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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Suma who wrote (136501)	6/13/2004 6:54:16 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Read Replies (2) of 281500

Suma, my job with BP Oil [in the 1980s] included alternative fuels. Sure, you can use vegetable oils, sheep fat and other things as sources for diesel fuels. They need some processing to make them suitable. We ran a fleet of trucks on tallow esters in the 1980s for example. It works okay. What matters is the cost. I'm out of date now on the economics of vegetable oils and fats as diesel fuel sources, but I'd guess that at $50 a barrel for crude oil, they'd be worthwhile. Of course there's not enough used cooking oil from restaurants to be economic - it's best use would be as fuel oil in power stations. Maybe it would be okay for boilers in small facilities, but these are more sensitive. One problem with using unprocessed vegetable oils is gooping up the engine. There are many ways of keeping the world moving without middle east oil when prices are at $40 to $50 a barrel. Mqurice

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