An alternative fuel?

Cooking oil a vehicle for change

Envirocar is running cars on envirofuel, an alternative to traditional fuel, refined from cooking oil. It works only on diesel vehicles, and a $4000 conversion is required.

One can make biodiesel at home, which doesn't need the conversion like just using straight cooking oil. It involves "cracking' the cooking oil with methanol and lye. It produces a byproduct of industrial-grade glycerine which can be used to feed a compost heap, or just go safely down the drain. MY OH made biodiesel when she had a diesel car, and it worked fine. I hear it's best to mix it with a bit of petro-diesel. If anyone is interested, there's a book out called "From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank", or something like that. It's a great way to save money and have your car smell like french fries!

It's a great way to save money and have your car smell like french fries!

Does that mean we could get in a taxi and ask for a quick trip to the airport and a bag of fries to go?

Petrol price hike sees 6c rise
11.04.06 3.10pm

Petrol and diesel prices have been raised another six cents at three of the major oil companies, taking them close to record highs.

BP raised its prices this morning to 161.9c per litre for 91 octane, 166.9c for 95 octane and 122.9c for diesel.

Spokeswoman Diana Stretch said the price rise was due to significant increases in the international cost of product.

"Over the last two weeks we've seen a 15 per cent increase in the New Zealand dollar cost of petrol," she said.

Shell followed suit just before lunch, matching BP's increase.

Spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said there had been an increasing rise in the cost of both the crude and finished product.

Mobil matched BP and Shell this afternoon, increasing its prices six cents per litre across 91, 95 and diesel.

Prices peaked on Monday last week when BP raised its price for 91 octane to 162.7 cents, then lowered it again the same day.

- NZPA

I began to lost track how much the price of petrol has risen....

Price of petrol rises again
18.04.06 12.30pm

The price of petrol has risen another six cents a litre at BP.

Ninety-one octane is now $1.679. Ninety-eight is also up another six cents.

The price of diesel has risen two cents a litre.

- NEWSTALK ZB

Cooking oil car begins journey up country
19 April 2006
By JARED MORGAN

A Palmerston North man's journey from Bluff to Cape Reinga in his vegetable-oil powered car got off to a faltering start yesterday. James Macdonald and his 12-year-old son James Iti had planned to leave from Bluff's Stirling Point in the morning. But when his 1993 Toyota Corona diesel (non-turbo) car arrived in Invercargill on Monday night, his two-week odyssey was left hanging in the balance when he found out the car had been seriously damaged in transit from Palmerston North. The fuel system was totally damaged during the journey.

Undaunted, Mr Macdonald worked through the night to get the car running before leaving Bluff at 2pm yesterday. The culmination of two and a half years' fulltime work, he invented and built the car's alternative fuel system to run on used cooking oil courtesy of McDonald's restaurants. 'It's taken two and half years to develop the technology to the point where the whole system is fully automated – the driver does nothing.'

A desire to protest against the Iraq oil wars and to find a fuel system that gives motorists a choice beyond the oil cartels was his motivation. However, quite how his technology works, which extends beyond the car to the process he uses to refine the oil, is something Mr Macdonald prefers to keep to himself.

With his dream a reality, he hatched the plan for his mission to test his car for reliability over distance, silencing his critics in the process, Mr Macdonald said. 'Guys come up and say 'I don't know how reliable that would be', so the best I can do is drive the length of the country.'

Mr Macdonald said the car's fuel consumption on vegetable oil was on par in terms of fuel economy with that of diesel.

Vege oil-powered car cops speeding ticket
05 May 2006
By SUE EDEN

James Macdonald's car goes so well on used vegetable oil he got a speeding ticket. Mr Macdonald has driven from Bluff to Cape Reinga and back to Wellington in his gold 2-litre Corona fuelled by '100 per cent used vege oil'. There was no difference in the vehicle's power, he said. 'I have a speeding ticket to prove it.'

It costs around 50 cents a litre plus GST to fill up the tank and Mr Macdonald says he gets the same fuel economy as he would with petrol or diesel. Standard petrol is about $1.70 a litre.

The used vege oil he uses comes from the owner of a McDonald's restaurant in Palmerston North, where he lives, and he says he did not have to make any modifications to the engine to run it. Mr Macdonald also has a 4WD that he runs on used vegetable oil and says there is no difference in that vehicle's performance either. 'It still four-wheel drives the same.' He also used the 4WD to tow big loads. He has tried bio-diesel but told NZPA these relied on about 20 per cent methanol.

Mr Macdonald said he started the trip as a 'passive protest' against the Iraq war and had also wanted to publicise that there were alternatives to fossil fuels. 'This is the best way to involve central government, local government and the public. So it's up to them to decide whether this is a viable, alternative fuel.'

Mr Macdonald said the trip was also in memory of Rod Donald, the Green Party co-leader who died last year. Mr Donald took a spin in the car a week before the election 'and was extremely positive and supportive ... he was a wonderful man'. Mr Macdonald has autographs on his car, including one from Mr Donald's partner Nicola Shirlaw.

Written across the bonnet are the autographs of mayors from up and down the country. Included is this message from Auckland mayor Dick Hubbard: 'Auckland, the city of the future congratulates the car of the future.'

Mr Macdonald today showed off his vege-powered car to Green Party co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons and Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia. No hot air as he left, just the not-unpleasant slight whiff of fried food.

You have to give 'em credit for trying.

Taupo set to fuel NZ's bio future with willow
Monday June 5, 2006
By Andrea Fox

Taupo looks set to pioneer a biofuels industry that could significantly reduce New Zealand's dependency and spending on imported petrol, and create lucrative export sectors. BioJoule - a spinoff from listed Genesis Research - is about to ask private investors for $5 million to help to take its biofuel technologies to pilot refinery stage. The 'biorefinery' will be fed by the cane willow plant, grown in trials at Taupo, and powered by local geothermal steam. BioJoule wants the pilot plant running by the second half of next year.

BioJoule head Jim Watson, founder and chief scientist of Genesis, said if the pilot plant attracted a buyer for a technology licence, the first commercial refinery - estimated to cost between $50 million and $100 million - would likely be at Taupo. BioJoule's partner in the venture is the Lake Taupo Development Company, a ratepayer-funded economic development agency. Its business plan says energy farming and biorefining in the Taupo district could generate $125 million to $175 million a year in net direct economic benefits for the region, including more than 400 new jobs. Watson said BioJoule's goal was to commercialise technologies for ethanol generation for transport fuel to help make New Zealand energy-independent.

Last year New Zealand spent $4.5 billion on 3.4 billion imported litres of petrol and 3 billion litres of diesel. The annual bill is a big contributor to the ugly current account deficit. The Government supports the introduction of biofuels, citing among their benefits lower net carbon dioxide emissions and a renewable energy source. The process of turning cane willow, botanical name salix, into ethanol has also produced two bonus discoveries. Scientists have extracted natural lignin, which can replace fossil fuels in paints, resins, glues and adhesives.

'We feel lignin has a huge opportunity in the market to replace many of the polymers used to make plastics and resins, from a renewable source. There is no factory producing the type of lignin we produce,' Watson said. Another opportunity from cane willow, a plant high in celluloses, was the natural sweetener xylose. Non-diabetic and safe for teeth, xylose was in short global supply, produced only by Scandinavia, he said. The product had huge export potential, particularly to Asia, he added. The pilot refinery would make all of the products.

Watson is hopeful the salix willow will also power up the chequebooks of farmers on marginal or low-returning land, of which New Zealand has plenty. He calculates that 2500ha to 3000ha of salix, a shrubby, self-generating willow harvested mechanically every year, will produce enough biomass annually to make 11 million litres of transport ethanol. Around 76,000ha of Taupo land could suit energy farming, he said.

The Government's voluntary target for biofuel use is 65 million litres of biodiesel or bioethanol by 2012. It has yet to mandate the percentage of ethanol to be blended with petrol at the pump, but 3 per cent and 10 per cent are common yardsticks. At 10 per cent, the amount of ethanol needed to support last year's petrol consumption would be 340,000 million litres, according to the Government. At 3 per cent, it would be 102,000 million litres.

Watson calculates that importing a litre of ethanol, including transport, would cost NZ97c-103c. New Zealand ethanol would cost 67c-69c a litre. Lake Taupo Development chief executive Barry Delany said to supply 3 per cent of current petrol consumption, Taupo would need to plant 21,000ha in salix.

The agency hopes energy farming can replace $50 million to $100 million likely to be lost in livestock revenues in the next decade as authorities cap fertiliser use to help Lake Taupo to recover from nitrogen overload. Genesis chief executive Stephen Hall said several investors were interested in BioJoule's technology. But they would have more confidence when the Government committed to supporting biofuels at the pumps.

BioEnergy Association executive director Brian Cox said the group was greatly interested in BioJoule's research. Watson said Northland and Kawerau were other geothermal sources that could host commercial biorefineries.

We have a couple of 'cogeneration' power plants where we live - they burn waste products from the timber industry, and use the power to run the adjacent saw mills. In the past, one also accepted non-compostable bio waste from the community.

Turbine may bring power to the people
08 August 2006
By BRUCE HOLLOWAY

The answer to rising power bills may be blowing in the wind for farmers and high electricity users in exposed locations.

Aaron Enright, manager of Hamilton company Eco Energy, is in the throes of having tested a sample Zephyr Airdolphin Mark-Zero wind turbine that has been imported from Japan. The turbine, in use in Japan and Spain, is being tested for New Zealand conditions and synchronicity with our 230-volt power supply.

If it scrubs up, Mr Enright and fellow entrepreneurs Tony Raseen and Ian Hodgkinson (principal of sister company Wind Power Energy Systems Ltd) already have 1146 orders from a Fieldays promotion. That's despite the 17.5kg unit costing $20,000.

'Demand has exceeded expectations,' Mr Enright said. 'I thought we might have got one or two inquiries, but we have been overwhelmed.'

The three-blade carbon-fibre Airdolphin can deliver 2.5-3.2kW output.
In stronger winds it automatically moderates its spinning speed and continues working at reduced output.

Mr Hodgkinson said it was possible to have days of it 'blowing like anything – then nothing'. But he said the turbine also had the bonus of being able to earn credits by feeding electricity back into the national grid through the turbine configuration.

'There's nothing better at night than laying in bed and thinking 'man, I'm feeding the meter',' he said.

Well there's been plenty of wind today. MAAANN!!! it's been crazy. So what people don't use wind turbines in NZ, they're all over Europe for single dwelling etc.