The Biodiesel Update

The Mount Washington Cog Railway will be using Biodiesel.

This is according to a story on the newswire.

The next issue of TRAINS should have more details.

Andrew

B. T. U. for B. T. U. what gain is there with biodiesel? I have heard ethanol from corn is actually a slight loss.

Figure in the energy to plant, harvest, transport and process grain into diesel. Assuming soybeans are the grain base, petroleum based nitrogen fertilizer should not be an issue as it is with corn.

Waste cooking oils should not be counted, other than the slight processing involved. These are actually an otherwise wasted by product. Waste cooking oils will make hardly a dent in the total demand for diesel.

Biofuels are already being cited as reducing grain supplies on hand. This will drive up the price of grain. Feeding us is about the only thing that will interrupt the love affair with the automobile. At what point will supply drive the use of grain back to foodstuffs?

Whatever happened to the self contained, nuclear electric locomotive?

At this years World Dairy Expo in Madison, there was a startup company marketing a biodiesel processor that could make a 300 gallon batch at once. Most current units for home sale are 40 gallon capacity. The last few months I have been running a B5 biodiesel blend in my Dodge Ram Cummins Diesel, performance is about the same, I have noticed my fuel economy has improved by about one mile per gallon. Price is about the same, or slightly cheaper. My only complaint is that the gas stations do not advertise biodiesel for sale, it is marked on the pump, but not on the sign out front.

This is a company that moves its products by rail.

They have a fleet of long tank cars.

ABENGOA BIOENERGY

www.abengoabioenergy.com/

These fuels traded and sold might not be used by the railroads, but they are transported by railcar.

Click on the web link and you will see the ECO-ENERGY Tank Cars.

http://www.eco-energyinc.com/

Andrew