Would you like fries with that heat?
- Thread starter BrotherBart
- Start date
-
Active since 1995, Hearth.com is THE place on the internet for free information and advice about wood stoves, pellet stoves and other energy saving equipment.
We strive to provide opinions, articles, discussions and history related to Hearth Products and in a more general sense, energy issues.
We promote the EFFICIENT, RESPONSIBLE, CLEAN and SAFE use of all fuels, whether renewable or fossil. -
Super Cedar firestarters 30% discount Use code Hearth2024 Click here
WoodyIsGoody
Minister of Fire
Fascinating stuff. But can anyone explain why it emits 98% less carbon than a regular diesel burner? If it's just because the fuel is vegetable based, than we already have the ability to burn that (and his invention simply eliminates the need to finely filter the used oil). I thought I was going to see a woodstove with a built-in deep fryer!
Still, thanks for sharing that, I like it!
Yeah, it's assuming that the carbon emissions are only from the fossil fuel used to grow and process the oil. That doesn't make sense to me - if not burnt directly, the oil would almost certainly be collected and processed into biodiesel, which would then displace dinodiesel itself. It's a bit cleaner, but not much - and if you want to get rid of fossil oil altogether then we need to reserve whatever biofuels we have for applications like aircraft and to some extent road transport where there really aren't yet any alternatives.
From the union of concerned scientists
"Global warming and biodiesel: it depends. The global warmingpollution created by biodiesel depends on how it is made and (especially) what it is made from. Biodiesel made from waste materials or used cooking oil can cut global warming pollution by 80 to 90 percent relative to conventional diesel fuel."
But that's thermal. As to other sources Wikipedia notes
"Biodiesel can reduce the direct tailpipe-emission of particulates, small particles of solid combustion products, on vehicles with particulate filters by as much as 20 percent compared with low-sulfur (< 50 ppm) diesel. Particulate emissions as the result of production are reduced by around 50 percent compared with fossil-sourced diesel. "
Not sure if this applies to this engine.. Anyone know?
I was wondering about nitrous oxides. In normal bio diesel Sun notes
[ bio diesel ] mostly reported higher emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx = NO + NO2, where NO is nitric oxide and NO2 is nitrogen dioxide). This latter disadvantage (i.e., higher emissions of oxides ....
Anyone know if this machine avoids the NO problem?
Still... if you can usefully divert used oil from the waste stream, and displace other thermal sources of CO2, that's a benefit
Kudos to the tinkerers of the world
WoodyIsGoody
Minister of Fire
I agree with recycling, but essentially all waste fryer oil currently is reused to produce energy or recycled into new products.
I was doing some research several years ago on biodiesel and one of of its limitations with respect to oil was that it potentially created high NOX. I would speculate that it may may a bit more fuel bound NOx rather than thermal NOx. A home brew inventor usually shoots for low CO by optimizing a hot burn and doesnt worry about NOx.
As noted most waste fryer oil is currently in demand. In New England folks are stealing it from restaurants and the restaurants keep it in locked containers.
As an aside, I live near the Mt Washington Cog Railroad which is an archaic tourist attraction. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Washington_Cog_Railway They used to run steam trains based on 1800's designs but a few year ago switched most of the fleet to B20 bio diesel electric locomotives as they can run more trips per day. They still run a few trains on steam for the steam buffs
Similar threads
