Re: Alternative Fuel for Rail?

["Al" <alpout@optusnet.com.au>]

"David Bromage" <dbromage@fang.omni.com.au> wrote in message
news:3B0DECFB.84B46DB0@fang.omni.com.au...
> Al wrote:
> > I suggest Biodiesel.  It can be totally manufactured in Australia, it is
> > carbon-neutral (ie the fuel itself can only put out the carbon in its
> > ingredients first, as opposed to fossil fuels), it has a similar calorific
> > value to petro-diesel and it can run in most diesel engines without
> > modification, or with only minor adjustments.  Diesel (the engineer) when
> > demonstrating the Diesel engine used peanut oil for fuel.
>
> Any idea what organic base they use? The most logical would be something
> like canola. Palm oil is a good source, but not widely available in
> Australia.
>
> An American research institution (can't remember which) has developed an
> aviation fuel (kerosene grade) made from corn oil. It was recently
> approved by the FAA for use in piston engined aircraft in the general
> aviation sector (not RPT yet).
>
> Diesel-ethanol blends ("diesohol") have been tested in transport
> applications. Canberra's ACTION buses tried it ~10 years ago, but at the
> time the cost of ethanol production was too high for it to be economic.
> Now that BP is investing heavily in ethanol production from sugar cane,
> there may be an opportunity for something to happen.
>
> Cheers
> David

OK, to answer a few questions that this may have brought up, and to attempt to
answer a few others:

Firstly, biodiesel is a fuel for Diesel-cycle engines made from vegetable oils
such as canola, rape, and cotton, and from animal fats, and used lubricating
oils.  It can also be sourced from various algal forms, which produce suitable
oils as a result of their metabolism.

I did a report on biodiesel for uni last year and I was going to do it for my
final year project in engineering, but it got a bit too big.  I can email the
report to anyone who's interested.  More info can be found from
www.vtrekker.com/biodiesel

I did see a picture of an aircraft which used biodiesel in one engine
(turbine) and standard Jet A-1 in the other, but I can't remember where it was
(it was on the net, and I was looking to put it in my report.. next time I'll
remember to bookmark it).

Biodiesel is used fairly extensively around the world, such as the USA, and
France, where all diesel sold is 5% biodiesel (IIRC by volume).

Hope that helps

Al