OT / French Fry Generator (fwd)

[Gail Donaldson Lucas <gail@dri.edu>]

Another response from Dale Schutte re biodiesel.

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Re: OT /  French Fry Generator (fwd)
Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 21:25:29 -0800
From: Dale Schutte <dschutte@wizard.com>
To: gail <gail@dri.edu>
References: <Pine.SOL.4.30.0102260820410.9916-100000@elephant.dri.edu>

Hi Gail.   In testing we did at Miramar community college in
San Diego
Calif.  with a prototype unit we built we had soot  emission
reductions of 50 to 75% depending on the vehicle we tested the
biodiesel fuel in.

I too like hydrogen  for powering  a fuel cell, but from an economic
and practical standpoint we are not there yet. Hydrogen is a bit
expensive to produce, generally produced using fossil fuels, requires
an expensive modification to an engine and there is no real
infrastructure for it's distribution.  But it sure burns
clean. 

I don't consider biodiesel to be the final answer, but an interim
solution that is much better than what we use now (fossil fuels).
There are billions of dollars tied up in our existing diesel vehicles
 Reality says that the owners of these vehicles (public and private)
will continue to run these vehicles until they have used up there
economic life. 

Remember biodiesel is a renewable fuel that is better for the
environment than petroleum diesel. Our main problem is how
can we ramp
up production to make it more available for public use until
we get
very reliable, inexpensive fuel cells and a distribution
system in
place. 

By the way I do own an electric vehicle. Also a high mileage diesel
car and a  2 ton diesel work truck. They both run on my biodiesel.

Dale Schutte

On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 08:21:52 -0800 (PST), you wrote:

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2001 15:58:49 -0000
>From: Chris Crosskey <chris.crosskey@metrics.co.uk>
>Subject: RE: OT /  French Fry Generator (fwd)
>
>Biodiesels generally seem to have lower particulate emissions...the
>eco-diesel (not a methoxide one) that I mentioned is
fantastic in this
>regard....the higher cetane rating makes it much better
burning and all
>particulate production is reduced a lot (I'm pretty
sensitive to this being
>asthmatic and I sat pretty much on the end of a DOdge 4.5
litre 6cylinder
>diesel burning this stuff and had no problems... normal
service is a
>coughing fit within a few seconds and an attack if I carry
on in it for more
>than a few seconds...
>
>chrisc
>