Our new shop is having an opening party April 30th from 6-9pm.

223 Braddock Ave
Braddock, PA 15104

Free food and drinks!
412 894 8184

Why is there nothing like that in Michigan. We only have like 20 Biodiesel pumps in the entire state. Only 3 of them are in this city, and they're all over 10-12 miles away from where I live.

__________________
-diesel is not just a fuel, its a way of life-
'15 GLK250 Bluetec 118k - mine - (OC-123,800)
'17 Metris(VITO!) - 37k - wifes (OC-41k)
'09 Sprinter 3500 Winnebago View - 62k (OC - 67k)
'13 ML350 Bluetec - 95k - dad's (OC-98k)
'01 SL500 - 103k(km) - dad's (OC-110,000km)
'16 E400 4matic Sedan - 148k - Brothers (OC-155k)

20? 3 in your city? we only have 2 in the entire state and no sign of anything new opening up. I'd burn 1/2 tank just to get to one.

__________________
1982 300TD 210K miles ("The Replacement" aka "The Anvil") - SOLD
1979 300SD 245K miles (never ending project)
2007 Pinarello F3:13
1995 Ducati 916 (SOLD, sniff)
1999 Ducati 900SSie (SOLD)

There's B100 about 1/4 mile from the house & a B20 pump on the way. But the E85 stations in Colorado consistently get press coverage while bd gets zero. Politics at its best.

There is nothing close to me in Greenville TX.

__________________
RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Yup, BD is definitely not in the mainstream here. I still have very mixed feelings about the whole thing. It's about the same price as petro diesel, MB has not endorsed it above B5, and some pretty credible folks are claiming that BD from soy is actually worse than petro diesel from a energy balance/ carbon balance/ environmental point of view. BTW, E85 has all the same issues. I know it "sounds" green, but I just don't see any up-side.

I'm aware of two B100 pumps within five miles of downtown Houston. It's all I run right now.

Cheers, John

The only "green" BD is the stuff that is made from recycled or WVO by the home brewers, all of the guys buying it at the pump are fooling themselves. Some sources say that 1.4 energy units are expended for every 1 unit produced when working with Virgin Oil. Not to mention the time put into tilling/planting/harvesting the crop. Ethanol is the same way only worse. Some of the universities are researching ways to make ethanol and biodiesel from a larger amount of the biomass in the plants rather than just the seeds. When politics and big money corn growers get out of the way the research will show that bio-digesters working with Grass crops will produce a much more "green friendly" fuel.

The only reason homebrewers are making a "green" fuel is because they are using a product that has already been used for some other purpose. The recylcing aspect of it is what makes it a viable venture.

Just my $.02

__________________
87 300D Turbo (still wondering about #14 head)
98 Buick Regal GS (one quick grocery gettr)
07 Honda CBR1000RR
04 Dodge Ram Laramie 4x4 CTD (heaven)
95 Dodge Ram 3500 CTD. Need snow plowed?

According to this joint study done by the US Dept. of Agriculture and the US Dept. of Energy...

http://www.nrel.gov/docs/legosti/fy98/24089.pdf

...each unit of energy that goes into growing soybeans and then processing them into biodiesel returns 3.2 units of energy contained in the fuel -- in other words, an energy efficiency of 320%. That's a pretty good start and should only get better as alternative fuels research continues.

I'm not an expert on these studies, but it's my understanding that the results have a lot to do with what parts of the processes (and transportation) you do or do not "count" in the energy balance. At this point I'm not sure who to believe. There is also a question of the prior use of the land that is used to produce soy. If you cut down forest to grow soy, you haven't really gained anything; but if you plant soy in an unused field, maybe you have.

I agree that using WVO as a stock for BD would be more efficient, but I don't know if the commercial suppliers can do that at a reasonable cost with any kind of decent quality control. I do know that I'm not about to do it myself.

I read the initial report and follow-up reports. The conclusion was that the initial report failed to also consider by-products of the production of VO. These by-products upped the energy gain considerably.

__________________
87 300SDL - 215K Miles !!
99 F-350CC Dually PSD - 190K
86 300SDL - 189K
All on B-100

Like I said Politicians and Big Corn growers (who have less lobby power than big oil but are still powerful) vs. educational institutions.


http://www.news.cornell.edu/stories/July05/ethanol.toocostly.ssl.html


I guess it depends on where you would put your faith.

I may have mis-read that study you put up but it seems to mention the energy in the Meal, although the energy exists I don't know of any comercial biodiesel producers that are using a process that gets biodiesel from anything other than the oil pressed from the seeds, but I've been wrong before and I'm sure I will be again.

Dinner time on the right coast, I'm outta this joint.

__________________
87 300D Turbo (still wondering about #14 head)
98 Buick Regal GS (one quick grocery gettr)
07 Honda CBR1000RR
04 Dodge Ram Laramie 4x4 CTD (heaven)
95 Dodge Ram 3500 CTD. Need snow plowed?

Hey I heard through the grapevine that you guys were opening up.


I am in Oakland taking classes at Pitt.


I'll be there on the 30th! Glad to hear about you guys

-Pat

__________________
Dieter- '84 300SD.Rusty,mismatched colors. All heart.
350k. Fine Mercedes Engineering

Fritz - 1981 240D 4 Spd

-'90 Isuzu Trooper.5spd. 2.6L4cyl.
Aerodynamics of a brick and gorgeous.

And you can still find scientists claiming that human activity has no relationship to global warming. But, as with global warming, the vast majority of studies in this case come to a similar conclusion, that biodiesel production creates a signifcant net energy gain.