Griesel--The new hybrid?

Yes, it is fairly old news. It's called biodiesel and folks are running their diesel cars and trucks either purely on veggie (B100) or on a combo of veggie oil and diesel fuel (usually a 20/80 mixture). Supposedly, Herr Diesel orignially designed his engine to run on vegetable oil. Here's a link for those interested in more info.:
http://www.biodieselnow.com/default.asp
Now, if only the Prius ran on a diesel!

Jim

 

Biodiesel is renewable (comes from plants) and locally produced (no imported oil) and does not have some of the contaminants present in petrolium. And you do not need to invest in a brand-new car.

On the down side I believe you still get the particulate contamination and I imagine the frequent starting/stopping of a hybrid would be problematic with a diesel.

Both technologies have their strong points. For some folks an old Rabbit diesel burning french-fry oil is a better overall solution. But a Prius is, overall, a much better car to drive, for those of us who can afford it.

 

Besides, you need 2 fuel tanks. Biodiesel will only work after motor is warmed up by another fuel.

 

NOT SO. My partner has been running his Jetta diesel on bio for several months. The only time you would have to preheat the fuel is if you were running the engine on straight, unprocessed cooking oil. Some people are doing just that and do have two tanks.
Biodiesel, properly produced, will operate in the same way that conventional deisel does with vasly reduced emissions. There is some particulate emission, but much less than with conventional petroleum diesel.
There is also no odor or noxious exhaust.
The process of making your own bio diesel is not terribly complicated, but it does involve some equipment like storage tubs, pumps, filters, and Ph test kits. My partner has about 1000 bucks invested in his system, but now he is free of the petro grid and is producing fuel for about 70 cents a gallon and doing a major environmental good deed.
The Prius represents another approach to the same problem, but I wouldn't consider a new diesel car, running on bio fuel, to be "vastly inferior", only different. There is room and need for all of us.
The ultimate eco machine is a biodiesel hybrid and such cars have been produced and could be marketable if we ever get past the entrenched oil lobby.
Oregon, in its benighted state, is imposing a surcharge tax on Prii to compensate the state for "lost fuel tax revenue". Seattle recently upped its water bill charges to consumers because we were doing such a good job of conserving water that the city couldn't make enough money per gallon. I thought we should tax what we want LESS of and subsidize what we want MORE of.
Bob

 

This is a subject I know about - I sold my mercedes diesel to buy my new prius.
Biodiesel is a methyated ester of free fatty acids and can be burned in any diesel engine in a 20% mix with regular diesel fuel or (B20) or as straight biodiesel (B100) it dosent have quite the energy per pound as diesel fuel but is close - It has much better solvent properties compared to diesel fuel and will tend to clog filters after you switch fuels because of all the diesel sludge it frees up in the fuel system. It also may attack rubber components in the fuel system . When I converted I changed all the fuel system hoses and carried extra fuel filters for the first few months. Biodiesel is an actual consistant substance that has an ASTM formula.
It does reduce particullates quite a bit because it does not have any pollycyclic aromatics like diesel fuel has. It smells alot better too (although not like donuts to me more like...vegtable oil.)


You can also burn straight vegtable oil in many diesels but to do that you need a dual fuel system. Vegtable oil espically waste vegtable oil is a variable substance in comparison to diesel fuel or biodiesel. It tends to have a much higher viscosity and may solidify at lower tempratures hence the need for dual fuel systems.. Waste vegtable oil fueled diesels generally start on straight diesel or biodiesel and after warm up switch to the waste vagtable oil which is pumped througha heated fuel system. You need to switch back to diesel fuel before shitting down to endure all the filters, lines and injection pump is purged of vegtable oil so itcan be started again next time.


The real problem with biodiesel is that production of biodiesel from crops (soybeans - oilseeds) may quite possibly consume more fuel/energy than it produces factoring in all the energy (other than the solar energyneeded to grow the plants) than it produces. (like ethanol)

I'd love to see a hybrid diesel prius - I'd probably get closer to 65 mpg than the 50 I'm getting now. ( my 4000 lb large mercedes luxury sedan got 25in the city and 30 on the highway)

I love my prius but sure do miss the sunroof and power seats.


pete moss
berkeley ca