I think that it is important to note that the US government buys up a vast amount of corn every year and dumps it into the ocean off the east coast. This is the way the corn farmers are subsidized. By decreasing the supply, the government effectively keeps the price of corn elevated to make sure that farmers can buy their million dollar combines and lots of unnecessary farm equipment. Rather than waste this corn, or help to feed the homeless for Pete's sake, we could use it to produce more ethanol.

Also, in order to make biodiesel, one must have access to methanol, as it is required to distill (for lack of a better term) the fuel. You only need about two gallons of methanol to make a twenty gallon batch of biodiesel. Interesting to note that biodiesel provides noticeable performance gains over regular diesel fuel. There was an episode of "Trucks" on Spike that detailed the biodiesel making process, and yes, fastfood restaurants will give away their old fry grease. Beats having to pay a company to come and haul it away.

Here is a link to the exact product used on "Trucks," and yes, while expensive, this kit makes forty gallons every day for the price of around four gallons of methanol, some sodium hydroxide (used as a catalyst in the chemical reaction), and tap water. I personally think it would be worth it, but as of right now, gas is not quite expensive enough for me to justify $3000.

http://www.fuelmeister.com/products/fuelmeister.asp

Just my two cents....

 

I dont think we have that much waste around to make enough bio diesl. Also its cheap because its not in demand. If everybody started doing it then restraunts will sell it instead of giving it away. Now they pay people to take it.

Ethanol is a good idea but we probably dont have enough corn laying around to completely rid ourselves of real oil. I would love to see them raise the amount in gas from the current 10% though. Its a shame we pay farmers not to grow it or just dump it somewhere. There is always someone that would eat it.

 

I wonder what the cost of just buying veggie oil in bulk vs. petrol is to fule a car.

 

like betaomega369 said....
the US gov is paying to either dump extra corn to keep prices "livable" for farmers.... or paying farmers to NOT grow anything at all.... so kick up some of those unused fields to corn growing and other less profitable crops to those that can produce ethonal... that would bump up our ability get a step closer to supplying enough..... not a big step... but a ste none the less

 

Everyones exhaust would smell like McDonald french fries on the fryer grease fuel. That would be cool!

 

If I had a diesel I would definetly buy the kit. For those of you who worked or work in fast food know that restaurants give away there oil all the time to recyclers. I have heard that there are some people dumb enough to pay companies to pick it up. This stuff is used to make pet. Jelly chap stick............ And so on. So to pay $3000 for the cars life, that's extremely cheap. That's probably what everyone spends in a year.

 

I think we are all looking too far in the future here though, by making more E85 cars we are REDUCING dependancy on foriegn oil not getting rid of it. It could be a possible replacement, but I bet Hydrogen will be the ultimate replacement at some point.

 

Hydrogen would be are BEST bet. Every one could produce there own some day. (if the Gov. would let you I guess) with a cell in there back yard from what I was told and it burns clean, only producing water. It’s Light! When hydrogen escapes into the atmosphere, it is so light that it scatters immediately upward in the air (it’s 14 times lighter than air). This means that a hydrogen spill won’t pool on the ground, pollute groundwater, or soak into clothing—it removes itself!..this last part I copyed from the Hydrogen web site

One more prob. that I dident see any one mition. If cars are converted and able to run off of other fuels, how would americans get the cars??? I dont know too many people who can just go out and buy a new car that is ready for different fuel. If you have a new car you mite beable to trade or go out and pick up a new car PAYMENT!! But if you think about how many people can not do this then you would see that we will be depending on gas for a while still to come. The gas companys know that just because theres hype about new ways to burn cleaner that more than half (50%) of americans will not beable to jump right in!

Just my opinion. If you want some facts on hydrogen check out this site.
http://www.hydrogennow.org/index.html

 

Bio diesel is not just from used frying oil, it is also made from soy and corn.
A question on ethnanol: There were reports this week of major gasoline makers re-tooling to make the ethanol gas mixture for the US market. I know that the current crop of gas engines will run on it, but will constant use of this type of fuel cause damage to our engines and other parts? Way back in my memory bank I remember hearing that this type of gas/ehthanol mixture was bad for rubber parts and other parts of car/truck engines. Anybody here know more about this?
Thanks,
Matt

 

ethnanol is corrosive and burns differently and your car needs to be built for it to run something like E85.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E85