A vegetable-based diesel fuel has been used to power a Rocketdyne LR-101 engine originally designed as a vernier rocket for the General Dynamics/Convair Atlas missile.
Vernier rocket engines are used for roll and attitude control. Using liquid oxygen for both tests, the biodiesel (B-100) was compared by San Diego, California-based-fluid dynamics and product engineering specialist Flometrics with US Air Force-supplied RP-1 grade kerosene.
With a 6s burn, the B-100 was found to have an 820lb (3.64kN)-thrust compared with the RP-1's 840lb. The propellant's tanks were from fire extinguishers so the vernier engine could not be run at full pressure and thrust without overstressing the tanks. Flometrics concluded that the more viscous B-100 may have a reduced performance due to its larger droplet size.
"We took data on LOX pressure, fuel pressure and chamber pressure. The thrust is proportional to the chamber pressure so this gives us a way to measure thrust. Vegetable-based fuel opens up the possibility of growing oil-producing crops on Mars," says Flometrics managing director Steve Harrington.
http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2009/01/20/321321/biodiesel-powers-atlas-rocket-engine.html
Tuesday, 27 January 2009
Thursday, 22 January 2009
San Francisco to Host National Biodiesel Conference
By embracing the use of B20 - a 20 percent blend of biodiesel - in more than 1,500 city vehicles, the City of San Francisco lives up to its reputation as one of the most progressive cities in the world. That commitment to biodiesel makes the city the perfect host for the sixth annual National Biodiesel Conference.
The New Household Product: Cleaning Up With Restaurant Grease
It’s about the least likely source for luxury hand soap one could imagine: restaurant grease bins. In 2004, Marshall Dostal, an ex–New Yorker who now lives in Pasadena, California, decided that he wanted to use biodiesel in his car. So twice a month, he’d stop by a restaurant called La Grande Orange, pick up its waste grease, and drive it home to his garage, where he’d combine it with potassium hydroxide and methanol, extract the glycerin, and convert the resulting slurry into biofuel for his 1984 Mercedes 300D. Then came the aha moment: He could take the leftover glycerin and use it to make soap.
Dostal’s wife, Megan, a former Vogue event planner, was nonplussed: “It smelled like patchouli. It looked like something you’d buy at a co-op. It was soap, but it wasn’t enjoyable.” Megan encouraged her husband to keep tinkering and brought in a fragrance consultant and a marketing expert who had worked for the Gap. Essential oils of bergamot and olive were added to drown out the faint memory of French fries and calamari. Production moved from the Dostals’ garage to an FDA-certified lab. The result is Further, a surprisingly light, extra-foamy soap with a scent reminiscent of Molton Brown’s Naran Ji. The soap went on sale in December at Fred Segal and furthersoap.com. The Dostals also sell Further to participating restaurant owners, thus returning the glycerin to the restaurants from which it came.
Dostal’s wife, Megan, a former Vogue event planner, was nonplussed: “It smelled like patchouli. It looked like something you’d buy at a co-op. It was soap, but it wasn’t enjoyable.” Megan encouraged her husband to keep tinkering and brought in a fragrance consultant and a marketing expert who had worked for the Gap. Essential oils of bergamot and olive were added to drown out the faint memory of French fries and calamari. Production moved from the Dostals’ garage to an FDA-certified lab. The result is Further, a surprisingly light, extra-foamy soap with a scent reminiscent of Molton Brown’s Naran Ji. The soap went on sale in December at Fred Segal and furthersoap.com. The Dostals also sell Further to participating restaurant owners, thus returning the glycerin to the restaurants from which it came.
Colleges power cars with cooking oil
Colleges power cars with cooking oil
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
Posted Jan 18, 2009 @ 05:12 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAYTON – Forgive the students at Sinclair Community College if they get hungry when the tractors that cut grass, blow leaves and sweep snow on the campus motor by.
Cooking oil that once browned french fries and onion rings is being used to power the vehicles.
Students have begun making biodiesel fuel by converting waste cooking oil from the dining hall.
It saves the school a little money on gasoline, gives the students lessons in engineering and chemistry, and pulls oil out of the waste stream.
“It ends up as a product that is more friendly to the environment. And we’re teaching with it,” said Woody Woodruff, the director of facilities at the 65-acre urban campus.
Sinclair is among the latest colleges around the country making their own biodiesel fuel. The concept is growing in popularity, driven by greater environmental awareness among students.
Estimated U.S. sales of biodiesel have jumped from 75 million gallons in 2005 to 450 million gallons in 2007 to 700 million gallons last year.
The State University of New York melted down a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair to help power campus vehicles. Biodiesel currently accounts for about 8 percent of the fuel used on campus.
Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., produces 50 to 150 gallons of biodiesel each week to power campus lawn mowers, a garbage truck and farm equipment. Its biodiesel byproducts are being used in a composting research project at the school’s organic farm and have been used to make soap that was sold in the campus bookstore. The school has more than doubled its capacity of biodiesel, growing from 20-gallon to 54-gallon batches.
At the University of Kansas, biodiesel is used to fuel lawn mowers, backhoes, front-end loaders and other construction equipment. It is also used as a solvent to clean parts and tools and to heat a motor-pool building.
When the university began making biodiesel in September 2007, two people were involved. Now there are 25.
“They feel they can be active on campus and involved in something they believe in,” said Susan Williams, director of the project. “It’s really a big source of pride.”
Neil Steiner, an architectural engineering student, volunteered to work for the school’s biodiesel project last year and is now a paid lab worker.
“I’m really into green buildings, and it was the greenest thing I could get my hands on,” said Steiner, 22, of Tulsa, Okla. “Biodiesel can be an unlimited resource. This has definitely made me more environmentally aware.”
Sinclair’s program has doubled from 15 students to 30 in just two months.
Most colleges make biodiesel by chemically converting it from used cooking oil from campus dining halls.
Dining facilities are major leaders for colleges on environmental initiatives, said Gail Campana, spokeswoman for The National Association of College & University Food Services.
When a question was posted in November on the association’s online discussion board asking what dining halls were doing with their waste fryer oil, the board was quickly flooded with responses. Schools said they were either using the oil to make biodiesel or selling it to companies for that purpose.
“They came in so thick and fast that I realized this was just the tip of the iceberg,” Campana said.
“This is something that’s moving fast.”
Sinclair produces the biodiesel by using pumps, heaters, a 60-gallon reaction tank and another tank filled with chemicals. The cooking oil is mixed with chemicals, heated up, and filtered.
The students turn out two batches of biodiesel a week and as of December had produced about 100 gallons. With the price of diesel fuel hovering around $2.50 a gallon and the cost of making biodiesel $1 a gallon, the students saved the school a modest $150.
“It’s a gesture,” said Bob Gilbert, head of Sinclair’s center for energy education. “Our first goal is education.”
Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, a statewide group that promotes the use of renewable fuels, said the interest in biofuels among college students should create a pipeline of talent and energy for commercial biodiesel production.
“They realize this is the wave of the future,” Spofforth said. “There is going to be a tremendous need for educated people to move into these industries.”
Steiner estimates he spends 20 hours a week on the University of Kansas biodiesel project and is able to work on it between classes. He hopes to use his experience after he graduates, perhaps as a consultant helping biodiesel companies obtain materials and funding.
“We make it, we test it, and we distribute it to different places on campus,” he said. “We really get our hands on all of it. It really puts you in a practical situation.”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Associated Press
Posted Jan 18, 2009 @ 05:12 PM
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
DAYTON – Forgive the students at Sinclair Community College if they get hungry when the tractors that cut grass, blow leaves and sweep snow on the campus motor by.
Cooking oil that once browned french fries and onion rings is being used to power the vehicles.
Students have begun making biodiesel fuel by converting waste cooking oil from the dining hall.
It saves the school a little money on gasoline, gives the students lessons in engineering and chemistry, and pulls oil out of the waste stream.
“It ends up as a product that is more friendly to the environment. And we’re teaching with it,” said Woody Woodruff, the director of facilities at the 65-acre urban campus.
Sinclair is among the latest colleges around the country making their own biodiesel fuel. The concept is growing in popularity, driven by greater environmental awareness among students.
Estimated U.S. sales of biodiesel have jumped from 75 million gallons in 2005 to 450 million gallons in 2007 to 700 million gallons last year.
The State University of New York melted down a 900-pound butter sculpture from the state fair to help power campus vehicles. Biodiesel currently accounts for about 8 percent of the fuel used on campus.
Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pa., produces 50 to 150 gallons of biodiesel each week to power campus lawn mowers, a garbage truck and farm equipment. Its biodiesel byproducts are being used in a composting research project at the school’s organic farm and have been used to make soap that was sold in the campus bookstore. The school has more than doubled its capacity of biodiesel, growing from 20-gallon to 54-gallon batches.
At the University of Kansas, biodiesel is used to fuel lawn mowers, backhoes, front-end loaders and other construction equipment. It is also used as a solvent to clean parts and tools and to heat a motor-pool building.
When the university began making biodiesel in September 2007, two people were involved. Now there are 25.
“They feel they can be active on campus and involved in something they believe in,” said Susan Williams, director of the project. “It’s really a big source of pride.”
Neil Steiner, an architectural engineering student, volunteered to work for the school’s biodiesel project last year and is now a paid lab worker.
“I’m really into green buildings, and it was the greenest thing I could get my hands on,” said Steiner, 22, of Tulsa, Okla. “Biodiesel can be an unlimited resource. This has definitely made me more environmentally aware.”
Sinclair’s program has doubled from 15 students to 30 in just two months.
Most colleges make biodiesel by chemically converting it from used cooking oil from campus dining halls.
Dining facilities are major leaders for colleges on environmental initiatives, said Gail Campana, spokeswoman for The National Association of College & University Food Services.
When a question was posted in November on the association’s online discussion board asking what dining halls were doing with their waste fryer oil, the board was quickly flooded with responses. Schools said they were either using the oil to make biodiesel or selling it to companies for that purpose.
“They came in so thick and fast that I realized this was just the tip of the iceberg,” Campana said.
“This is something that’s moving fast.”
Sinclair produces the biodiesel by using pumps, heaters, a 60-gallon reaction tank and another tank filled with chemicals. The cooking oil is mixed with chemicals, heated up, and filtered.
The students turn out two batches of biodiesel a week and as of December had produced about 100 gallons. With the price of diesel fuel hovering around $2.50 a gallon and the cost of making biodiesel $1 a gallon, the students saved the school a modest $150.
“It’s a gesture,” said Bob Gilbert, head of Sinclair’s center for energy education. “Our first goal is education.”
Sam Spofforth, executive director of Clean Fuels Ohio, a statewide group that promotes the use of renewable fuels, said the interest in biofuels among college students should create a pipeline of talent and energy for commercial biodiesel production.
“They realize this is the wave of the future,” Spofforth said. “There is going to be a tremendous need for educated people to move into these industries.”
Steiner estimates he spends 20 hours a week on the University of Kansas biodiesel project and is able to work on it between classes. He hopes to use his experience after he graduates, perhaps as a consultant helping biodiesel companies obtain materials and funding.
“We make it, we test it, and we distribute it to different places on campus,” he said. “We really get our hands on all of it. It really puts you in a practical situation.”
Thursday, 20 November 2008
Mexico to Patagonia on homebrew biodiesel
Two Mexicans are currently travelling across Central & South America refuelling in restaurants along the route. Have a look at this BBC broadcast:
Monday, 20 October 2008
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Canal SUR in Sotogrande
Alejandro, student at
You can watch it here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI3RcllAz-k
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