Re: [alfa] Biodiesel, you're kidding right?

[Alex Jenner <alexj@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Partially it's the tax, but consider this.... on the BBC Top
Gear program they showed a car running on *used* cooking oil
from a fast food restaurant.... effectively a waste product.
They filtered it, to remove the solids, mixed with white
spirit so it would flow better and used it to run a diesel
car.... with a much better smell than diesel.

Yes, there's the tax advantage, but what is significant was
that the used cooking oil was effectively a waste product
that had already been used for it's intended purpose, rather
than a product grown specifically for automotive use.

Of course that idea doesn't scale too well... there's more
cars out there than fast food restaurants.

Regards
Lex Jenner
Auckland/New Zealand

C M Smith <cmsmith@domain.elided> wrote:

> What makes "biodiesel" financially viable is no road tax.
> In some countries  the authorities have cracked down on
> illegal fuels (illegal because no tax  paid).
>
> Someone needs to do the input energy calculations before
> biodiesel is  touted as the cure all for oil dependency.
> Those farmers (agreed they get  paid for doing nothing, or
> less than nothing) use a lot of petrochemicals  in the
> fuel for their machinery and for chemical fertilizer. Then
> you have  the "refining' costs.
--
to be removed from alfa, see /bin/digest-subs.cgi
or email "unsubscribe alfa" to majordomo@domain.elided