Recoverable oil is usually stated as the quantity that is recoverable using current technology at the current price. As the price of oil goes up there is more recoverable oil since it becomes economical to recover it.

That said, people will always disagree as to how much oil is left and companies usually overstate their reserves. My point is that we are nowhere near the end of oil. We are in a declining period of reserves but since the price is going up the energy industry is very busy finding alternatives. Oil sands is just one. Oil shale is another. Natural gas which is trapped in seafloor ice is one that has the potential to dwarf all of the worlds oil reserves and past production as soon as they can figure out how to get it out.

When Canada can produce oil for $11/bbl and it's selling for 5 time that much they are going to be VERY busy working on ways to make it more efficient.

Edwin

 

No need to apologize and when I get the info it will be posted here.
Something that really peaked my interest was the comment about soy versus canola based bio. I immediately asked them to provide me with the information/studies/results of their findings to substantiate their claims. Theres something to do with the molecular structure as well.

I will be meeting with one of the groups next week.

Scotty

 

From what I understand, it's the length of the chains iodine value that makes a difference. Also, a base oil which has a higher melting point will produce a BD which will gel at a higher temp. I'd need to read up to see what the BTU content of different oils is. According to:

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_yield.html

Soybean and corn oils produce BD with the lowest cetane number (53). But both have fairly decent melting temp of -10C. Basically, the higher the iodine value the lower the melting point.

Edwin

 

Brown mustard and canola make the best BD

 

I wonder what the mustard exhaust smells like?

 

I've always read that BD made from rapeseed oil (a cousin of canola) was the best. I believe some cars in Europe are approved for RME use but not SME, I'm not sure why. Either way, I guess what I'm saying is that if you buy ASTM spec bio you are going to be safe.

Most of it is soy based in the US. I burned probably 3500 gals of world energy bd in 2001 and 2002, which was made from virgin soy. Then my local supplier switched to Griffin's bio-g3000, which contains some virgin and some recycled basestocks, which I ran another 500 gals of. The virgin soy bio was 49-50 cetane, the griffin stuff was 55-57 cetane. The higher cetane/recycled stock bio has a higher gel point, but I was living in FL, so I didn't care. I'm not sure what world energy is using now, but that's who supplies it to my local distributor here in OH.

What's disgusting is that I was getting 55 gal drums of bio delivered free to my house by this distributor, at $1.35 - $1.40/gal. Then the next year the government dropped the subsidy they were paying the bio manufacturers and the price jumped..pretty disappointing.

 

Rapeseed was mentioned too.
We have all of the canola and rapeseed we need up here.

I will find out about the cetane as well since that was mentioned as being increased as well.

Scotty

 

Scotty, check out camelina while you're at it. We've been experimenting with it, looks very promising for high grade BD.
Great thing about camelina is that it can be broadcast seeded over a field of wheat stubble in the fall and make a crop the next year with no tillage at all and is drought tolerant. We were able to get a great crop of it last year with only 4" of rainfall.

More info http://www.terramax.sk.ca/specialty/camelina.html

Many growers are looking to get away from soybeans due to the rapid spread of soybean rust disease which is expensive to control and is disastrous if it gets out of hand. In fact rust has the potential to devastate the entire US soybean industry. Rust is a fungus and develops resistance to fungicides rapidly, it might not be long till control measures are exhausted. Researchers are racing in a effort to develop controls by performing research south of the equator during the US winter.

 

Soybeans are only good for oil and hogfeed IMHO and there's better crops to grow for oil.

Edwin

 

Bio price? The last tank of B20 I bought was a nickel/gal cheaper than #2 Petrol from the local station that has the lowest prices in our county. Lets not talk about B100 price - but its not too bad if you mix it down.

Rubber parts and seals? Its not a problem for our 3rd gens. Can't say for any of the 2nd gens or the older Jurassic Cummins.

I got 21 mpg on a 400 mile tank last time on a B30 mix - mostly 65-70 mph slab speeds. Avg speed of that tank (miles/eng hours) was 50 mph. So much for lousy mileage comments.

The fuel filter and bowl were clean as a whistle yesterday when I changed it out. Had about 5,000 miles of bio under its belt, and about 11k total. The filter was the cleanest I'd ever seen coming out of my truck.

My source of Soy B100 looks and smells like bright yellow cooking oil. Can't say I can tell any difference from the exhaust aroma.

Hey Lightman, thanks for raising my awareness on bio. Good stuff.

 

After seeing the price of gas drop almost $.20 over night to a .30 difference between gas and diesel I think it is time to start looking at home brew. I spent some 12 hours Sat researching bio diesel and home brewing. It appears safe and extremely environmentally friendly. as long as it is not sold you aren't doing any thing illegal either.
The process of transesterificaton is pretty easy and the equipment is readily available at McmasterCarr. I have a reliable source of used veg oil. The hardest and most expensive part is getting the methanol. (alcohol) The race car shops have it occasionally and there are somewhat local dealers. It still is 2.50 a gallon in small lots. If you get at least a 55 gal barrel it goes to about 2.25. If you reclaim the stuff from your mix the useage drops but you still need a source. It may be that I may have to buy a years supply to make it practiacal since I'll have to make a special trip quite ways to go get it. The hard part then becomes storage. Alcohol absorbs moisture like a sponge and just opening and closing the drum reintroduces moisture. Back in the race car days we used to use nitrogen from a welding bottle to pressurize the barrel for transfer and the nitrogen then stayed in the barrel and prevented atmospheric contamination.

So far it seems that B20 or home brew 20% is no problem in the winter as long as you use the standard anti gel like Powerserv or Stanadyne. Beyond this you may need a heater .

In the summer above about 40 degrees f you can easily use straight b100 or 100% home brew.

As far as lubricity it seems that bio as low as 1% is many times as slippery as dino so wear and tear on fuel pumps is much better.

After researching as I might for a college term paper I can't really see any reason not to try to make home brew or at least go to bio in some mix. For home brew, even worst case cost, it still is almost a dollar cheaper per gallon. Sure there is some labor needed but most of us could use a new hobby anyway. The way I look at it, this is one hobby that saves me $$$ instead of being a money pit.

The only real problem is that it produces much less smoke and it smells like french fries. This will make sooting harder and less effective.

 

I didn't have time to check all the replies but wondered if anyone tried the kits with heated tanks to use 100% used straight vegetable oil . When was the post about biodiesel in TX made ? I've seen ***** Nelson's boidiesel selling North of Dallas . As for the poster saying fuel won't affect warranty ... how about when gas was accidently put in then run ??

 

From what I hear, when gasoline is put in the tank, assuming you got nearly 100% gas, the truck would simply quit since gas won't run in a compression fired diesel. You might have inj pump problems however due to the absence of lubrication.

Edwin

 

Just a couple comments as follow ups and I wish the bio was more readily available.. But dont know how well it would agree with my truck..

Like someone mentioned early - I was listening to NPR on day and they were talking about as the price goes higher for a barrel of oil (over $50/bbl) there were plenty of sources that could be drilled at that price and we (usa) would have plenty of oil for our use.. But if it fell much lower than $50 it was not economical to try and obtain it from those same sources...

The comments on not having to rely on the ragheads jogged my memory that I thought we produced a lot of our own oil and if my math is correct we produce about 42% of our own oil (as per the following website and data)... The following link take you to a website that will give you full information, but here is a breakdown of where the US oil comes from just for general knowledge

Copied from website -

http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/usa.html

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Petroleum Imports/Exports
The United States averaged total net oil (crude and products) imports of an estimated 11.8 million bbl/d during January-October 2004, representing around 58% of total U.S. oil demand. Crude oil imports from Persian Gulf sources averaged 2.4 million bbl/d during that period. Overall, the top suppliers of crude oil to the United States during January-October 2004 were Canada (1.6 million bbl/d), Mexico (1.6 million bbl/d), Saudi Arabia (1.5 million bbl/d), Venezuela (1.3 million bbl/d), and Nigeria (1.1 million bbl/d).

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pleasant reading..

 

Bula - I've had no issues with soy based bio either. Glad you're enjoying it, it is great stuff. As for the fuel filter - having them clog is only really an issue with running b100 on older vehicles. The solvency isn't that great at just 20-30%, and your truck isn't old enough to build up a significant amount of sludge in the tank etc. IMO the 'carry an extra fuel filter' line is a cya statement that for the most part is unsubstantiated. The only time I'd actually ever carry an extra filter due to bio is if I was switching a 300k mile 1980's mercedes diesel over to b100, or something like that.

Wings - check out www.avlube.com . There are other vendors, but that's just one who sells these dessicating breather filters for 55 gal drums. Biodiesel, like alcohol or brake fluid, is hygroscopic - which means it readily attracts water. I ran those breathers on all of my 55 gal drums that I stored bio in. Never had a water issue, and did some initial vs 6 months of storage fuel analysis testing to confirm. Water measured by karl fischer method. I'm sure that would help with your methanol storage. A dehumidifer in the storage room wouldnt hurt either if feasible.