So, I was having a discussion with some non-railfan/modler people about alternative fuels, Oil dependence etc etc etc and we started talking about bio diesel. And that led to me wondering have railroads or engine manufacturers tried this yet? According to biodiesel.org, it provides approximatly the same amount of performance as regular diesel while producing fewer emissions and the engine requires practically no modification. Other pluses include that the Railroad would reap almost all the transportation benefits of production since it's produced from soybeans and the like and they would be the main transportantion for refined product. It sounds like a win win. It costs more to produce, but those costs will be driven down as production increases. So, has this been tried? Mainly I'm wondering, since the engine needs little modification beyond a complete cleaning, it could be experimented with on the cheap using first or second generation units and it would probably qualify such units as EPA Tier II. There's a potential near endless supply of the stuff too. If nobody's looked into this, anyone want to finance such a project?
I don't know anything about it, but it sounds interesting. A lot of other experiments, such as LP never panned out for the RR's. Harold
Well, it looks like it has been tested. http://www.biodiesel.org/resources/reportsdatabase/reports/gen/20040401_gen334.pdf and is kinda in use http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,53591,00.html The thing about Bio versus Natural gas is the complete lack of modification. It costs nothing but a new set of fuel filters to implement.
India's doing it. http://www.chennaionline.com/science/Technology/03railways.asp Man, I bet if you could get someone to process the quantities needed, you'd have a Willing railroading group. And think of this, the Green Goat blew out on Cajon. A biodiesel will work just as well as it always did. Man, if only I knew a venture capitalist.
Willie Nelson has formed a company that is delivering bio-diesel to the trucking industry, Willie Nelson's Biodiesel, Inc. I'm sure Willie would deliver it to the railroads if he could produce enough volume and if the railroads would buy and use it. If this works, it'll darn sure slow the flow of oil out of the Middle East.
Didn't we do this already with gasohol for cars? Seems like a good idea; don't know why it didn't work. Anything that reduces demand should potentially cause over production and a corresponding decrease in price. This also happened when UP went to turbines and used the cheaper fuels for the turbines. As soon as UP had a demand for it, the price of the crude oil to the RR went up. It took a few years, but the fuel cost advantage of turbines eventually disappeared. I don't envision the oil companies refining more oil (or building more refineries..see Valero Energy CEO statement today), so decreasing consumption is the best we can do. The more the better, and the sooner the better.
Just to clarify, this isn't going to have that much of an effect on our Oil importation, because transportation is not the major use of Oil in this or any other country. Plastics and other assorted Polymers are. Fuel is just the closest to the public's heart. At the same time, removing fuel as an importation need strengthens our position with the middle east and minimizes the price increases that we WILL see as China starts building up. So, even as costs go up, it won't be as bad as costs going up for Oil based products.
As I understand it, the major problem with Gasahol is that it is mildly corrosive. It eats original equipment and over-the-counter hoses, seals, and gaskets. These items could be replaced with special ones that are not affected by gasahol, but they were more expensive, so most people didn't do it. Eventually people found out that it was a royal pain to have a hose or seal let go in the middle of nowhere, in the middle of the night. I believe gasahol is still being used on farms in the Plains States where farmers tend to keep their equipment in good repair and for many years.
