Albert Einstein often said: "Use the simplest thing that works, as long as it's the best thing."
This in mind one should compare the two actual possibilities to use plant oil as fuel: 1) adaptation of the oil to the engine (bio-diesel, BD) 2) modification of the engine to run on pure plant oil (straight vegetable oil, svo) Plant oil is pure stored solar energy in its densiest form (9,2 kg /l). It contains only the elements carbon C, hydrogen H and oxygen O. In the simplest way it is produced only by grinding of seeds and pressing (ram presses, expellers) it. Purification by sedimentation and / or filtration: Can somebody imagine a simpler method of producing highly concentrated, environmentally friendly energy. In a short term planning, it is interesting to use biodiesel, because you can use the already existing car engines. But in a longer perspective, it is more interesting to adapt the engines to run on pure plant oil (SVO). And you have all the advantages of an decentralized fuekl production. And you dont need a chemical workshop to produce your own fuele at home. A ram press for about 200 $ and some plastc barrel is all you need. For the mean time, you can convert your diesel engines into plant oil engines (the still run on diesel). The conversion kits are not expensive, but they are a bit different for one engine or the other. (The Mercedes 123 engine doesn't have to be modified at all. You just run it with SVO. If its cold, you add some diesel. In Germany, the producer of the tractors for agriculture are already very interested to offer SVO-versions of their diersel engines to the farmers (Deutz, John Deere). So in a short future, probably the truck engine producers will do the same and later the car engine producers. Another important argument for the use of SVO instead of BD is the energy input for its production. With BD it is about 1/3, i.e. you need about 30% of the energy of 1 litre of BD to produce 1 litre of BD (in form of Merthanol or aethanol, chemicals, destillation/purification). For the production of SVO you need only about 15 % (12 % for agriculture, 3 % for oil extraction). If you use ecological advanced production methods, you can reduce these 12 % considerably. Ernst Schrimpff of the Tecnical College of Weihenstephan, Germany, listed 8 parameters to compare SVO with BD. Here his list (partly): see also the attachment or: http://jatropha.org/p-o-engines/svo-bd-characteristics.htm Plant oil (SVO) biodiesel (BD) 1) Physical characteristics: physical density 0,90 - 0,92 0,88 viscosity 60 - 80 7 - 8 ignition point > 220 135 2) Chemical characteristics: phosphate mg/kg < 15 < 15 sulphur mg/kg < 10 < 10 Chem. reaction neutral, very low hygroscopic, solvent, fast reaction 3) Production: principle decentralized small central, big industrial units oil expellers chemical compounds needed - methanol, potassium hydroxyd energy input 12 % 29 % 5) Transport / storage no risk small risk 6) Environment biol. degradation very fast delayed danger to water no small human toxicity regularly no toxic (or small) material circuit complete difficult to realize 7) Social acceptability strategy small, decentralized big, central logistics simple komplex transportation short distances long distances vulnerability small higher regional income high low generation 8) Costs fuel production 0,25 - 0,40 0,45 - 0,60 US$ fuel prices 0,45 - 0,55 0,70 - 0,85 US$ Interesting links to this SVO - DB - discussion are: http://www.vegburner.co.uk http://www.pflanzenoel-motor.de (German) http://jatropha.org/p-o-engines/conversion-cars.htm http://elsbett.com/emotanfr.htm http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html Kind regards Reinhard Henning -- bagani GbR, Reinhard Henning, Rothkreuz 11, D-88138 Weissensberg, Germany Tel: ++49 8389 984129, Fax: 984128, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] internet: www.bagani.de [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Free $5 Love Reading Risk Free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/TPvn8A/PfREAA/Ey.GAA/9bTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Biofuels at Journey to Forever http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Biofuel at WebConX http://www.webconx.com/2000/biofuel/biofuel.htm List messages are archived at the Info-Archive at NNYTech: http://archive.nnytech.net/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
