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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Straight Veggie Oil w/o conversion?

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  • From: "Brooks Miller" <brooks.devin@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Straight Veggie Oil w/o conversion?
  • Date: Tue, 11 Mar 2008 14:23:14 -0400

"Plus, burning SVO in your diesel gives much, much worse air pollution than
running regular fossil diesel. Biodiesel is cleaner burning than fossil
diesel, but SVO is extremely polluting."

Could you please quantify and cite this statement? It's rather counter to
anything I've read in extensive research (and practice) with biofuels.

We all know biofuels are not the answer for the long term. But this falls
into the same category for me as most sustainable living. We need less
people debating it and more people doing it. Whether you make biodiesel or
run SVO, start doing it! I've done both and find SVO much easier for my
situation and more convenient. You just need to pay attention to your
engine and have a basic understanding of fuel systems. The idea that, as
Journey to Forever says, " Diesel engines last a long time, half a million
miles or more is not unusual, and there are not many thorough, long-term
studies of the effects of using straight vegetable oil in diesel engines," is
a perfect example. Do we need someone to do studies that say growing our
own food is good for us?? No - there are thousands of people who have run
diesel engines on SVO for hundreds of thousands of miles, I'll take that
over a "long-term study."

SVO will, in fact work in the right engine without heating in the summer.
And many in the tropics run fill time on SVO with no heat. But if you want
to have a long lasting engine and you live in colder climates, you need to
preheat the oil, and that's usually done with a second tank.


Brooks




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