Is it feasible to run a diesel locomotive on biodiesel? Efficiency, cost, etc.? Give me the whole scoop.
There was another recent discussion on these, I think on the regular trains discussion forum. Basically yes diesels have been proven to use other types of fuel.
Possible? yes. Feasible? NO. I have a feeling that you have been reading too many stories about delirious tree huggers using oils and fats from restaurants( “and the exhaust smells like french fries”). If this is what you mean then no because:
1 All the used cooking oil in this country probably would not run 2 trains per day from coast to coast.
2 Used oils are not discarded, they are used to make soap and other consumer products. Are you willing to drop $5.00 for a bar of soap to feel good about saving the world?
If you mean oils produced from crops grown for this purpose the go to your supermarket and price a gallon of cooking oil. Add about $1.00 minimum in taxes and compare to the price of diesel fuel.
I’m not exactly proficient at this topic but I don’t mean to use SVO, I mean a B10 or a B20 mix.
It’s pretty amazing what a diesel engine CAN run on. This of course comes with alot of “buts” and “ifs” as some modern high fuel pressure engines don’t like the heavier oils for reasons I’m not getting into here. If we keep the topic broad, many different things can be combusted as fuels in the diesel cycle. It doesn’t mean they are all good though and doesn’t mean there aren’t positives and negatives. You can burn biodiesel, cooking oils, motor oils, automatic transmission fluids, and a host of other things if you do it right. However plain old diesel fuel has the highest specific energy and is the most readily available in large quantites. There’s far more to it but you get the idea. CAN something else be used? Yes. That doesn’t mean it will though.
You can even run them on coal.
GP 7s and 9s can even run on fuels 50 years into their original future. But yes, the price is MUCH higher.
BN has tried RLM (Refrigerated Liquid Methane), LPG (Liquid Propane Gas), and subsidiary Los Angeles Junction Rwy. has 4 switch engines powered by CNG (Compressed Natural Gas).
There are places around here that do that, haven’t heard the part about the exhaust smelling like french fries though.
A diesel engine can run on anything that burns and can be sent through the injector. Diesel fuel, corn oil, powdered coal, starch, sawdust. If it burns and is liquid or a fine enough powder that high pressure air can move it then a diesel can be made to run on it.
My question is both on and [#offtopic] at the same time, do railroads use off road diesel. (If your wondering what that is its diesel thats doesn’t have tax on it but it has a red dye in it,the dye doesn’t hurt the motor, but if you run it in a truck on a public hiway then you get a big fine.)
Ok, here ya go.[;)]
Sounds familiar from the Museum trains, but that;s a tad smaller than the Class 1s
A number of pracitical issues come up rather quickly though. Can you see this exchange:
Dispatacher - “You have the 1293, 3278 and the 2489 today with 1400 tons”
Engineer - “what fuel do I have?”
Dipatcher - " Burger King frying oil"
Engineer - “what is the BTU content”
Dipatcher “.8 that of #2 diesel”
Engineer - “how does that affect tonnage?”
Dispatcher - “how should I know”
nine hours later
“Dispatch this is 1293 westbound”
“Go ahead 1293”
"We are running low on Burger King frying oil. Where do I refuel this engine?’
Dispatch, “Beats me”.
IIRC I read a few years ago that the Sierra Railroad in California was experimenting with using B-20 (20% Bio, 80% standard diesel) mix in some of it’s diesel switchers. I seem to remember that the source of the bio was used fryer oil. I do not know if they are still using Bio-diesel or if they considered the experiment successful.
To quote their one time advertising slogan from the past…“You go to Burger King!”
Yes
There was a picture from a street-running article that made an eninge look like it was sitting in a McDonald’s Drive-thru
They like to be accommadating, helps them to compete. Wendy’s might be open late but they don’t serve trains in their drive-thru!
What we need to find on the web are the chemical equations of Fuel Combustion.
How complicated is fuel combustion, really?
How hard is it to make the basic elements of fuel?
Andrew