re: Fries to go please (some Alfa content)

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

At 2:54 AM +0000 2/9/03, alfa-digest wrote:
> Now here is a great selling point...Alfa/Fiat are you listening?
> Bring in the diesel set to run on either fuel...diesel or veggie oil. Now
> since this country's kitchens runs on corn oil, it should be in plentiful
> supply. As a society we are moving from corn oil to safflower and other
> alternatives so as to reduce the risk of heart disease. So there could be a
> bountiful supply?
> So what do we do with the excess corn oil? We sell it at the pump. We help
> farmers by using up corn stocks, its clean to the air since its not a
> petroleum oil based hydrocarbon and the result on the engine is less carbon,
> hence less wear.

The sad truth is that no one will be able to sell diesel passenger 
cars in the USA after 2004.  The quality of the diesel fuel available 
in this country is so poor (high sulfur content) that diesels won't 
be able to pass our 2005 emissions standards.  So unless they certify 
the cars as requiring biodiesel, I think we're out of luck.  It 
absolutely infuriates me the way the trucking industry in this 
country reacts to the thought of a 1-2% price increase in the name of 
cleaner air.  What do they care, their vehicles are conveniently 
exempt from emissions regulations?  And of course the oil industry 
doesn't want to spend any money to change the way they do things, and 
the US gov't isn't about to do anything that would allow additional 
competition from imported cars.

I'd suggest that the first step is to get a biodiesel dispensing 
infrastructure in place, but gas stations in California that have 
already tried that received threats from the oil companies that they 
wouldn't be able to buy gasoline anymore if they started carrying 
biodiesel.  All these obstacles are the reason why the biodiesel 
researchers here at Carnegie Mellon are focusing on the agriculture 
industry--since they're the ones that are going to profit from a 
switch from traditional diesel to biodiesel, there's no reason that 
they shouldn't be willing to accept it as a fuel for farm machinery.

-Joe
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