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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum
GLD 382.95-0.8%4:00 PM EST

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To: elmatador who wrote (680)9/21/2005 6:03:55 PM
From: Maurice Winn  Read Replies (2) of 217749
 
ElM, 18 years ago Mq came up with BP Clear, which was either a milky or clear diesel/methanol/water emulsion. Ethanol okay too, but ethanol then was too expensive. Ethanol was another option and I was designing it so the driver could have a tube running into the cab for personal refueling too.

The diesel component of that variation would have been olive oil. A few sips and the driver would be ready to go and feeling good. He'd have had to dilute it with a bit of water I think. True, I wasn't taking the driver-fuel part of the idea very far.

But the rest I was serious about. The surfactant cost was the problem at the time, because diesel was quite cheap and surfactants expensive and methanol/ethanol were relatively pricy too. The gap should have closed a LOT now and I would be surprised if BP Clear isn't a great prospect now.

I couldn't decide whether a milky emulsion would be a better marketing idea, or clear. Clear would require more surfactant, but would make the fuel look like ordinary diesel. I quite liked the idea of it looking quite different so people would know they were getting the real thing.

The advantages were that emissions would be much cleaner, lower cost diesel components could be used, the oil would be cleaner and last longer, and ethanol/methanol could be used if they are cheaper.

An ex-colleague [not now in BP] I visited in July is still interested in my project and he and some friends are still working on it.

Mqurice
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