Please don't. This is a good 'un. Ya nailed it MedMech. But now.... Oh God, we do we always destroy what we create? (tortured sobs)

I'm starting to believe that anyone who can put together a functioning alt. fuel scene is liable to be a valuable commodity one day soon. Part of my grief with growth minded Republicans, like Bush, is they don't seem that interested in actually using the considerable lead time we now have to the best advantage.

If we end up relying on heavy use on tar sands, shale oil, and coal tar as petroleum peters out, it's still just a matter of time before it's gone. And the damage that could well result from those methods, if fully tapped to provide current levels of BTUs, is not a pretty vision of my children's future.

I read somewhere about a farmer who was farming rapeseed (canola) for fuel oil, and was running all his equipment on his own bio brew. I also understand you can substitute ethanol for methanol in making biodiesel but it takes a good setup and is more difficult.

If a bio-diesel oil farm cannot run it's own machinery on a small fraction of it's produce, we're in trouble. That's the big debate in ethanol at the moment -- I mean I don't know how big the debate is, but: Does ethanol production from corn produce more energy than it uses? Other kinds of ethanol are more efficient perhaps, like using rice straw to make it (doing it here in No. Cal), but there's only so much of that.

I have mixed feelings about the notion of getting anywhere near current BTU levels from ethanol produced from agriculture. I just wonder if the earth could sustain it -- what would be the cost in water and soil.

But, maybe with the proper permaculture like setup, it could work with oil. I have this fantasy about a demonstration farm: oil, ethanol, biodiesel. Hell, we'll use it as a country acadamy for ADS teenagers and put those snots to work. Make documentaries n' stuff. But first, you'd have to know it works.

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1986 300SDL, 362K
1984 300D, 138K