Biodiesel class

OK Walt, technically all this carbon was probably biologically fixed, (if we discount Gold’s abiogenic hypothesis) but of course when people refer to biofuel they generally mean freshly fixed carbon using say last years sunshine instead of borrowed permian sunshine.

I just love wood gas, I feel there is an overlooked revolution here. Worldwide, charcoal is a huge source of energy, especially in africa. Primitive methods of making charcoal discard the 40% of total energy of the wood that is in the wood gas. Capturing that gas from efficient kilns and using it to run generators would supply enough electricity to match the total electrical production of those countries. I could see some kind of deal where utilitiies work with small-scale charcoal producers to accept biomass, give them their charcoal free, and payoff is in woodgas.

1 Like

Ages ago - WVO was very popular in a dual tank set up with the bullet proof MBenz late 1970’s to about 1999 diesels and pre 2004 VW and Audi diesels and others, with either a homemade set up or one like “Grease Car” still sells online.

Ten? ish years ago - that ever so shitty government of state of California complained that WVO users were not paying their share of fuel taxes per gallon and made it a point that WVO could only be used “off highway” …just think how many of those morons are flocking to Texas (ugh)

There were many BIodiesel home refiners - I knew a guy in plano that had a continuous operation in his slippery home garage during the early reign of Obama and his $4/gallon fuel …but as fuel prices dropped it wasn’t worth the time. I do wonder what he did with the last couple of 55 gallon drums of methanol.

Either my 1980 VW Diesel truck or my 2003 turbo diesel VW would be good candidates for bio or wvo.

1 Like

Mix it 50/50 with Boones farm and serve it to your in laws when they visit?

3 Likes

I wouldn’t be surprised if that is what happened to his wife - they supposedly got divorced and she vanished…

1 Like

Will not cause any serious harm if mixed with ethanol (Boones Farm)

Does cause a nasty hangover, though. DAMHIK

2 Likes

You know, I am probably the one who misunderstood Josh. He has been quite quiet on this thread, but he may very well have intended to “make people interested” at a very general level. That is, “hook the interests of “looky loos” and have a larger audience”.

Not at all a fan of that, I would prefer to do everything possible to discourage them not attract them. I hoped for a class to attract interest and participation from quite different people, the kind who are participating in this thread, people who might be inspired to do some serious making. I am thrilled by the level of discourse I see on this thread, and discovering individuals like TLAR who has actually made BD and clearly connected to the biodiesel community. That is a maker community if there ever was one.

The class was Josh’s proposal, not mine. If his aim is enlightening/entertaining the masses, that is what it should be. And Jast is quite right that running a motor from really ugly fuel would be the best way to get oos and aahs from that crowd. Getting a motor at $500 just for that one class seems high to me, however.

Wonder if there is a way to borrow or rent an engine just for the class?
Josh, please comment.

1 Like

If you want a demonstration engine that could work for a long time on a liter of diesel

Yeah, I forgot about all that nonsense that folks were making about not paying road taxes if you are making your own fuel. While I do understand the concern, the percent of folks doing it is so tiny and the the expense for the process is not insignificant.

My thought is “Give them a break. Surely they earn some good will by being an experimenter who is willing to recycle a bio waste into a useful product.” They could say the same for electric cars and road tax.

I’m sorry what is the question?

It’s my understanding the Cox engines do NOT use diesel FUEL. It’s unclear to me why they’re even called “diesel”, though they DO, sort of, use the diesel cycle (in juxtaposition to otto cycle or miller cycle, etc.).

jast have we met? What is your name?

I believe they use a form of kerosene, which I believe is somewhat compatible with diesel. They are compression engines with a glow plug.

It is a much cheaper and more appropriately sized demonstration engine. Might also get one free from the RC Plane folks.

1 Like

The tax issue is why fuel oil used for heating has a dye put into it. Lots of folks in the NE would put it in their trucks or motor homes. These were occasionally spot checked - major fine your diesel had color in it. Ahhhh the Spirit of '76 lives there with the tyrannical governemnt oppressors wanting to tax you to death.

Not to my knowledge. My name is Andrew.

To quote from the pamphlet Cox published and linked above:

For Cox engines with diesel conversions, you don’t use actual “diesel” or glow fuel. Instead you use a mix consisting of castor oil, ether and kerosene. A good diesel mix would have 25% castor oil, 40% ether and 35% kerosene (paraffin).

Kerosene and Diesel are related, not sure how cross compatible I’d expect them to be in this case.
But it IS a smaller, more affordable test engine. Sadly, I don’t think it demos a good make on biodiesel, especially for demonstration purposes, given all the OTHER dopants required.
With the one I suggested (somewhat tongue-in-cheek) you could literally pipe the contents of the demo bottle to engine WITHOUT adding any castor oil, ether, etc. to the mix.

Here’s a thought.
Someone was giving away “kerosene” heaters on here. They might still be available. Might work. I hear they’ll run fine on diesel…

That still happens roughly daily throughout farming country, with AG diesel and other “off road” fuels that are tax exempt…

2 Likes

https://generalaviationnews.com/2011/03/17/jet-a-versus-diesel-fuel/

1 Like

The IRS is actually the one that requires dye so detect tax envasion. If used off road, AG or for heating it is perfectly legal to use. There’s actually another color, I believe blue, that is a lower grade than fuel oil than #2 Fuel Oil vs Diesel #2 ( the former which doesn’t have to comply with the low sulfur content). Really cheapo “blue stuff” is high in sulfur and other crap and is primary used by commerical boats and ships in addition to “bunkerage fuel” … some of which gets pretty nasty and has to be heated to be used. More like the stuff they use with asphalt.

1 Like

interesting to use it for a large boat.

Commercial Shipping Particle Air Pollution = Half That Of All The World’s Cars

The name of this group is “Tree Hugger” so no telling how inflated this number is.

2 Likes

Two cycle and runs on light crude oil. Bet it makes a mess of pollution.

1 Like

When I first read about this engine my thoughts were: What does the structure inside the ship look like to support this beast and to deal with the torque. Then about balancing the ship with so much weight.

6.5 ounces per cylinder per Rev X 14 x 102 rpm = 72.5 gallons a minute, 104,400 gallons a day (395,196,000 ml for you metric types :innocent:) 121 gallons to the mile (had a car that would come close on oil leakage in HS) The ship is about 625,000 pounds lighter every day.

1 Like