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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-CA link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Dear David O<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Taking a macro view, look at the cost of generating electricity by diesel generator. It is perhaps 10 times the cost of having it pulled from a grid. I don’t have up to date comparisons for that region so you could look at the real cost of solar PV and diesel and any other alternative.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Treat the oil-to-fuel as a way of altering that result. Don’t be enchanted by the fact the oil is produced locally. Some things are much better done on a large or centralised scale. Consider matches which all rural people use. No one makes their own.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Turning any long chain hydro-carbon molecule into something short enough to flow easily is accomplished by putting in some caustic soda and heating it for a few hours. The heat accelerates the breakdown of the long chains into shorter ones, randomly. The lightest fractions (shortest chains) are tossed out.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><br>Deutz (tractor people) did a great deal of research on how to run a tractor on vegetable oil. It has two problems: it leaves behind quite a bit of soot because the combustion chamber is not really a good environment for that product, and total cost.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Being isolated changes the relative advantage(s) of diesel, but only because they are higher, not because they are cheaper.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>It is simple better to make good vegetable oil and trade it for a larger volume of diesel! Consider beeswax. You can make candles from it, but it is work so much to the cosmetic industry that you can rather sell it and buy 4 times as much paraffin wax with the money.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>The sobering reality of fuel oil cost is that there is more energy used creating liquid biofuel than its alternatives, and energy is money, one way or another, unless you get it free from the forest.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>There is however a guy on an island in the Pacific who started quite successfully turning coconut oil into a fuel his jeep would burn. It seems he has no money and ‘made a plan’ and it is being copied on other islands now.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><a href="http://ruraldevelopment.info/coconuts.aspx">http://ruraldevelopment.info/coconuts.aspx</a> has some cost info. Coconut oil can be used as a diesel extender. The same is true for sunflower. A mix of 15% diesel and 85% sunflower oil will work in most unmodified diesel engines. Sometimes the injector spring pressure has to be increased so it vaporises properly. That increases the load on the injector pumps. That is pretty much the only difference. Cost-wise it does not look too good unless there are a lot of free coconuts (which sometimes happens).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Crispin<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>Dear Crispin, <br>David Osborne here, I was eagerly reading about biofuel from crops and the corporate scandals that will undoubtedly happen are mind boggling indeed but my observation is simple. If an African or Indian community grew or collected used oil and converted it, couldn't they use it for rural power generators for lighting etc in village levels? Because things like lion attacks in say Tanzania are more common than you think! Lighting would provide more security in the home. These people may not run tractors but could run generators! Generating both light, power and also employment and indeed hope. <br>What simplistic method is required to make used oil into basic fuel oil for an ordinary atmospheric diesel generator? <br>Yours David Osborne</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>