Alternative fuel.

[rayk]

USHUAIA, Argentina (Reuters) - When the squat, red firetruck, smelling of greasy chips reached the literal end of the road, two young Americans jumped out and gave each other "high fives."

Nine months after they set off from Alaska to spread the gospel of biofuels, Seth Warren and Tyler Bradt completed their journey on Sunday at the end of Highway 3, which dead-ends at the southern tip of South America.
Along the way, the twenty-something buddies made hundreds of stops on two continents to ask for people's used frying oil and animal fat, which powered their lorry.
"What do people at the restaurants say when you ask them for the used oil? Do they think you're crazy?" Osvaldo Colombero, a passerby, asked the men in Argentina's Tierra del Fuego National Park.
"No, they think it's super funny," Bradt responded, standing beside the small Japanese fire lorry that covered about 34,000 kilometres (21,000 miles) since July 2006. The trip was part of the Oil and Water Project, created by Warren and Bradt to raise awareness of biofuels while taking them on a kayaking and surfing adventure through the Americas.

"People out in the world right now are starving for other sources of energy. With the (high) prices of petroleum, I'd say the economic benefits are astounding," Warren said. "People need fuel for their lifestyles and this trip right here is just an example of how we fuel our lifestyle."
The lorry, baptized "Baby" by a Rastafarian in Belize, is packed with tanks to clean the waste vegetable oil or lard and turn it into fuel for its standard diesel engine.
In Alaska, the duo ran the lorry on fish oil. In Mexico and Central America, they used pig fat from the Chicharroneras -- stands that serve fried bits of pork.
They fuelled up with palm oil in Colombia and Ecuador and soy oil in Bolivia and Chile.
Along the way, they coordinated with U.S. embassies to organise seminars for children and university students about their trip and the use of biofuels.
The idea is to find alternatives to burning fossil fuels, which release gases like carbon dioxide that are linked to global warming.
The United States, the world's biggest emitter of such gases, pulled out of the Kyoto Protocol, which binds most industrialized nations to cut harmful emissions.
"We're trying to set an example of maybe how Americans should behave and how our country should act, and how we as a nation should provide a role model for the rest of the world to use alternative fuels," Bradt said.
The men performed cartwheels at the national park sign which reads: "Alaska 17,848 km." Warren grabbed a towel and headed for the nearby bay, where he planned to skinny-dip. "How do I feel being at the end of the world? Well, in all honesty, it feels like just the beginning," he said.

I have cut and pasted this article because the link wont last for very long. The picture is the link to the original article on Yahoo!

A friend of mine used to run used vege oil in his Lister diesels on a big old Donovan schooner. Nice fish and chip smell in the anchorage when he ran the auxillary engine.

rayk

[Bergalia]

Delayed reply Rayk because (unusually) I had nothing to add to your earlier note. But last night (24/4/07) the ABC 7.30 Report had a fascinating piece on the 'alternative' fuel which is rapudly gaining recognitoion of Bougainville - coconut oil. There's now a small industry (three men and a boy) converting copra into a refined fuel for diesel engines. Great pictures of various 'official' and private vehicles running around with large stickers on their doors: "Fueled by Coconut." Cars, taxi's, buses, police 4X4's and the local council garbage lorries.

[rayk]

I wonder what the exhaust smells like?

Might be a nice change for the mechanics in the workshop.

Aussie ABC? Maybe their website has a transcription of the broadcast?

[rayk]

Islanders look to coconuts as oil prices rise
Struggling with rising oil prices, Pacific island nations are increasingly looking to coconut oil, long a basic foodstuff and massage lubricant, as an economically and ecologically sound petroleum alternative.

Imagine western economies being in thrall to the banana republics if coconut oil gets off the ground.
The Arabs will laugh their heads off.

In Vanuatu, a proving ground for coconut oil as an alternative fuel
Entrepreneur Tony Deamer shows that pure coconut oil can be used as an alternative to petroleum in automotive diesel engines. The result is an environmentally friendly fuel that might also help the local economy.

[rayk]

Pelena Energy of Australia has developed technology for reliably operating diesel engines on coconut oil (CNO). It is planned that the vessel will be operating on a blend of diesel fuel and coconut oil in late 2006/early 2007, after business establishment, and later on pure coconut oil.

Coconut powered boat.

[rayk]

An innovative 21m alloy ‘fuel smart’ boat is being launched worldwide at Sanctuary Cove International Boat Show on May 24 - 27. Black Gold can reprocess waste oil or vegetable oil into a useable fuel within its hull as well as blend that fuel at suitable rates with diesel fuel to maintain perfect ratios.

Private refinery

[Bergalia]

Originally Posted by rayk

Aussie ABC? Maybe their website has a transcription of the broadcast?

http://www.abc.net.au - It was a TV programme - but transcripts are usually available for iPod or Computer play about five days later...worth checking.

[marshmat]

Biofuels have got to be the media darling of the year.....
There's a lot of promising biofuel technologies, yes. But before we get too carried away- let's make sure we're not converting food-growing land to grow fuel oil, OK? And let's not clearcut forests to get more space for ethanol crops? If we start doing that, it'll undermine every single benefit the biofuels have to offer.

[Pericles]

As soon as anything clever (and alternative to mainstream thinking) works, then governments will tax it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_vegetable_oil

Why do people delude themselves that they have found the holy grail of free fuel.? If you could run an engine on water, the government would slap a tax on. Something like "Water for human consumption, tax free. Water for use in any vehicle on land, sea or air, TAXED.

Don't you think they would tax the air we breathe, if they could get away with it?

Sure, stick a bit in the fuel tank, but don't make a song and dance over it and warn the authorities.

As it happens, corn oil can be purchased at 40 pence per litre against over £1 per litre for DERV at the pumps and it does not have the giveaway smell of chips. Best place for it, especially if you wish to avoid breast cancer. http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/cancer-breast.html

Away from the land, use anything that burns. If the EU won't let the Brits access to red diesel for pleasure craft, I say remember "Waterworld" and try and seize the Exxon Valdez!

Will we see the return of wood burning steamers on the briny?

Pericles

[Mychael]

Originally Posted by Pericles

Why do people delude themselves that they have found the holy grail of free fuel.? If you could run an engine on water, the government would slap a tax on. Something like "Water for human consumption, tax free. Water for use in any vehicle on land, sea or air, TAXED.
pericles

So true, my mate (a pom) told me story (not sure from what era) that they did actualy tax SUNLIGHT in the Uk. I don't recall the reason now but is the reason why so many of the Estate homes had smallish windows... True Story.... Maybe our pommy listers can confirm this.

Mychael

[Pericles]

Almost true,. there was a window tax and many houses from that era still have blocked up windows. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Window_Tax

Then there was Scutage. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scutage

They''ll ---king tax anything!!

Pericles

[marshmat]

I would hardly consider British politics of the 17th century relevant to the present-day debate over fuels.
Perhaps as a Canadian I'm lucky in this matter. Sure, our government has some tax policies that don't make much sense (for instance, how oil sands companies get massive subsidies and refunds). But on the whole, our governments try to tax things only when the public good outweighs the individual complaints. Our fuel taxes help to offset the cost of building and maintaining roads, and of cleaning up the damage done by the oil industry. Our income taxes (which you don't pay at all if you're poor) help to cover our excellent health-care system, schools, public infrastructure, etc.
Taxes are the price of civilization. Sure, you might grumble when you have to pay them. But think about what you wouldn't have- roads, hospitals, parks, schools- without them.

[rayk]

When Rudolf Diesel invented the diesel engine, he designed it to run on peanut oil but it was soon discovered that it would operate on cheaper petroleum oil.

The peanut barons have never recovered from this...

[rayk]

On the subject of taxes, I like consumption taxes such as GST.
I can earn what I like without being robbed, and pay as little or as much tax when I choose.
Corporate tax should be abolished, and GST made non-refundable.

Income taxes encourage deceit at all levels of society.

Petroleum taxes are great! I would love to see quiet streets and busy sidewalks and train stations and buses and the family going for a sunday drive and kids walking to school....
The sheer volume of useless activity people undertake by driving annoys me.

Government spending of tax money on roads is money down the loo. Wealthy countries will have vast intricate networks of roading that need to be maintained without fuel taxes. Mass transit in millions of crappy little buses, on old bumpy roads. Poor people wont be able to afford to travel on buses in the future. Tell them that today and they wouldnt believe you. Poor people think that the rich will have to join them on public transport.
Being blind to fate afflicts the rich and poor alike.

Cheap clean nuclear energy will be loaded with taxes. Why sell energy for two cents a kilowatthour and make 100% profit? Wait until oil is sky high and running out. Then build nuclear plants to continue supply at the same prices.
Nuclear energy will have a larger tax component than fossil fuels, that is for sure.

I need a cup of tea.....

[marshmat]

I'd have to argue with you there, Rayk. Perhaps your income tax system's a bit messed down there, I don't know much about Aussie tax law. Ours in Canada is probably the fairest, most equitable form of taxation in existence. The first eight grand or so a year is tax free, for everyone. Each incremental block above that is taxed at a slightly higher rate. It has the strange effect that the poor aren't stripped of what little they have, and those who can afford to, pay more. In years of trying nobody's come up with a fairer system.
As for corporate tax. If we want corporations to have the power and influence they do today, then they must shoulder their share of the tax burden. One of the most credible, workable theories I have seen on the matter results in a global minimum corporate tax, which has the interesting result that corporations cannot exploit third-world peasants or destroy the environment and resources of poor countries- all nations are on an equal footing. If we'd rather abolish corporate taxes, we'd also have to eliminate all corporate subsidies and strip corporations of the legal rights and political powers they now enjoy. That too may be a workable option, according to some theories.
But much as a multinational political discourse on here could prove enlightening, we'd better get back to the topic of the thread: boats and what feeds them