Thursday, August 18, 2005

question of the day.

Is there any reasn a fleet of school buses would not want to run on bio diseal?

6 comments:

Paul said...

For the moment, biodiesel is up to 30 cents higher than regular diesel. It is supposed to run cleaner and smell better, but I bet the price dominates.

New tax breaks for biodiesel blenders and higher petrol prices may bring the price difference smaller or even reverse someday.

Round Belly said...

I thought you said that you were gettings ome at $1/gallon.

Paul said...

Biodiesel is actual diesel fuel that is created from vegie oil. It will run in ANY diesel engine.

A slightly modified engine will burn direct vegie oil. The used veggie oil is currently about one dolar.

Ryan is modifying his truck, it involves adding another fuel tank and heaters to preheat the veggie oil, and a switch to switch between regular and vegie.

Round Belly said...

So if used veggie oil is $1, what processes or ingredients make bio desil more expensive?

Paul said...

It requires some lye and a lot of alcohol. Both are a little dangerous to handle, so the process takes some care and time.

For us mere mortals, I understand that it takes about $.70 woth of alcohol per gallon of biodiesel produced.

The by products are glycerine and soap.

Round Belly said...

intersting by products- sounds like clean fuel