| Subject: Re: "It's very dangerous, very explosive and toxic and potentially very problematic,'' |
Author:
Duncan7
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Date Posted: 07:36:51 02/23/07 Fri
In reply to:
larry
's message, ""It's very dangerous, very explosive and toxic and potentially very problematic,''" on 02:13:49 02/23/07 Fri
For once, an article I agree with. Although you don't have to use methonal, any alcohol will do and I recommend a certain amount of butanol for best results.
>well what did you expect, lie and methonal is used to
>make the biodiesel
>
>FUELING A REVOLUTION
>Biodiesel moves almost into mainstream in Bay Area
>
>About a year ago, Paul McNees chose to change his life
>by changing his fuel.
>
>He sold his Saturn sport utility vehicle and bought a
>diesel-powered Mercedes-Benz. A mechanic whipped it
>into running order and replaced the soft rubber fuel
>lines with something sturdier.
>
>Then the El Sobrante teacher started burning biodiesel
>-- a fuel cooked up not from petroleum but from
>vegetable oil, often waste oil from restaurants or
>food processing plants.
>
>"I just couldn't justify filling up that tank with
>gasoline anymore for a multitude of reasons,'' said
>McNees, 43, citing global warming and the war in Iraq.
>"This has been great. It's totally cleaned out the
>engine. It runs great, has a lot more power. It sort
>of smells like french fries -- it doesn't have that
>noxious diesel smell."
>
>A small but growing number of Bay Area drivers like
>McNees are trading their gasoline-fueled autos for
>biodiesel-powered cars. How many is hard to tell. The
>biodiesel industry is nascent, largely unregulated and
>informally organized. But experts agree that biodiesel
>use is growing.
>
>Nationally, biodiesel consumption is up sharply --
>from 500,000 gallons in 1999 to more than 75 million
>gallons in 2005. In the Bay Area, the number of
>customers filling up at Berkeley's Biofuel Oasis --
>one of the region's few public biodiesel stations --
>has climbed from about 200 three years ago to about
>1,800 today.
>
>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and President Bush have
>mentioned the fuel in their respective plans to cut
>greenhouse gases and reduce petroleum dependence. The
>University of California recently signed a landmark
>deal with oil giant BP to develop biofuels.
>
>Much of biodiesel's appeal stems from the fuel's
>ability to perform as well as petroleum diesel while
>emitting fewer exhaust materials that cause smog,
>particulate pollution and global warming. According to
>the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, pure
>biodiesel emits 67 percent fewer unburned
>hydrocarbons, 48 percent less carbon monoxide and 47
>percent fewer particulates but 10 percent more
>nitrogen oxides.
>
>Yet, despite its benefits and growing popularity,
>biodiesel might not be the fuel of the future because,
>as demand grows, the amount of land needed to produce
>the oils could become untenable, experts say.
>
>Biodiesel is created in a relatively simple process
>known as transesterification. Producers, including
>fuel companies or home brewers, start with clean or
>waste vegetable oil, then add methanol and a catalyst
>such as lye. A chemical reaction produces biodiesel
>and glycerine, which can be separated easily. The
>glycerine can be used in a variety of products, from
>soap to manufactured fireplace logs.
>
>Biodiesel has been popular for years among farmers in
>the Midwest and in the South, where virgin soybean oil
>typically is used to produce the fuel. Yet its use in
>the West, until recently, was largely limited to
>hobbyists who brewed the fuel at home and people who
>prided themselves on not using oil.
>
>The home brewers include people like Ben Jordan, who
>makes his own biodiesel and teaches an alternative
>fuels class at City College of San Francisco, in which
>students create a batch of biodiesel.
>
>"It's very dangerous and potentially very
>problematic,'' he said. "You're dealing with methanol
>and lye, and when you mix it together, it is very
>explosive and toxic. It's not something to mess around
>with. However, if you know what you're doing, you can
>safely and easily make it in your own home.''
>
>Home brewers deserve much of the credit for the
>percolating interest in biodiesel, said Anna
>Halpern-Lande of Tellurion Biodiesel, a San Francisco
>marketing and distribution firm.
>
>"The hobbyists make up a very small portion of the
>market," she said, "but they play a critical role:
>They capture the public's attention.''
>
>In the past couple of years, biodiesel and other
>so-called alternative fuels have moved out of garages
>and workshops and into the mainstream. On Wednesday,
>Safeway, which operates 300 fuel stations in the
>United States, opened a biodiesel test pump in West
>Seattle. The fuel also is becoming popular with
>celebrities: Country music legend Willie Nelson, for
>example, is a partner in BioWillie Diesel, which
>markets the natural fuel primarily to truck stops.
>
>The change hasn't gone unnoticed by some of
>biodiesel's earlier adopters, such as Ahri Golden, 32,
>a public radio documentarian from Berkeley, who has
>burned biodiesel in her 1980 Mercedes for four years.
>
>"It was kind of hippie-ish," Golden said as she filled
>up at Biofuel Oasis. "Now you see a lot more people
>with nicer cars and more money coming for the
>practicality and not just the ideology.''
>
>Yet it isn't practical for everyone. New diesel cars
>aren't sold in California because of air-quality
>regulations, and buying an older diesel can be
>competitive, biodiesel users say. No significant
>modifications are required to use biodiesel, but
>because it is a solvent, soft rubber gas lines need to
>be replaced with stronger tubing.
>
>Biodiesel stations also are still hard to find: There
>are just nine in the nine-county Bay Area, according
>to the National Biodiesel Board. The small-scale
>operations usually have limited business hours.
>
>"You can't just run down to the gas station,'' said
>biodiesel user Jonathan Austin of Oakland. "You've got
>to plan ahead.''
>
>Because fueling stations have limited hours, many
>biodiesel users fill their tanks, as well as one or
>more 5-gallon containers that can be stored in the
>trunk or stashed in the garage. Although the process
>of making it can be dangerous, the biodiesel itself is
>safe because it burns at a much higher temperature.
>
>And while some users don't like to use petroleum
>diesel, the fuels can be mixed or used
>interchangeably. Many biodiesel users fill their tanks
>with blends -- B-20, a blend containing 20 percent
>biodiesel, is common.
>
>Filling up with biodiesel can also be more costly
>depending on fuel prices and a vehicle's fuel
>efficiency, although many experts believe the price
>will drop as use of the fuel becomes more widespread.
>At Biofuel Oasis, the current supply of B-99
>biodiesel, made from reclaimed soy oil from a potato
>chip factory, sells for $3.65 a gallon. Gasoline sells
>for around $2.79 a gallon nearby and petroleum diesel
>for about $3.01 a gallon. However, cars that run on
>diesel -- including biodiesel -- can get 40 to 50
>miles per gallon.
>
>Many biodiesel users say they care less about the cost
>and more about cutting America's dependence on oil and
>combatting climate change. Their bumper stickers
>reflect those opinions. "Biodiesel -- no war
>required,'' read one on a car waiting to fill up at
>Biodiesel Oasis. "This car powered by vegetable oil,''
>read another.
>
>Jennifer Radtke, one of the five women who own Biofuel
>Oasis, thinks growing concern about climate change and
>the diminishing oil supply is driving the popularity
>of alternative fuels.
>
>"A lot of our customers switched to biodiesel because
>of the war,'' she said. "That's probably common in the
>Bay Area, but across the country, it's probably
>because of concern about climate change and renewable
>energy. And that it's so cool.''
>
>Yet biodiesel faces serious obstacles before it can
>become the fuel of the future.
>
>A current challenge is availability. Interest in
>biodiesel may be rising, but so far local production
>isn't. Just one firm manufactures biodiesel in the Bay
>Area, according to the National Biodiesel Board, but
>two Bay Area plants are under construction and are
>expected to be producing the fuel later this year.
>
>Yokayo Biofuels in Ukiah (Mendocino County) has
>produced biodiesel from waste vegetable oils for five
>years. The company only recently began making enough
>to supply Biofuel Oasis, in addition to three stations
>in Mendocino County.
>
>Kumar Plocher, Yokayo's president and founder, said
>that although the process of making biodiesel is
>relatively simple, it can be difficult to efficiently
>and consistently produce high-quality fuel. Some
>firms, he said, have invested in top-of-the-line
>equipment and hired petroleum and chemical industry
>experts but still failed to produce and distribute the
>fuel.
>
>Yokayo has grown slowly and learned along the way, he
>said. The company is still a small producer, he said,
>making about 15,000 gallons a month.
>
>"Biodiesel has a lot of interesting little nuances
>that you need to get to know,'' he said. "It's its own
>beast, its own molecule.''
>
>Like oil, biodiesel may have its limits because of the
>sources of the vegetable oils used to produce the
>fuel.
>
>"People are really excited about biofuels now,''
>Plocher said. "But there isn't much knowledge about
>them. For instance, the issue of sustainability.''
>
>Much of the Bay Area's biodiesel is produced from
>waste vegetable oil that comes from restaurants --
>including burger joints and Chez Panisse. Although
>that supply is now plentiful, it won't always be,
>especially if biodiesel use and healthier eating
>habits become more popular.
>
>"It's extremely attractive and cost-effective, but
>it's very limited,'' said Severin Borenstein, head of
>the Energy Institute at UC Berkeley.
>
>Most of the biodiesel produced and used nationally is
>made from soybeans, which yield 50 gallons of
>biodiesel per acre, Plocher said. Sunflowers can
>produce up to 100 gallons an acre and canola
>(rapeseed) as much as 150 gallons an acre.
>
>The huge amount of land required to grow biodiesel oil
>could crowd out food crops. Aware of that concern,
>some biodiesel producers have started importing palm
>oil from the tropics. But the growing popularity and
>production of palm oil for purposes including
>biodiesel has caused the destruction of rain forests
>in Malaysia and Indonesia, according to environmental
>groups, including Friends of the Earth.
>
>Researchers are looking for more productive, and
>sustainable, sources of biofuel -- including algae.
>They're focusing primarily on four types of high-oil
>algae -- diatoms, green algae, blue-green algae and
>golden algae -- that could be cultivated in farms or
>ponds. Oils could be extracted using chemical
>solvents, enzymes, expeller presses, osmotic shock or
>ultrasonic shock waves.
>
>But whatever its future, biodiesel has already
>generated a fleet of loyal fans who say they would
>never go back to petroleum diesel.
>
>"It feels good to be living your own ethics,'' McNees
>said after filling his tank at the Biofuel Oasis. "It
>is a little bit of a hassle, but knowing that I'm not
>adding to the problem makes it so worth it.''
>
>
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>-------------------------
>New life for old grease
>
>Used frying oil is one source of vegetable oil that
>can be made into biodiesel. A common method called
>transesterification breaks down cooking oil, resulting
>in two valuable products: glycerine, an additive to
>soaps, and methyl esters, the chemical name for
>biodiesel, which can fuel a diesel engine.
>
>
>1. PREPARATION
>
>-- Vegetable oil poured into processor
>
>-- Oil is heated to 120° Fahrenheit
>
>-- Acidity level is checked
>
>2. REACTOR
>
>-- Lye (alkaline base) and methanol (alcohol) are
>mixed in a separate container
>
>-- Solution is mixed with oil
>
>3. SETTLING
>
>-- Oil is separated into glycerine and unwashed
>biodiesel
>
>-- Glycerine removed
>
>4. WASHING
>
>-- Biodiesel is washed with water
>
>5. PURIFICATION
>
>-- Oil is separated from water
>
>-- Water removed
>
>-- Processed biodiesel transferred to storage
>container
>
>6. DISTRIBUTION
>
>-- Biodiesel is "dried" or allowed to settle
>
>-- Ready for fueling
>
>
>Source: National Biodiesel Board
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