The proportions of various distillates can be varied by turning catalytic crackers on or off. Also, various crudes have various hydrocarbon contents. New Zealand's light distillate for example is mostly gasoline with some diesel [both are good quality right out of the ground].
I haven't checked the economics yet, but I would be surprised if it isn't now economic to get something like hemp, pulverize it into smithereens, mix it with diesel and inject it into engines.
It wouldn't even need drying - the water would give the microscopic hemp neutral buoyancy to prevent phase separation. Dried hemp would float. Too wet and it would sink. Too cold and it would freeze. Fortunately, hemp doesn't grow in frozen places but does in hot places, so hemp could be used in warm climates. Some water makes for cleaner combustion.
Ash and muck would be a problem with hemp in diesel engines. Engines don't go well with a lot of slag gumming up the works and acting as a grinding paste.
But with processing to remove all but the good parts, it would probably be okay.
Or, burn the hemp, coconuts, random foliage and urban waste in power stations, delivering electricity via superconductors to electrically propelled vehicles.
With oil at $130 a barrel, nearly everything becomes an economically alternative energy source; nuclear, coal, wind, waves, tides, photovoltaics, solar on vaccum tubes filled with water, insulation, smaller vehicles, walking, cyberspace, delivery vehicles [instead of driving oneself - 100 parcels in one van is cheaper than 1 parcel in an SUV], tallow, methanol, methane, plants, shale, bituminous crudes, geothermal.
When the price crashes again, as it will, as happened quarter of a century ago, the alternative fuels programmes will be shelved, again. Some will hold their ground [nuclear reactors once built won't be shut down = though it's interesting that Canada is putting restrictions on producing uranium].
Mqurice |
