He must have had a diesel engine - oils only work with deisel engines... I don't know the mechanism of how the oil burns, but if you modify your engine you can use the oil straight up, otherwise people will use part diesel fuel and part vegetable oil (sunflower is particularly good because it's thinner - mixing with the diesel also thins out the oil). The cool thing is that as you increase your vegetable oil to diesel ratio your exhaust will start to smell like a fryer instead of like regular car exhaust...
Again, I don't know the mechanism of the whole thing, but it's a renewable fuel that some people use in their diesel engines. Don't try it with an engine that takes unleaded as it'll ruin it!
That's pretty interesting. I never knew it was something that works in diesel engines. Mine is unleaded but I reckon even if I had a diesel I'd be a bit cautious about pouring sunflower oil in there.
So I guess the question is whether this is a cost reduction strategy, or an environmental strategy? Surely it doesn't give better engine performance over pure diesel fuel.
And I guess it all presumes that the cost of sunflower oil will remain relatively stable, unlike crude oil.
Isn't there some thing going on though with bio-fuel alternatives and the developments of bio-fuel plantations forcing food prices up in places like Mexico (read something about that on the BBC) and also causing massive clearance of indigenous small-holding farms in Asia to make way for massive industrial scale production.
Hard to know if this is really the answer to our future energy deficit.
Thanks for answering m. I assume you're not putting this into your new Toyota?
Ha ha no way! The Toyota's not a diesel - I'm getting 30 mpg though (I have no idea what that is in km per liter! Stupid American.)!
I think maybe what you're thinking of is the whole ethanol from corn/corn oil fiasco - using corn oil for fuel instead of gas, with the idea that it's supposedly renewable.
What's happening already, I think (I might be wrong here), is that ares are being cleared to grow corn to get in on the market.
It's silly because there's such an excess of corn in the US - we're essentially a monocrop culture that started as a result of excess ammonium nitrate (used to make explosives, obviously unnecessary after the war was over) - so the explosives plants switched to making fertilizer (turns out ammonium nitrate is great for plants), and it was spread over farmland - corn crops were out of control, because there was so much corn farmers started losing money, so people started buying the corn to break it down into its component parts (corn syrup etc), then "built back up" into processed foods. Makes the processors a lot of money, the farmers not so much.
That extra nitrogen is also the cause of that "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico...
Whew - I just completely rambled! Sorry about that! :-)
So, how were the little ones's first days of school?
well thanks for asking M. The 5 year old is having a great time. He's into the second week and seems to really love the place.
The almost-three year old is doing fine too but he was really upset on the first 2 mornings. He just found the idea of his mum leaving him there and driving away a bit hard to understand I suppose. But this morning he was great. Marched in without even saying goodbye.
It's a great relief to know they are off and running now without any real difficulties.
6 comments:
He must have had a diesel engine - oils only work with deisel engines... I don't know the mechanism of how the oil burns, but if you modify your engine you can use the oil straight up, otherwise people will use part diesel fuel and part vegetable oil (sunflower is particularly good because it's thinner - mixing with the diesel also thins out the oil). The cool thing is that as you increase your vegetable oil to diesel ratio your exhaust will start to smell like a fryer instead of like regular car exhaust...
Again, I don't know the mechanism of the whole thing, but it's a renewable fuel that some people use in their diesel engines. Don't try it with an engine that takes unleaded as it'll ruin it!
That's pretty interesting. I never knew it was something that works in diesel engines. Mine is unleaded but I reckon even if I had a diesel I'd be a bit cautious about pouring sunflower oil in there.
So I guess the question is whether this is a cost reduction strategy, or an environmental strategy? Surely it doesn't give better engine performance over pure diesel fuel.
And I guess it all presumes that the cost of sunflower oil will remain relatively stable, unlike crude oil.
Isn't there some thing going on though with bio-fuel alternatives and the developments of bio-fuel plantations forcing food prices up in places like Mexico (read something about that on the BBC) and also causing massive clearance of indigenous small-holding farms in Asia to make way for massive industrial scale production.
Hard to know if this is really the answer to our future energy deficit.
Thanks for answering m. I assume you're not putting this into your new Toyota?
Ha ha no way! The Toyota's not a diesel - I'm getting 30 mpg though (I have no idea what that is in km per liter! Stupid American.)!
I think maybe what you're thinking of is the whole ethanol from corn/corn oil fiasco - using corn oil for fuel instead of gas, with the idea that it's supposedly renewable.
What's happening already, I think (I might be wrong here), is that ares are being cleared to grow corn to get in on the market.
It's silly because there's such an excess of corn in the US - we're essentially a monocrop culture that started as a result of excess ammonium nitrate (used to make explosives, obviously unnecessary after the war was over) - so the explosives plants switched to making fertilizer (turns out ammonium nitrate is great for plants), and it was spread over farmland - corn crops were out of control, because there was so much corn farmers started losing money, so people started buying the corn to break it down into its component parts (corn syrup etc), then "built back up" into processed foods. Makes the processors a lot of money, the farmers not so much.
That extra nitrogen is also the cause of that "dead zone" in the Gulf of Mexico...
Whew - I just completely rambled! Sorry about that! :-)
So, how were the little ones's first days of school?
well thanks for asking M. The 5 year old is having a great time. He's into the second week and seems to really love the place.
The almost-three year old is doing fine too but he was really upset on the first 2 mornings. He just found the idea of his mum leaving him there and driving away a bit hard to understand I suppose. But this morning he was great. Marched in without even saying goodbye.
It's a great relief to know they are off and running now without any real difficulties.
some more info from an Irish company...http://www.ecocar.ie/
Liam
950 euro for a conversion. I'd need to be sure that I'd be saving that money before the world's supply of vegetable oil runs out..
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