Kennet Boater wrote: > Hello Ron and Tony, > > Thankyou both for your comments, > > Are "Marine 16 and Fortron." fuel additives? Sound like they could be! > > Im not sure what the "splash & dash" procedure is but the biodiesel I > am trying out is made totally from reused cooking oil collected from > local business', chip shops, restaurants and the like. The guy > running the manufacturers was quite passionate about the sources of > his oil. > > I certainly would not want to fill my tank with oil "grown for food" > when there is so much hunger and famine around the world. The reuse > of oil that has served its chippy purpose and is now considered waste > is more ethically sound. > Nor would I want to support the damage caused by intensive farming of > "fuel crops" to landscapes and to peoples lives and cultures. > > I knew that there would be 'polluting' wastes created by the > prossesing of the used chip oil into fuel oil just not what they are > exactly, not having a technical knowledge of fuel composition etc. I > assume that there must be a similar level of by-products from mineral > oil "refinement". > > So IF there is a similar level of by-product and polution between > reused veg oil fuel and mineral oil fuel then I use my ethics/morals > to choose which polluter I burn. > I'd much rather support the small local firm and use "greener" fuel > than buy from huge mineral oil companys who make billions in profit > yet keep there prices high even without the gvmnts tax. > > That said, this is the first time I have used biodiesel and have only > got a 50/50 mix of red bio/red mineral to see how engine etc cope and > perform. > So far, so good, although I don't know how long it would take to > degrade the fuel lines if they are susceptible. I guess it depends of > the type of fuel line and strength of fuel mix. I shall find out in > the near future I think. > > Right, rant over! > Many thanks > Lee Wells (ive got PDA thumb now!)
I've not heard of "Marine 16 and Fortron" - someone will chip (!) in soon. :-) I always use FuelSet, it seems to work well for me with just plain old red - lines and filters seem nice and clean, and a bottle lasts quite a long time I think your choice of oil source is a fine concept - rather than the "grown for fuel". As a scientist I do wonder why no-one has yet set up a proper recovery plant for frying oil. It must be all down to the price of fresh oil - but that is always rising - and I suspect will continue to do so. I don't think the spent oil would need too much treatment to make it useful for frying again - I would guess there has been some small amount of reaction with the oxygen in the air + some reaction with the water in the chips + bits of starch and batter + any themal breakdown products. My guess at a recovery process would be a high speed centrifuge (to remove all solids), followed by a vacuum distillation (to remove low boiling items - ex thermal breakdown; then distil a large amount useful "fresh" oil, leaving the high boiling parts - mainly fatty acids - in the still. The key factor I see is the vacuum - it will have to be very high to get the boiling point low enough to distil, that would be an expensive pump. Maybe that will change as veg oil prices rise - there's always a breakpoint in any process at which time recovery becomes viable. That of couse may mean that the source of oil for bio might dry up, we will have to wait and see. Ron Jones Process Safety & Development Specialist Don't repeat history, unreported chemical lab/plant near misses at http://www.crhf.org.uk Only two things are certain: The universe and human stupidity; and I'm not certain about the universe. ~ Albert Einstein
