Bio Diesel

[Tractorat]

The far left liberal City of Seattle has decided NOT to continue on their mandate to power city diesel vehicles with only bio diesel. It seems that bio diesel has a bigger environmental impact than that of dino diesel. Until they can come up with a substitute (they are hoping for waste based bio diesel as opposed to the soy based that they have been using), they will use a

"low sulphur substitute" (could that be ULSD)





TRat

 

[Adventure Bob]

Um not sure how low sulfer you need to be but Bio has no sulfer whatsoever. According Biodiesel.org "only alternative fuel in the country to have successfully completed the EPA-required Tier I and Tier II health effects testing under the Clean Air Act. " Further more the EPAs own site states "Biodiesel contains no sulfur or aromatics, and use of biodiesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulate matter. "

I smell politics and money...

 

[Tractorat]

Well, I think they are taking into account the whole process (growing the soy, mfg process, etc). And that is what makes the worse environmental impact. It has nothing to do with the bio diesel itself.



As far the the "low sulphur" substitute, I think they are using just plain old commercially available diesel. They just dont want to admit it.

 

[Adventure Bob]

Soy is a poor idea for a carbon nuetral way of getting to bio. Reutilization of existing waste oil streams is a better idea, but oh, wait: Veggie is a hippie thing without a lobby in the Washington Government. Algal bio is even a better choice because the open air form grows best in spray fields, turning **** water into fuel. But theres no big lobby in Congress for that either, so we get Ethanol and Soy based bio.

 

[jwgary]

Biodiesel combustion temperatures are higher resulting in more NOx production. I remember a few years back that it seems the Texas outlawed the sale of B100, unless it was for additive purposes only, because of the increased NOx.