Quote:
|
Originally Posted by stevebee
...
I'd say an argument against home-made biodiesel is the use of methanol and lye, both of which are pretty nasty.
--steve
|
Ever use a fondue set or such like at home? Methanol or denatured alcohol (ethanol with a 5% methanol additive so you don't drink it).Methanol is also known as :carbinol, colonial spirit, columbian spirit, methylol, methyl hydrate, wood alcohol, wood naphtha, wood spirit, methyl hydroxide, pyroxylic spirit, RCRA waste number U154, meths. Methyl Hydrate is common.
Windshield wiper fluid ? Methanol/methyl hydrate, according to a university chemistry professor I spoke to about it.
Lye= drain cleaner. Drano is 55% lye, while Red Devil was 100% sodium hydroxide until just lately.
Sure, if you drink methanol or lye it will not be a pleasant experience and using these chemiclas does require some safety concerns to be addresed, but the same is true outside of homebrewing biodiesel with them too.
Oven cleaner is considerable more toxic and yet thousands of households have it undr the sink or on an easily accessible shelf. The average home contains all kinds of hazzardous and potentially unhealthy substances that all require safety practices to be observed,so unless you can't read anddon't follow instruction very well you will not have any problems with homebrewing biodiesel.
All of the environmental issues are true, and it is win win. Why is commercial biodiesel so expensive, other than the obvious transport and labour costs ? They use virgin oil which is NOT viable energy wise, or barely. Homebrewers use used cooking oil (WVO) by and large and this IS viable energy wise returning almost 9 times the energy taken to produce it. Renewable and sustainable if done respectfully, yet insufficient as a sole alternative energy source to replace petroleum fuels. Ethanol needs to be encouraged and explored more, as are biomass natural gas productions .All those cattle farmers are sitting [literally] on a mountain of fuel that could heat their homes and barns and power their gas cars with just slight modifications just like they are doing now with propane. There just simply is not the political will to do this and Big Oil lobbies do not see it as being in their interests to promote alternative fuels until they can find a way to either outlaw private production or elsewise control the productions as they do now with petroleum products.
The problem isn't alternative energies, the problem is all those monkey wrenches being thrown into the spokes of the machine.
