvest algae from the wild, it's produce in a farm.
- nekochan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2if lake algae can be used, it would be great. people around here are too dumb/shallow to stop dumping fertilizer on their lawns. it all runs off into the lake, causing a massive algae bloom, choking everything, killing fish, making the water stink, and making it impossible to swim.
- borez, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2Algae supports the major ecosystems of marine life. We start scooping that ***** up in large amounts to power our engines and we really are gonna be *****!
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Algae.
- Beanbones, on 03/27/2008, -1/+8You know what else you could use biodiesel (or rather, biodiesel acreage) for? GROWING [splendid] CROPS, YOU [nice gentlemen]!
- Jovensdesciple, on 03/27/2008, -1/+1Biodiesel should only be used for feeding hungry orphans in the ghetto.
- BruceDude, on 03/27/2008, -2/+7This is retarded. Until we start making biodiesel out of Algae it a WASTE.
15 acres to run one car per year on biodiesel? How many crops and forest do we have to clear for all the ***** cars?
Biodiesel is NOT environmentally friendly. Its worse than oil.
Better stick to solar.- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -4/+2Biodiesel is better and more envriomentally friendly. Google is your friend.
http://www.oilgae.com/algae/oil/yield/yield.html - BruceDude, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2@ guiness
Dude. I said biodiesel from algae. Even the website you gave me confirms its better than other options like Corn, Soya, Hemp.. etc.
Right now it is not environmentally friendly at all.
Yield of Various Plant Oils
From Site:
Crop Oil in Liters per hectare
Castor 1413
Sunflower 952
Safflower 779
Palm 5950
Soy 446
Coconut 2689
Algae 100000
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -4/+2Biodiesel is better and more envriomentally friendly. Google is your friend.
- spunkmyer, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3I have been following the biodiesel story for a while now. While I agree creating biodiesel from soy beans and other type of crops is not the best use of resources but creating biodiesel from oil producing algae does. Lots of interesting reading out in the net for those interested in finding out about while algae strains make the best oil producers. I look forward to the day one can have a small algae breeding reactor on your property creating oil for a biodiesel conversion.
- bag2p, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1these alternative uses are pointless and irrelevant.
- dizilbdog, on 03/27/2008, -2/+4I wish America would sell more diesel cars, That would make bio diesel take off even more.
- ieure, on 03/27/2008, -2/+3Unfortunately, the knuckle-draggers over here refuse to drive fuel-efficient cars, like turbo diesels with manual transmissions.
- bag2p, on 03/27/2008, -0/+0very nicely said.
- orangetiki, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1that was my first car. Old beat up benz with 400,000 miles on it I got for 6k.
- warriorscot, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Actually with the price of diesel these days its not actually all that great to get a diesel at the moment, and you swap one type of emmision for another as diesels are more fuel effecient but are heavier on the pollution, petrol isn't so bad as it does have fewer particulates in the exhaust. Its not the lack of diesels its just the size of the engines anything over 2 litres is a little excessive for any motor vehicle unless it is very big.
- dizilbdog, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Yeah that is true, but I think towns could start there own bio-diesel shops I mean you can have all the restaraunts in town donating there oil or give them a tax break bring it to the facility and then sell the fuel.
- nitrojunky24, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1big like a lot of American SUV's they'd be perfect fit for diesel really would. I wish our dodge ram 1500 came with a diesel because with a gas engine it does 12 MPG's (thats American gallons smaller then British gal)
- guinnessstout, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Honda Accord CDI gets upwards of 54mpg, sold right now in Europe.
- ieure, on 03/27/2008, -2/+3Unfortunately, the knuckle-draggers over here refuse to drive fuel-efficient cars, like turbo diesels with manual transmissions.
- serif69, on 03/27/2008, -1/+3#16: The Spanish Inquisition.
- UrinalPooper, on 03/27/2008, -0/+2I totally didn't expect that...
- givemereplay, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2Biodiesel drives the price of grains and veggies through the roof because it is more profitable for farmers to grow soy or corn for energy rather than for food. We will all pay at the supermarket, and it doesn't even save gas. Biodiesel is a sham.
- postaldave, on 03/27/2008, -1/+2he he, he said "lubricity".....giggle.....
- vwvan, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3can we bathe in it?
- stainboy, on 03/27/2008, -0/+0biodiesel and tonic with a twist of lemon
- wakananda, on 03/27/2008, -2/+1Biodiesel is not a reasonable energy alternative. It's an attempt to forestall other alternatives that would be decentralized, and harder to squeeze a corporate profit out of. If you believe in biodiesel, you are being hosed mightily, and enabling a future where children starve while acres of crops are pressed into fuel.
- orangetiki, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Right because creating fuel from leftover cooking oils, rotting fruits and veggies, rubber products such as used tires, and the like do starve kids. What else would the kids pick at while they walk around the dumps? bio-diesel isn't just about creating oil from fresh corn.
- rswelling, on 03/27/2008, -0/+3As long as we keep eating huge amounts of french fries we have a good source of oil to make some biodiesel right? There are other ways to create Biodiesel besides soy crops, so why is it not worth investigating as an alternative fuel? Even if some people don't decide to use it, it's good that some of us do. Choose whatever alternative method works for you, there can be more than one solution to the obvious problem at hand.
- orangetiki, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Screen print ink remover?? PLEASE!! I can't stand the smell of that 440 Screen opener. That sheet make you hiiiiiii! ( in a high pitch voice)
- triskele, on 03/27/2008, -0/+1Dugg for the guy in the thumbnail still driving his International Scout II from one of the few years they were running with a diesel option.
- smenzel, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Now if only we could start producing biodiesel out of something that generates a higher yield AND get it down to an affordable price.
- climateHeretic, on 03/28/2008, -1/+1Bio-fuel from Algae is currently not feasible. So vapour tech cannot solve a problem. from the often linked site on this thread..
"In order to produce biodiesel from algae on a large-scale, the following conditions need to be met, logically speaking:
* Ability to sustainably produce high-oil-yielding algae strains on a large-scale
* Ability to extract the oil from the algae on a large scale
* Capability for large-scale conversion of algal oil into biodiesel
The first two aspects are specific to algae, while the third is a generic aspect for biodiesel production from all plant oils."
So sounds like as soon as they figure out how to grow it, extract it and refine it we are there!- Rhodamine, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1These folks at ODU have made some serious advances in the oil extraction process.
http://www.odu.edu/ao/news/highlights.php?todo=det ...
As a person who personally made some advancements in microalgal culture, I can say with a good deal of confidence that we can mas produce the algae. We won't be solving a fuel crisis this way. But the technology can seriously contribute to management of the issue. We can take advantage of favorable nutrient sources by affixing the growth facilites to use CO2 from coal smokestacks and/or nutrients from sewage treatment plants. Several birds with one stone. - Rhodamine, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1Sorry. That link looks like it got truncated. Here it is again.
www.odu.edu/ao/news/highlights.php?todo=details&id=9365
- Rhodamine, on 03/28/2008, -0/+1These folks at ODU have made some serious advances in the oil extraction process.
- Deathrideshorse, on 03/31/2008, -1/+0Petition:
We, the undersigned, call on the Governments of the world to use some common sense when distributing Energy subsidies.
Why must the taxpayer subsidise the largest cause of man-made Global Warming(Fossil Fuel electricity generation) whilst alternative energy solutions such as Solar Thermal are forced to struggle?
Why must the consumer be asked to pay extra for "Green" Energy when his/her taxes are subsidising the very antithesis?
We, the undersigned, are not impressed with such hypocrisy.
http://www.gopetition.com/online/17583.html
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