[SEL] OT, completely: Hydrogen as a fuel for personal autos

[Peterwoodmore at aol.com]

As one at the  front of  research in the use of Ethanol and vegetable oil 
fuels and the destroyer of a few diesel engines running on veg oils in the early 
1980s I thought I might put my 2 bobs worth in.
    First let me say that methyl esters of vegetable oils or Bio Diesel are a 
great fuel and burn more efficiently than diesel fuel but they to have there 
problems. I will use figures for Sunflower oil only.
Firstly the area of land needed to grow sufficient quantities. Yield of  650 
litres / hectare or approx 70 us gals /acre. Divide this into the amount of 
diesel used in the US and you get how many EXTRA acres of land you need just to 
grow fuel. Ah ha you say, we will use recycled oil. But you would be lucky if 
you could recycle 20% of what you grow now. We also need an area to grow them 
that does not suffer droughts, floods or petulance so we have a consistent 
supply
    Esters are an organic solvent and affect some plastics and rubbers so you 
have to replace some seals with Viton A seals or better.
    Esters react with conventional engine oils so if you have crook oil rings 
you could end up with a thick rubbery goo in the sump. Extra oil changes or 
stuffed engines.
    For every tonne  of Grain you get 125 US gals of oil but you also get 
660kg of meal that we have to get rid of
    For every 100 gals of Bio Diesel we need 25 gals of Methanol or Ethanol 
and 4lb of caustic soda.
    For every 100 US gals of Bio diesel produced we produce about 20 gals of 
Glycerol, we have to find a use for this.At present the market is satisfied.
    We also need large quantities of water to wash the Oil to remove any 
residual caustic soda.
Long term storage presents problems with oil reacting with the metal 
container and becoming thick again taking on the colour of the metal oxide. This 
causes filters and pipes to block and engines to stop. Only a problem with ag 
equipment used seasonally.
    Bio Diesel if spilled on paintwork is a good paint stripper.
    In Europe and other parts of the world where Bio Diesel is used it is 
heavily subsidised, this can only happen for a short time.
Many of these things seem minor but when we multiply them by the amount 
needed to replace diesel they become major environmental issues.
    I still say that Bio diesel is an excellent substitute for diesel but I 
can not see it as a total replacement. It has many good qualities as well but 
we have to look at it subjectively with all the hype.
    I see it as one fuel amongst many that are available now and in the 
future, I can not see one energy source alone at the present time that will replace 
oil but a variety of fuels depending on location, fixed or mobile, natural 
resources available eg natural gas etc. No alternate fuel is with out some side 
effects just as no medicine  is.
That's my 2 bobs worth in as short a space as possible

Peter Woodmore. 
peterwoodmore at aol.com
Skype name Woadmere