Life at the Warehouse

Biggreentruck has been hanging out behind a business park warehouse for a couple of weeks. That's the natty life- you work from home (where the vehicle is parked) unless you're driving a cube truck.

The oil supply adventures continue. We canvassed the regular haunts on Seaward with no luck. Then a gaggle of natties went karoke-ing at the Golden China. Jackpot! Jerry was glad to let me scoop from the dumpster even though the cooks didn't believe veggie oil would really power a truck. I filled my cubies-about 18 gals of nice looking oil- and plan to go back for more. Karoke is still weird.

The current filtering system is working out pretty well--Greasecar mistakenly sent 1 micron bag filters (I ordered 5 micron). The finer mesh means filtering takes a little longer but it will prolong the life of the engine filter. The hi-tech funnel (an upside down gallon water jug with the bottom cut off) now has a retaining strap to prevent acccidental spills. And, the southern California sun gently warms the oil in the cubies so it flows nicely. The process is still time consuming but is getting easier and less messy with every fill-up.

Biofuels Packet Part 2

What is the difference between (bio)ethanol, biodiesel and straight vegetable oil?
First, ethanol can be used in gasoline engines while biodiesel and svo can be used in diesel engines. Second, ethanol and biodiesel are refined products that have undergone a chemical reaction before becoming a fuel while svo is more crude. Third, any of the three can be combined with petroleum fuels (to form E85 or B10 for instance) or used neat (100% ethanol, biodiesel or svo).

Ethanol is an alcohol made by converting starches to sugars and then fermenting the sugars. It's a bit like brewing beer.According to the EPA, bioethanol is ethanol made from 'celluosic biomass' (forestry waste, leftover materials from food crops like stalks and leaves, household waste, etc) instead of feedstocks like corn. Ethanol production involves several steps to convert complex sugars into simple sugars, ferment the sugars, recover the ethanol and reclaim the byproducts. Lignin is a significant byproduct of ethanol production which can be burnt to produce electricity.

The basic chemical process looks something like this:

C6H12O6 -->2 CH3CH2OH + 2 CO2

glucose-->ethanol + carbon dioxide

Biodiesel is an alkyl ester produced from oil from various feedstocks like vegetable oils, animal fats or other recycled greases. This process of transesterification requires heat and a catalyst to react the triglycerides in the oil with an alcohol forming alkyl esters and glycerin.

Triglycerides + Free Fatty Acids (<4%)--> Alkyl esters + glycerin

Biodiesel from vegetable oil, for instance, can be produced in a blender. The process is relatively simple: mix the catalyst with methanol, add the oil, mix and the resulting biodiesel and glycerin will separate into 2 layers. Excess methanol can be recovered to be used again and the glycerin can be composted or used in pharmaceutical and cosmetic products.

Straight vegetable oil is just that: the same oil you would use to fry a wonton. It can be reacted into biodiesel or it can be used as fuel immediately. Many svo drivers and small biodiesel producers use waste vegetable from restaurants as their 'feedstock.' Virgin (unused) oil can also be used. Svo does indeed combust in a diesel engine but needs to be preheated.

Biofuels Curriculum Packet Part 1

These entries are the beginnings of a NAL biofuels info and curriculum packet that I hope to put together over the next couple of weeks. The goal is to provide natties with reasonable information and a few activities to share with their students when one of the biofuel-powered rigs is onsite. Biggreentruck welcomes comments and suggestions.

"The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time." Rudolf Diesel, 1911.

What are biofuels?
According to the Department of Energy, biofuels are biomass that has been converted to fuels such as ethanol, methanol, methane and hydrogen.
Basically, biofuels are fuels and oils made from renewable resources. Some biofuels are used to power vehicles, others are used in heating or electricity generation. Ethanol (for gasoline engines) and biodiesel (for diesel engines) are two types of biofuels often talked about in the US media. Sources of biofuels include waste vegetable oil, energy or feedstock crops such as soy, corn, or rapeseed, municipal solid waste, and other biomass. Researchers are currently finding ways to create biofuels from algae, flies and fungi.

This packet will focus on biofuels as alternatives to petroleum fuels for transportation.