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From: Arild Jensen (no email)
Date: Mon Feb 17 2003 - 00:22:52 EST
-----Original Message-----
From: Gordon Wedman
I think most oil and grease from restaurants is used in some
way, maybe cattle feed for example, so it doesn't go in the dump like it may
have at one time. Turning it into diesel is fine with me as long as someone
guarantees the quality. It wouldn't make sense to wreck an expensive engine
to save a few hundred dollars per year.
REPLY
Who is talking about wrecking an expensive engine?
Did you read the article in Homepower where the author explains what the
adjustments and compensations are when switching to bio-diesel?
For that matter what do standards mean if the fuel pump operator fails to
keep his storage tanks clean and free of condensation.
You could end up with a tank full of crud even if the regular diesel fuel
is government certified at the time it left the refinery.
Issues such as this which involve recycling a by-product or waste product
often hinge more on political will than technical issues.
Despite a fairly major effort by one company to reclaim and recycle waste
lube oil from service stations, the program has never acquired popular
appeal.
Safety Kleen purchased a couple of small oil refineries deemed
uneconomical by the big oil companies.
The company has a fleet of tanker trucks that collect waste oil from
garages and lube shops not to mention marinas.
This oil is ordinarily deemed a hazardous waste simply because it has been
removed from an engine.
Safety Kleen re-refines the oil and test it to make sure it meets original
specifications for viscosity, and other characteristics.
I have been buying this product for years, long before I knew it was
recycled oil. So far I have not seen any evidence that it is inferior to oil
costing twice as much.
Likewise with biodiesel or gasohol or Methanol - whatever you wish to call
a gasoline containing a large percentage of alcohol.
The issue being discussed is whether or not such a product makes sense
assuming it is made to meet the required technical criteria)
Cheers
Arild
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