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Waste Vegetable Oil. Biodiesel has added alcohol and should run fine in an unconverted vehicle. You've normally got to do a conversion to run veggie oil alone.

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I thought the methanol was just the 'cracking' agent. The link I put up a while ago has a 100,000 mile report of one man and his (unconverted) delica, running on separated veggie oil... reckons it runs better than regular diesel.

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miteyak, can you find that link again please?

 

I phoned the prefectural environmental policy office and they told me that biomass use is being pursued for farm and industrial machinery until the regulatory system is in place for general use. They knew of nobody who would sell it to me on the side. The biggest concerns seemed to be the tax regime, and product liability issues.

 

Other prefectures may be more proactive - Ehime is not known for trail blazing in any area.

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Cheers! My 'cousin' is in the frying business now I come to think of it, and I know people who could knock me up a couple of those tanks.

 

I wonder what he does with the waste glycerin. I understand it's not good for very much. Maybe I should buy his book...

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Actually, for an eco-terrorist, the by-product can be very useful indeed... can I get in trouble for saying that... eek.gif

 

glycerin has a plethora of other uses, from cleansing products to pharmaceuticals.

 

I hope this chap doesn:t have ALL of the chippies in Tassie covered...

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Ah, but that guy is not using "waste oil alone". He's making biodiesel, which is effectively diesel. If you convert a car to waste oil, you don't need methanol and the processing is simpler/cheaper. You'll need a more robust and probably less efficient engine to start with though.

 

The beauty of biodiesel here in Japan is your car will look normal to the shaken people.

 

A discussion of straight/waste vegetable oil vs. biodiesel is here.

 

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_make.html

 

These people do waste oil conversions and kits for the same.

 

http://www.greasecar.com/

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The Journey to Forever makes it sound fairly difficult to make quality biodiesel that doesn't ultimately wreck the engine.

 

I sent some questions to Midori at JTF about what kit they use here, if there are any NPOs doing it, and what the tax implications are. I'll post whatever answers I get.

 

(I decided to ask Subaru about what eco-cars they have and how they compare with the Prius. I asked them to email me a summary of the info with the figures, and not to visit me with a catalogue. They visited me with a catalogue. Twice, for good measure. They must have rocks in their heads.)

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Keith from JTF says there are no nationwide standards for ordinary diesel fuel in Japan. Virtually every diesel car can run on biodiesel because there is no substantial quality difference. They do regular seminars north of Kyoto about how to make it. He doesn't seem to think much of waste oil conversions like greasecar, but such vehicles also have their advocates.

 

If you want to save money (as opposed to just the environment) via biodiesel or waste oil in a converted car, its worth getting in there now before the value of waste oil as a fuel is recognized. As the oil price heads up, its only a matter of time.

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Are you going to have a go at it Mr~? (It seems a bit pointless having just bought a Prius unless you're dead keen...) From what I've gathered from people I've spoken to, it's going to take another 4 to 5 years before biofuel is available commercially. Rather than getting everybody using it quickly on a "good enough" basis, it seems as though government and car makers want it to be up to top-spec standards, similarly to the Prius.

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A problem with biofuel is that, on a small scale, using waste oil, it's an envornmental no-brainer. As it becomes commercialized, however, other factors come into play, not least damaging farming practices... I'm sure a good future investment could be had in farming and refining organic biodiesel.

 

The huge soy conglomerates are really pushing the biofuel issue, I believe... a worry in itself.

 

Still, it's less pollutin' and that's a start, and if your brother's in the frying business...

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I already have a Prius and my other vehicle is a diesel Delica. I tried Intake Magic on the Delica but it doesn't seem to make a noticable difference. I guess I'll have to try some bio diesel next. I wonder how many Big Macs I'll have to order to get the local McD's to hand over their fuel...

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I doubt I'll get to the cooking up biodiesel stage. When I saw my father-in-law's old wreck of a Merc was a diesel, I just remembered that they were one of the cars that can run on waste oil. I think digging up the ground around our new place will take precedence over experimentation with highly flammable substances.

 

Costwise 10km/l off biodiesel at 40yen a litre for the methanol is not much better than the Prius doing high twenties off gasoline at 120 odd yen. Methanol is also oil-based, and it will go up with the oil price. In fact it will probably go up more than gasoline as a percentage since the tax component of the gasoline price is high.

 

The micey one you might get here is people cutting diesel fuel with kerosene to reduce the cost. Its only 50 yen a litre and must be powerful if planes can run on it.

 

Cash crops for fuel? Its a question of who makes it and where. According to the Independent a couple of weeks back, the growing of soybeans for feedstock is greatly expanding in the Amazon. They've got new varieties that can grow there now. Some people talk about biodiesel from algae ponds in the desert, but it might just be another "hydrogen", all very good in theory but facing massive obstacles before implementation.

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> I tried Intake Magic on the Delica but it doesn't seem to make a noticable difference.

 

It may not make a noticable difference on consumption, but have you taken a whiff of the exhaust? I notice that my car no longer stinks of half-burnt fuel when I back it into the garage.

 

I think I'll be ordering a Prius tomorrow, and looking into producing biodiesel with my local NPO over the next couple of years.

 

Mr~, don't forget to mulch .

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Lots of interesting reading here and on the links. I noticed quite a few people in my area have the Prius when I went running this afternoon.

 

Biofuels seem to be a good alternative but, as Mr Wiggles pointed out,the problem may be who is going to profit from it and how. It's quite depressing to think that soy, which is an excellent protein alternative to environmentally problomatic beef, is also a key factor in the destruction of the Amazon. A lot of that soy is going to feed the bloody cows anyway!!

 

The whole make your own biofuels process shouldn't even be necessary, I admire anyone who has the determination to do it. Right now I have no vehicle and get around by train, bike or foot-even so there's a lot more I could be doing to avoid being part of the problem.

 

One thing (either in the Independent or Guardian) which caught my attention yesterday was the power savings which can be made if you don't have every appliance on standby mode.

 

I'm only just beginning to realise the amount of effort it takes to fight against the standardised norms which are pointing this planet in the wrong direction.

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Davo, just by getting around without a car you're doing more than the rest of us in this discussion. The polluting effects of biodiesel or the prius are still way more than public transport. The guilt, the guilt... still, the flying dimension to transport use pretty much nulifies all efforts to be good in the car department.

 

I haven't researched it, so I don't really know, but. Mr Wiggles, generally gasoline contributes much more to greenhouse gases than regular diesel, let alone biodiesel. Given this, how do the emissions from your prius compare to the emissions from a biodiesel over the same kms?

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 Quote:
Originally posted by Davo:


The whole make your own biofuels process shouldn't even be necessary, I admire anyone who has the determination to do it. Right now I have no vehicle and get around by train, bike or foot-even so there's a lot more I could be doing to avoid being part of the problem.

And it wouldn't have had to be, but many western govts decided to levy the same fuel tax on biofuels as soon as they started to become a viable option (oil lobby pressure, I believe), basically removing them from the marketplace. A few more dollars on a barrel, and many think biofuel will take off, however.
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I got mail back from Journey to Forever.

 

There's a workshop at Tanba, Kyoto on July 10 for practical biodieseling. Apply by July 7.

 

PM for me details. I think I might be going.

 

Davo, there was a story in the Independent about that. It prompted me to have a look at what I have plugged in around my computer, and I was shocked to realize just how much heat my monitor AC converter is whacking out even when the monitor is off. Gotsta sort all that out...

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Around my place, I think the Prius will do close to 30km/l. So far we're getting 25 plus without any effort. My diesel is only gets 10. There are more efficient diesels now, but they're not on sale in Japan. Just the odd old Golf if you can find one.

 

The Prius could be tuned to get even higher mileage, but the engine has to run to heat the catalytic converter. The design was originally for a low emissions car, I believe. The biodiesel vs. hybrid emission debate seems to depend on what kind of pollution you're talking about. One aspect of the current model Prius is that it can be turned into a plug-in electric vehicle that only uses gasoline to extend its range. Range has been the real problem for all electric vehicles produced so far. Some people called Calcars have already converted a Prius and are going to start commercially converting them next year. Battery prices are falling all the time, which makes this more and more feasible. Grid electricity isn't free of course, but surely its easier to cope with pollution at centralized sources like power stations than in individual cars. The Calcar conversion is projected to cost 12 to 15K USD, and most of that is the battery.

 

Cars are basically a bad, so doing without one is best. Its great that you can get by in Japanese cities and suburbs without them. You can in the country too, but err, ... one step at a time.

 

The "standby" story is great. Everyone can make a difference in an easy manner while saving yourself money. Its something you can do in the smallest apartment in Japan. Spread the word!

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Thanks for posting the link I was too lazy to find Ocean11. This little piece of it says it all really:

"Millions of "sleeping" video recorders, set-top boxes, washing machines and radios in homes and offices accounted for one million tons of carbon emissions, approaching 1 per cent of the nation's total."

 

The conveniences of modern life condition us into being lazy and wasteful. People really have to be willing to make sacrifices and take the effort to contribute towards turning this around. I'm sure if I really tried I could make a substantially bigger difference to my own personal impact.

 

Cars like the Prius and biofuels use are a step in the right direction. It's ultimately as much a question of mentality as anything else. In 20 years time the idea of a suburbanite tooling around in a Hummer will seriously be appreciated for the idiocy that it is. Automobile obeisity is bad for everyones health as things stand.

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Taken from the Mainichi Daily News-

 

 Quote:
FRF isn't just a place to rock and party. Every year it carries out various environment protection activities.

 

This year's FRF will incorporate "soft energy," such as biodiesel, solar energy, waterpower and wind power, to supply electricity for the stage and the field at the "New Power Gear Field/Avalon," one of the concert fields.

I see they are trying to incorporate enviromentally sound energy sources into the rock festival this year. Great for public awareness but I fear it is probably a token gesture wakaranai.gif .

 

Thanks for the info in this thread, it really makes me more aware of how little we take for granted and the damage we are causing through mostly laziness!

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let't throw another major offender into the mix.. how:s everyone going on the flying front (a long haul flight a year pretty much matches a year of motoring...). I got my flights down to one short haul to the philipines last year, 5,000kms in the car, and the rest, mountain bike. A vast improvement on years before, but considering it was all for entertainment...

 

This year, it will be a one way to Oz.

 

Anyone else cutting back on the foreign travel/trips home, etc.

 

 

The facts about flying...

 

* Air travel produces 19 times the greenhouse gas emissions of trains; and 190 times that of a ship.

 

* Aviation could contribute 15 per cent of greenhouse gases each year if unchecked.

 

* Greenhouse gas emissions caused by UK air travel have doubled in the past 13 years, from 20.1m tons in 1990 to 39.5m tons in 2004.

 

* During the same period emissions from UK cars rose by 8m tons, to 67.8m tons.

 

* One return flight to Florida produces the equivalent CO2 of a year's average motoring.

 

* Emissions at altitude have 2.7 times the environmental impact of those on the ground.

 

* Air travel is growing at UK airports at an average of 4.25 per cent. In 1970, 32 million flew from UK airports; in 2002, 189 million. By 2030 some 500 million passengers may pass through UK airports.

 

* Cargo transportation is growing by 7 per cent a year. In 1970, 580,000 tons of freight were moved by plane; in 2002, 2.2 million tons. It is forecast to reach 5 million tons in 2010.

 

* 50 per cent of the UK population flew at least once in 2001.

 

* Flying 1kg of asparagus from California to the UK uses 900 times more energy than the home-grown equivalent

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miteyak: whoa, where are they from, they all sound realistic except I'm a bit unsure about how "Emissions at altitude have 2.7 times the environmental impact of those on the ground" could even be measured?

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This article is typical of the way air travel is discussed in the media. The environmental commons don't even get a nod in this cost/benefit analysis. The rise of China and India seems to be making things go from bad to worse, but who can begrudge them wanting everything that developed countries have enjoyed for so long.

 

I have to fly at least once every two years otherwise I'd never see my family, which pretty much makes me a big hypocrite when I go on about being concerned about the environment.

 

By the way Miteyak-does that one return flight stat mean that the entire flight is as bad as a years motoring ie the fuel burned by the plane = the impact of the fuel burned by the average car? Or does it mean that by taking that fight I personally am causing as much damage as I would if I drove a car for a year?

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