SB: Re: diesel(OT, still)

[Marcus Hardwick <marcus1@sonic.net>]

Bill Hunt wrote:

<snipped>
> parade of huge sport utility vehicles, and tour buses belching foul diesel
> smoke (which seem to be immune from emissions regs.  I don't understand how
> some buses and trucks are allowed to be so dirty)  

Bill, Some diesel engines are poorly maintained/adjusted. If you look at most
big rigs pulling a hill these days you won't see much in the way of particulates
(black smoke). Still, a few trucks and busses are improperly adjusted and not
injecting the correct amount of fuel and produce black smoke. The operators are
skimping on maintenance in order to "save money". (Which they loose in the long
run due to decreased fuel efficiency.) Most of the vehicles in this category
around here are some independent dump trucks that don't get proper attention.
Going up I-80 to Reno the worst ones I see are the gambling "fun" busses. The
regs are hard to enforce but diesel particulates are getting more attention.
Unfortunately there is a tendency to demonize diesel fuel, not those who use it
poorly. Diesel engines extract far more energy from a given volume of fuel than
gasoline. 

BTW, biodiesel is said to be 75% less polluting than petro diesel. Biodiesel can
be sustainable from the standpoint of sunshine to crops to vegetable oil to fuel
but there is still some output. About three units of energy in biodiesel fuel
for each unit of fuel and fertilizer energy used to grow/produce it (Ethanol is
about one to one).

If you'd like to read about making your own biodiesel check out:
http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_mike.html
That and some other pages can get you going.

Lots of farm equipment is run on diesel. I'd guess most straw bales are
produced/delivered using diesel fuel.

Marcus

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