Environment News
From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005
Chewin' the Fat, Talkin' up the Oil
by Rod Castle
The recent Woodford Folk Festival was packed full of the usual fantastic
entertainment, tasty food and a vast array of different speakers/facilitators
at the home of environmental and social issue workshops: the Green House.
Two friends, Wren McLean and Michael Cheetham, and I gave a talk there
on the alternative fuel choice of running vegetable oil in diesel-powered
cars.
We were able to show and explain two different ways of running vegetable
oil through a normal diesel car. I first explained that biodiesel is
made by mixing vegetable oil with methanol and caustic soda, the end
result being a fuel that can be put into most diesel cars in any ratio,
with petroleum diesel or without,
and without any modification to the motor.
I showed photos of a small-scale, local biodiesel production plant and
talked on a few of the issues involved with making the fuel, including
unfortunately now having to have a biodiesel excise tax licence to be
able to produce the fuel.
Michael Cheetham then talked about running a car on straight vegetable
oil. This involves modifying the fuel system so that the car is started
on the main tank of biodiesel/diesel and then is switched over to the
vegetable oil tank when the temperature of the oil gets to 70–80
degrees Celsius; then the motor is 'flushed' with the main tank before
turning the car off.
Along with Michael, Wren McLean had her car there to show it running
on straight vegetable oil and spoke in regard to the reduced environmental
impacts and minimised exhaust pollutants. She also shared stories of
the day-to-day realities of working with the used vege oil from fish
'n' chip shops.
A big thank-you goes to Elaine Green, who helped out when our Power
Point photos had difficulty showing smoothly.
After the talk, a dedicated crowd wanting more information mingled around
the cars for over an hour while we talked oils and diesels.
The talk was well placed in between a discussion forum earlier in the
day on the "Peak of Oil" and a movie after us titled "The
End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion in the 21st Century". This is a
great film that looks at the end of the oil supply and our need to start
seriously redesigning our communities and infrastructure
now.
Thanks go out again to the organisers/volunteers and Sunshine Coast
Environment Council for making the Green House possible and a great
place to be during the Woodford Folk Festival.
[From "Maple Street Co-op News", Feb/Mar 2005; published by
The Maple Street Co-operative Society Ltd, 37 Maple Street, Maleny,
Qld 4552, Australia, tel (07) 5494 2088, email maplest.co-op@serv.net.au,
website http://www.maplestreetco-op.com.au]