TJ, vegetable oils oxidize really easily, form gums and goo. Some diesel fuels are unstable too though with aromatic controls and emission requirements, they are less common now. It takes some processing to make used vegetable oil okay to use. I doubt that it is economic compared with normal diesel fuel [if the same taxes are applied].
You won't notice a lack of power, acceleration, speed etc. You might, after some time, notice that things are gooed up and you later have no power, acceleration, speed etc.
Fuels need to be designed and quality controlled. There is too little random fish and chips used oil to be useful for diesel fuel. The most economic use for used vegetable oils is as power station fuel [or something similar where quality is not so crucial as in vehicles in cities].
In NZ, in 1983, I was in charge of the BP alternative fuels programme and we did things like brew up methanol with tallow [fat from sheep] to make tallow ester. We ran it in trucks and it is fine. But even in a nation of sheep, the amount was relatively small and never proceeded to commercial operation due to crude oil price declines.
I can imagine commercially grown oils such as rape seed might be economic for diesel fuel and the quantities would enable good quality control. But I suspect that it will be more economic to use cellulose = the whole plant, to produce ethanol and run the engines on Otto cycle [petrol style] as blends with gasoline or as pure ethanol, or in fuel cells [those fuel cells without platinum might be good = iron, nickel cobalt I think they were].
What's needed for vehicle fuel from biomass is very high production of dry mass and that's probably cellulose rather than oils or sugars.
How much waste cooking oil per capita is there? Not much.
Mqurice |
