http://vegoilconversions.netfirms.com/



to say about conversions to w/svo aqnd

more on algae. happy reading.

algae.http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=5264

http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=133


http://forums.biodieselnow.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3414

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currently
[1981 300 td tdidi 165500 dark brown/palamino-Brownie-mine-3k miles of ownership
1983 240d 162+++ Anthricite grey w/ henna red interior and hella lights-wifes car-Red

the above two cars are for sale
and can be seen on the cars for sale thread here. pix also available.


240d-144+ Manilla Yellow w/ palmino interior-greasecar kit-Blondie-the college kids car

23" gt 21 speed still on original tires-still got the nubs
21" khs tandem

Yeah, the concept of making biodiesel from acquatic cultures is great. I was very much intrigued when I first read about it a few month ago. Reading up on it shows that it's a pretty long way from becoming a reality though.

There's many hard problems that will need to be solved. The biggest issue with algae farming is massive crop dieoff from various infections. Algae is a simple organism without elaborate defense mechanisms, it succumbs easily. Genetic engineering may be of some help here, but that comes with a host of problems of its own (who wants super-algae-that-can't-be-killed in lake Tahoe? And will people want to feed super-algae dry residue to their cattle?). Lack of toughness also makes feeding algae hard. Using sewage as a fertilizer sounds great in concept (and in fact sewage treatment may be the primary vehicle for driving algae farming, rather than anything fancy like fuel production), but "sewage" isn't exactly a well-defined substance. What if it contains enough herbicide runoff? And of course the cost of algae farming will need to come down a lot before it becomes practical for anything.

Those are hard problems that can be solved through technology (i.e. those are really the easier kind). At least US is relatively well positioned for large-scale farming of algae: there's plenty of suitable desert terrain. Of course, local BANANA people will sue the bejesus out of anyone trying to use pristine desert for making ugly smelly scum ponds, and it may ultimately be as hard a problem to solve as any, but from the point of common sense it's a better problem to have than basic lack of suitable terrain (e.g. in Japan, which to their credit doesn't stop Japanese from trying: they have developed seriously high-tech underground algae farm projects, with fiberoptic light sources -- expensive beyond any hope of course).

What this stuff needs is research money. It's pretty pathetic that US government _had_ an acquatic-organisms-for-fuel program, but stopped funding it in mid-80s. I personally hope that once plain soybean-based biodiesel gets enough exposure, research money for other biodiesel sources will materialize. One never knows though: so far most of the current political biodiesel push has been provided by the farming lobby, not enviromentalists.

Modern, direct injection, diesel engines will happily go 10,000 miles between oil changes on synthetic motor oil. My VW TDi does.

Danny: The 617 doesn't use 3 gallons of engine oil, don't know where you got that from.

Kevin

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'85 300SD