This topic would be worth a small column each month in TRAINS:
The Biodiesel Update
Every time someone has a Biodiesel report they can put it on the TRAINS Forum.
Just before the deadline all the posts can be checked and the best reports can be put in The Biodiesel Update column.
Everyone needs a reminder that Biodiesel exists and is the easiest to produce alternative to oil based fuels.
Andrew
AND, it can be used in a diesel motor with no modification to either the fuel or the motor.
Just pull up to the pump, “Fill 'er’up”, and go.
That is not quite accurate. Today’s low emmision diesel engines require some minor modifications in order to safely burn bio-diesel. Because of it’s chemical properties, bio-diesel seems to react aggressively with many of the gaskets, in particular in the fuel pump. But these modifications are easy to make and low-cost.
Other than that, does any body know if any railroads use bio-diesel? I’ve heard that you could theoretically recycle the frying oil used at fast-food restaurants to produce bio-diesel. That sure would beat disposing of it as an environmentally dangerous waste! Just picture a railroad offering to “dispose” of all that grease at little or no cost to the fast food chains. Then they could recycle it to fuel their engines. Sounds like a real money saver to me, and it’s environmentally friendly, to boot!
isnt there an issue with low temperature operations with Bio D?[:(]
Here’s a study appearing on the trade association website:
http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/20040401_gen334.pdf
There is some gasket work but not engine changeout or something like that, nothing like converting a unit to LNG or anything.
I don’t know that restaraunts throw grease away. Back in my younger days working in a couple of restaraunts they would make a point of saving every once of used grease they could…turns out a company would come by every week and pump out the grease traps and pay money to do it. Before the whole bio-diesel thing I guess there are a bunch of other uses for old grease and fry oil. It sure stank, though, whatever they used it for.&
A few months ago I drove by a restaurant where they had spilled a large quantity of that grease while pumping it into the truck. It was all over the parking lot, and it smelled incredibly bad. I am glad I did not just eat nor was I about to.
In Oregon, there is quite a cottage industry of making home bio-diesel making kits and of people then buying used oil of most any kind and making it into bio-diesel for their home use. There have been a couple of house fires due to botching the process and it burnt the buildings to the foundation. The FD said that once that stuff got to burning, they have not been able to put it out - not even foam would work.
When the restaurents run out of used oil, these home brew folks go and purchase Canola Oil (aka Rape Seed) fresh from the press.
Coffee grounds from the coffee places is also hot as an organic soil additive. Needs no composting.
I don’t know of any railroads that do this, but I do know an English potato farmer who also makes his own brand of potato crisp. He runs all his tractors and trucks on the waste cooking that he’s used to fry his potatoes. I think the Corris Railway in Wales may run their diesel locos on one sort of bio diesel or another. The Ffestiniog Railway, also in Wales, runs its steam locos on a mix of diesel and waste engine oil. I believe the Harz narrow gauge railway in Germany runs its steam locos on bio-diesel.
Try the middle of August, riding a tank car that is over full of old used cooking oil, with it sloshing out the manway cover every time the car starts or stops moving.
Ummm, nothing like smelling creosote and burnt dead french fries first thing in the morning to get your appetite working, not to mention giving your toe path a brand new coating of oil and slimy grease.
Did I mention the flies and mosquitoes love the stuff?
Did I mention that, if you get it on your clothes, you have to throw them away, because no matter how many times you wash them, the smell and stain will not come out, and you can’t wash them with anything else, because the smell will get on the other clothes?
I once walked over a mile ahead of a shove with the leading end having a cut of these cars, because the cars were all covered in the stuff, and if you did managed to get on one with out slipping and breaking your leg, the flies and skeeters would eat you alive.
South Dakota must have one heck of a rendering plant and processing center, we get around two hundred of these things every week from there, not to mention the tallow cars full of edible and inedible animal fat.
And what the heck is “Technical Animal Tallow”?
Fat from computer smart cows?
[quote user=“ericsp”]
[quote user=“solzrules”]
I don’t know that restaraunts throw grease away. Back in my younger days working in a couple of restaraunts they would make a point of saving every once of used grease they could…turns out a company would come by every week and pump out the grease traps and pay money to do it. Before the whole bio-diesel thing I guess there&nbs
If I remember correctly the Borkumer Kleinbahn uses biodiesel for its locomotives.
Also, I read that you can use oil made from sunflower seeds. Makes your car smell like you have been frying fries!
greetings,
Marc Immeker
“Enviornmentally dangerous waste???” And we EAT this stuff??? [:O]
Yup,
We had a tank car full of old cooking oil that had the steam pipes inside it rot away from age…
Because you don’t cap the inlet or outlet on the steam heating pipes, when our switch crew kicked the car, the pipe inside the tank broke or ruptured.
Over half of the contents of the car poured out in a matter of minutes.
The EPA made us remove the ballast, ties, and in some places over 12 inches of roadbed material, and have it hauled away in dumpsters that were tarped and labeled hazardous waste.
Seems if this stuff gets in a watershed or aquifer, it can cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which is it can kill aquatic plant life.
If it is allowed to stay in a stream or lake, it will “sheet out” and can block the sunlight from reaching the bottom plants…you get pretty big fish kills and big algae beds will form, robbing the oxygen from the water.
And if it is allowed to remain in, say soil, it disrupts the normal organic life, attracts predatory insects, and in some instances, can kill birds that ingest the insects that are feeding on the spilled oil.
Like the DDT problem, where the toxin was in the insects the birds fed on, and then it caused the thinning of the bird egg shells, ingesting the insects that are feeding on the oil introduces the oil into the birds system, and they are not designed to ingest most of the fats in the oil.
It disrupts their digestive process, and they end up starving to death.
Hey Tom,
This is Europe[;)]. Here we even treat the waste rock from coal mining in Germany as a dangerous thing not to be trusted [:O]. Here in the Netherlands the port authority of Rotterdam had to sue our national environmental protection agency just to use that rock for erosion protection of the harbor bottoms. Luckily the judge didn’t buy the agency theory since it had come just out of the ground from a depth of several hundred meters and it was not then classified as dangerous material! All because it was named “waste” rock.
greetings,
Marc Immeker
Biodiesel will degrade rubber seals of older diesels for some reason, but other than that no modifications and doesn’t burn any worse at cold temps then dinodiesel which still requres an additive to prevent gelling.
I’ve burned about 4 tanks of straight bio, but it still is costly as dino, so I’ve been forced to run a 50/50 mix of kerosene and diesel to keep the costs within budget. Smokes a little blue when layin on the coal, but still able to put the ricers in their place.
Adrianspeeder
Could restaurant grease/oil be used in this process?
http://www.changingworldtech.com/information_center/index.asp?id=5
[quote user=“edblysard”]
Yup,
We had a tank car full of old cooking oil that had the steam pipes inside it rot away from age…
Because you don’t cap the inlet or outlet on the steam heating pipes, when our switch crew kicked the car, the pipe inside the tank broke or ruptured.
Over half of the contents of the car poured out in a matter of minutes.
The EPA made us remove the ballast, ties, and in some places over 12 inches of roadbed material, and have it hauled away in dumpsters that were tarped and labeled hazardous waste.
Seems if this stuff gets in a watershed or aquifer, it can cause all kinds of problems, not the least of which is it can kill aquatic plant life.
If it is allowed to stay in a stream or lake, it will “sheet out” and can block the sunlight from reaching the bottom plants…you get pretty big fish kills and big algae beds will form, robbing the oxygen from the water.
And if it is allowed to remain in, say soil, it disrupts the normal organic life, attracts predatory insects, and in some instances, can kill birds that ingest the insects that are feeding on the spilled oil.
Like the DDT problem, where the toxin was in the insects the birds fed on, and then it caused the thinning of the bird egg shells, ingesting the insects that are feeding on the oil introduces the oil into the birds system, and they are not designed to ingest most of the fats in the oil.
It disrupts their digestive process, and they end up starving to death.
The Boone & Scenic Valley RR has used biodiesel for a few years. They seem to be satisfied with it.
Jeff
[quote user=“edblysard”]
Try the middle of August, riding a tank car that is over full of old used cooking oil, with it sloshing out the manway cover every time the car starts or stops moving.
Ummm, nothing like smelling creosote and burnt dead french fries first thing in the morning to get your appetite working, not to mention giving your toe path a brand new coating of oil and slimy grease.
Did I mention the flies and mosquitoes love the stuff?
Did I mention that, if you get it on your clothes, you have to throw them away, because no matter how many times you wash them, the smell and stain will not come out, and you can’t wash them with anything else, because the smell will get on the other clothes?
I once walked over a mile ahead of a shove with the leading end having a cut of these cars, because the cars were all covered in the stuff, and if you did managed to get on one with out slipping and breaking your leg, the flies and skeeters would eat you alive.
South Dakota must have one heck of a rendering plant and processing center, we get around two hundred of these things every week from there, not to mention the tallow cars full of edible and inedible animal fat.
And what the heck is “Technical Animal Tallow”?
Fat from computer smart cows?
[quote user=“ericsp”]
[quote user=“solzrules”]
I don’t know that restaraunts throw grease away. Back in my younger days working in a couple of restaraunts they would make a point of saving every once of used grease they could…turns out a company would come by every week and pump out the grease traps and pay money to do it. Before the whole bio-die