Alternate Fuel 

Biodiesel information, petro-diesel, biofuel vegetable oils,biofuel animal fats, biofuel used cooking oils, Want to make bio-diesel? Anybody can make biodiesel. It's easy, you can make it in your garage, backyard or kitchen -- and it's better fuel than the petro-diesel the oil companies sell you. My neighbors have experienced that their diesel motor running better and last longer on your home-made fuel, and it's much cleaner -- better for the environment and better for health. Use Old used cooking oil -- If you make it from used cooking oil it's not only cheap but you'll be recycling a troublesome waste product that too often ends up in sewers and landfills instead of being recycled. Be Green! Beat the greed of the oil companies... Best of all is the GREAT feeling of freedom, independence and empowerment making your own fuel will give you. Biodiesel information: Everything you need to know. Want to know exactly... how to do it? Biodiesel choices ...run a diesel engine on biofuel using vegetable oils, ...run a diesel engine on biofuel using animal fats plus vegetable oils, ...run a diesel engine on biofuel using used cooking oils, ...You can use both fresh and used oils together. How you might want to mix the oils to make biofuel-- biodiesel? ** Use the straight vegetable oil-- just as it is -- this is referred to as: SVO fuel **Pure plant oil this is referred to as: PPO fuel ** Mix it with kerosene (paraffin) **Mix it with petro-diesel fuel, or **Mix it withbiodiesel, or **Mix it or blend it with a solvent, or **Mix it with gasoline; ** Convert new or used oil to biodiesel. The first two methods sound easiest, but, as so often in life, it's not quite that simple. 1. Mixing it Furl your auto with cooking oil? Yes, Vegetable oil is much more thicker (more viscous) than either petro-diesel or biodiesel. The fuel needs to flow more freely: The purpose of mixing straight sticky (new or used)vegetable oil (SVO) and blending it with other fuels and solvents is to lower the viscosity to make it thinner so that it flows more freely through the fuel system into the combustion chamber. Green thinking: If you're mixing SVO (Standard vegetable oil)with petro-diesel or kerosene you're still using fossil-fuel -- cleaner than most, but still not clean enough, many researchers might say. Still, for every gallon of SVO you use, that's one gallon of fossil-fuel saved, and that much less climate-changing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. You can experiment with various mixes, ranging from 10% SVO and 90% petro-diesel to 90% SVO and 10% petro-diesel. Some people just use it that way, start up and go, without pre-heating it (which makes veg-oil much thinner). Some even use pure vegetable oil without pre-heating it. Preheat with a simple device that increases your mileage even more. You might get away with it in summer time with something like an older '80s Mercedes 5-cylinder IDI diesel, which is a very tough and tolerant motor -- it won't like it but you probably won't wreck it. Otherwise, it's not wise. To do it properly you'll need what amounts to a proper SVO system with fuel pre-heating. (See next.) In which case there's no need for mixes. Blends of SVO with various solvents, magical "secret" ingredients (turpentine, mothballs, paint-stripper) or with unleaded gasoline are "experimental at best" -- little or nothing is known about their effects on the combustion characteristics of the fuel or their long-term effects on the engine. Not recommended -- use such blends at your own risk. Higher viscosity is not the only problem with using vegetable oil as fuel. Veg-oil has different chemical properties and combustion characteristics from the petro-diesel fuel that diesel engines and their fuel systems are designed to use. Diesel engines, especially the more modern, cleaner-burning diesels, are high-tech machines with precise fuel requirements (see The TDI-SVO controversy). They're tough but they'll only take so much abuse. There's no guarantee of it, but using a blend of up to 20% veg-oil of good quality with 80% petro-diesel is said to be safe enough for older diesels, especially in summer. Otherwise using veg-oil as fuel requires a professional SVO solution -- or convert it biodiesel. Mixes and blends are generally a poor compromise. But mixes can have one advantage in cold weather. As with biodiesel, some kerosene or winterised petro-diesel mixed with straight vegetable oil lowers the temperature at which the SVO starts to gel. (See Using biodiesel in winter) More about fuel mixing and blends. 2. Straight vegetable oil Straight vegetable oil fuel (SVO) systems can be a clean, effective and economical option. Unlike biodiesel, with SVO you have to modify the engine. The best way is to fit a professional single-tank SVO system with replacement injectors and glowplugs optimised for veg-oil, as well as fuel heating. With the German Elsbett single-tank SVO system for instance you can use petro-diesel, biodiesel or SVO, in any combination. Just start up and go, stop and switch off, like any other car. Journey to Forever's Toyota TownAce van has an Elsbett single-tank SVO system. There are also two-tank SVO systems which pre-heat the oil to make it thinner. You have to start the engine on ordinary petro-diesel (or biodiesel) in one tank and then switch to SVO in the other tank when the veg-oil is hot enough, and switch back again to the petro-diesel tank before you stop the engine, or you'll coke up the injectors. More information on straight vegetable oil systems here. 3. Biodiesel or SVO? Biodiesel has some clear advantages over SVO: it works in any diesel, without any conversion or modifications to the engine or the fuel system -- just put it in and go. It also has better cold-weather properties than SVO (but not as good as petro-diesel -- see Using biodiesel in winter). Unlike SVO, it's backed by many long-term tests in many countries, including millions of miles on the road. Biodiesel is a clean, safe, ready-to-use, alternative fuel, whereas it's fair to say that many SVO systems are still experimental and need further development. On the other hand, biodiesel can be more expensive, depending how much you make, what you make it from and whether you're comparing it with new oil or used oil (and depending on where you live). And unlike SVO, it has to be processed first. But the large and rapidly growing worldwide band of biodiesel homebrewers don't mind that -- they make a supply every week or once a month and soon get used to it. Many have been doing it for years. Anyway you have to process SVO too, especially WVO (waste vegetable oil, used, cooked oil, also called UCO, used cooking oil), which many people with SVO systems use because it's cheap or free for the taking. With WVO food particles and impurities and water must be removed, and it probably should be deacidified too. Biodieselers say, "If I'm going to have to do all that I might as well make biodiesel instead." But SVO types scoff at that -- it's much less processing than making biodiesel, they say.

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Alternative Fuels Mean Energy Independence, Say ACT Expo Speakers - Truckinginfo

USA TODAY

Alternative Fuels Mean Energy Independence, Say ACT Expo Speakers Truckinginfo By Tom Berg, Senior Editor Suppliers of alternative fuels and the equipment that burns them must cooperate to move America toward energy self-sufficiency and economic growth, says retired US Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a former commander of the North ... FortisBC launches incentive program for heavy-duty natural gas vehiclesCanada NewsWire (press release) all 302 news articles »

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New alternative fuels station opens in Fullerton - Los Angeles Times

Ethanol Producer Magazine

New alternative fuels station opens in Fullerton Los Angeles Times Horton hopes to add electric-vehicle charging stations, as well as natural-gas and hydrogen pumps, to Clean Mobility Centers in communities that are adopting those types of alternative-fuel vehicles. Horton said Propel analyzes vehicle registrations, ... First Clean Mobility Center Opens in CaliforniaNACS Online Fullerton, Calif., hosts Propel's first 'Clean Mobility Station'Biodiesel Magazine all 4 news articles »

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Alternative fuels powering fleets in Newport News, Gloucester - Daily Press

Daily Press

Alternative fuels powering fleets in Newport News, Gloucester Daily Press The work is contracted out at a cost of just under $6000 per vehicle with the funding from a Department of Energy program. Newport News is converting to propane fuel for police cruisers, park ranger vehicles and sheriff's department vehicles, ...

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Alternative Fuels Mean Energy Independence, Say ACT Expo Speakers - Truckinginfo

Alternative Fuels Mean Energy Independence, Say ACT Expo Speakers Truckinginfo By Tom Berg, Senior Editor Suppliers of alternative fuels and the equipment that burns them must cooperate to move America toward energy self-sufficiency and economic growth, says retired US Army Gen. Wesley Clark, a former commander of the North ...

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Clean Mobility Center, focusing on alternative fuels, opens in OC - Los Angeles Times

Hybrid Cars News

Clean Mobility Center, focusing on alternative fuels, opens in OC Los Angeles Times Propel Fuels plans to build 200 Clean Mobility Centers throughout the state, aided by grants from the California Energy Commission and US Department of Energy. "People are looking for alternatives. They're looking for transportation options that aren't ... Rethinking America's Gas Station, Propel Fuels Launches New VisionEnergy Digital (press release) all 10 news articles »

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