Author Topic: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)  (Read 2742 times)

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Offline narider

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Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« on: October 22, 2008, 10:24:11 AM »
I don't know if this "holds water", but figured others smarter then I might (interesting to see if it goes anywhere if nothing else).
http://cc.pubco.net/www.valcent.net/i/misc/Vertigro/index.html
Todd

Offline peglegcraig

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #1 on: October 22, 2008, 11:04:52 AM »
Hey, thank's for that video. It could be something that could help us all from a $ per mile point of view. If it could help us slow or stop our use of foreign oil, it should be "fast tracked" ASAP. I'd love to see Chavez drown in his dinosaur pi$$. :-D
But if the long term goal of transportation is 0% emisions......it's still carbon based.

McRat

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #2 on: October 22, 2008, 11:52:17 AM »
Diesel is the most concentrated energy source that is currently in use for transportation.
And it can yield the highest BTU per acre when made from biomass, as well as the cheapest BTU cost.
Algae is very promising, and can yield several times more BTU per dollar and per acre than ethanol fuel can.
Even when using petroleum, diesel yields more BTU per barrel at a lower cost than gasoline. 

Another great innovation is the conversion of natural gas to diesel to make "synthetic diesel".  Extremely low sulphur, cleaner burning, and competitively priced, it makes natural gas "world transportable" without pipelines.

For racing purposes, diesel yield 20% more HP from the same amount of fuel, and there is no need for expensive racing gasoline or methanol to supress detonation. 

Europe is way ahead of us with diesel technology, and more than half the cars are diesel.  It's how they combat high fuel costs.

Offline jimmy six

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #3 on: October 23, 2008, 04:20:24 PM »
What are we waiting for? 98% of New Mexico is empty now and they only want 10%....Ops wait a minute; we need to pay Exxon a $3.50 per gallon handling fee. :evil:

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Offline Milwaukee Midget

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2008, 07:44:53 PM »
I guess I'd want to read a bit more before I jumped on the bandwagon.  I seem to remember the promise of nuclear energy was that it would be so cheap to produce that it wouldn't require metering. 

I'd be concerned about which species of algae produced the best fuels and if it was benign to the environment in the concentrations that production would require.  All those hanging Hefty bags and PVC pipes look kind of fragile, but I understand that this is an experiment.

Sure would be nice to replace our dependence upon foreign oil with a hotrod pool skimmer.

Thanks for posting this, Todd.
"Problems are almost always a sign of progress."  Harold Bettes
Well, I guess we're making a LOT of progress . . .  :roll:

Offline John Burk

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #5 on: October 25, 2008, 12:27:19 AM »
Bio-diesel is solar energy without the batteries . The sun combines atmospheric co2 with hydrogen and gives off oxygen . The diesel combines oxygen with carbon and gives off co2 . Tie score . They say the leftover half of the algae that's not oil is good for making ethanol .

John

Offline tomsmith

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2008, 10:22:33 AM »
Instead of New Mexico, I suggest Washington DC as the site.  Nothing useful ever happens in DC and we wouldn't want the NM rattlesnakes to get harmed (I'm a practical environmentalist).  San Francisco is a good backup site.
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Offline Stainless Two

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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #7 on: October 26, 2008, 12:00:32 AM »
very interesting!   :cheers:
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Re: Fuel oil engineering (diesel, etc)
« Reply #8 on: October 28, 2008, 02:51:10 PM »
Algae is competitive at a $90/barrel of light-sweet crude equivalent, or about $3.25/gallon retail with taxes.  For diesel, that's pretty good.

The immediate idea with it is to put these plants next door to concentrated CO2 emitters, like concrete plants and coal fired generators.  The next generation will use strains of algae that excrete the oil so that they don't have to be harvested and squeezed, combined with atmospheric capture of CO2.  Then we can shut off the coal plants.

Do not underestimate the scale of this problem.  Today, the US gets 53% of it's total energy from coal.  Not 53% of the electrical, 53% of EVERYTHING.  That equates to hundreds of millions of TONS of coal every year.  Frontline just did a special on this and the two top coal executives in the country said flat out that there is no such thing as "clean coal" (all carbon capture ideas are still theoretical), and there is no replacement for the "base power generation" (27/7, 365, throttle-able with demand) that coal provides.  BTW, coal costs less than $20/barrel equivalent of oil.  So dumping coal and going to algae would raise your electric bill by 4X.

We lack the political will to do nuclear right;  wind, solar and hydro-electric are resource-driven, not demand-driven.  Algae is great for the environment, but it will be a painful and expensive transition.