An alternative fuel?

Cant say i'd want to use the soap, it doesnt look or feel very appealing!

I have used it MB, and our car runs really well on it. Runs smoother, quieter and the fumes smell much nicer! It's supposed to be much better to run as being more oily that your regular diesel, it lubricates the fuel pump and wotnot. In small quantities, it costs around 60c per litre to make, but if you started making larger batches on a regular basis, it can get as cheap as 35-40c per litre. If you have a methanol recovery system, cheaper still! Diesel at the pumps is currently $1.03 per litre.

I dont think I'd use my own brand fuel on a new car with sophisticated injection systems though. It may well work, but being thicker than petro-diesel it could block something up. You also have to be careful with what your fuel lines are made of, as it's slightly corrosive to certain materials, so can rot your fuel lines, causing them to 'weep'. I think I read somewhere that the majority of cars made after 1990 had fuel lines that could carry biodiesel. On the flip side of that, it also removes the build up of crap that regular diesel creates, so improves the performance of the car. You have to change your fuel filter a few times to start with as they block up frequently with the gunk it removes.

I ramble on sometimes....

...... it lubricates the fuel pump and wotnot.

Oh you and your technical terminology!

It looks like you've done your research and to you for having a go and succeeding. Hope you've got a vat up and running by the time we get there.

I'll pass on the soap though.

Sustainable future within reach, says Labour
Monday October 30, 2006
By Audrey Young

Helen Clark wants to make New Zealand "carbon neutral" and a world leader in sustainability but such an achievement may be decades away.

The PM's ambition takes Labour into an area traditionally associated with the Greens and one in which National has recently shown renewed interest. She hopes to use a combination of carrots and sticks to achieve energy efficiency and sustainable land-use management.

Helen Clark is seeking to link Labour not just to environmental sustainability but also to economic and social sustainability.

"Why shouldn't New Zealand aim to be the first country which is truly sustainable - not by sacrificing our living standards but by being smart and determined?" she asked. "We can now move to develop more renewable energy, biofuels, public transport alternatives, and minimise, if not eliminate, waste to landfills. We could aim to be carbon neutral."

Energy Minister David Parker said that more details of Labour's sustainability measures could be announced within a month. But for the ordinary New Zealander there would be greater focus on renewable energy sources - hydro and wind, for example - as opposed to thermal energy such as gas, coal and oil.

And they would mean the introduction of new fuel sources for the vehicle fleet, which would be a combination of bio-fuelled and electric cars - though to be carbon neutral the power source for electric cars would have to electricity from renewable sources rather than fossil fuels.

The policy shift suggests that the Government will try to engage the public more on what ordinary people can do rather than on New Zealand's target under the Kyoto Protocol, which was to reduce carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2012, something that is looking unlikely.

Mr Parker said that under current policy, New Zealand's greenhouse gas emissions from energy would increase by 30 per cent over the next 25 years. That explained why so much work was being done on new policy. "It is not in New Zealand's interests that that future come to pass." A "carbon neutral' goal would be more ambitious than the Kyoto target, Mr Parker said, and New Zealand could be a world leader.

He was not sure whether the Government would set a target date for New Zealand to become carbon neutral. At present 70 per cent of our energy sector was renewable, meaning only 30 per cent produced emissions.

But in the transport sector New Zealand was 100 per cent non-renewable, which required long-term change "so you are taking more than 30 years to achieve that".

Helen Clark said the movie An Inconvenient Truth by former United States Vice-President Al Gore, who is to visit New Zealand next month, had made a big difference to perceptions.

"I think there's a much greater public awareness now at the size of the challenge. News, yet again, that Australia is facing its worst drought ever - that rings home to people. The fact that you get these horrific summers in Europe which see tens of thousands of people die ... [and] the extent of the erratic weather patterns in our own country, people are switching on to the fact that there is a pretty big problem here."

Carbon neutral

* Being carbon neutral means reducing emissions to a point where they are balanced by compensating measures, such as planting new forests, or in simple terms doing nothing to worsen climate change.

And about time too!

Geothermal picks up steam to meet future energy needs
Thursday November 30, 2006
By Richard Inder

Geothermal resources are sufficient to power more than 90 per cent of households, state-owned power generator Mighty River said yesterday.

At a sod-turning ceremony to mark the start of construction of a new 90MW $275 million geothermal power station at Kawerau, chief executive Doug Heffernan said geothermal generation would play an increasingly vital role in the future.

Kawerau is the first stage in plans to develop about 400MW of geothermal energy in the next five to 10 years - or enough power for 400,000 homes.

"We have identified a further 800MW of potential resource that could also be developed, subject to gaining land access agreements, resource consents and sufficient transmission infrastructure," Mr Heffernan said. Together, this represents a resource of 1200MW, enough to supply 1.2 million homes - 93 per cent of the 1.3 million dwellings .

The new power station will be the largest single geothermal power development in more than 20 years and will produce more energy annually than all existing wind turbines.

Mr Heffernan said Mighty River's primary focus was on geothermal generation because it had several distinct advantages over other renewable energy sources. "Geothermal power is not subject to climate variations such as wind speed or the amount of rain fall so it can contribute to the country's energy requirements with more certainty," he said. In addition, it did not damage the surrounding environment as much as other power-generation technologies.

Economic and population growth is driving energy demand up 2 per cent a year - roughly the equivalent of adding a city the size of Tauranga to the national grid each year. Mr Heffernan said several new generation projects were either in the application stage or had been granted resource consents, as well as the discovery of new fuel sources, improving the supply outlook for the next decade.

Once complete, Kawerau geothermal will meet about one-third of residential and industrial demand in the region. "It will also provide energy cost certainty to important local industry such as the Norske Skog Tasman plant and is a boost for the local economy through employment and the use of local contractors during construction," Mr Heffernan said.

Construction of the Kawerau plant was the culmination of four years' planning, with agreements negotiated with the Crown, Ngati Tuwharetoa (Bay of Plenty) Settlement Trust, Putauaki Trust and Norske Skog Tasman.

Energy and Climate Change Minister David Parker said geothermal power was in accord with the Government's policy of developing a more sustainable energy future. "It is encouraging to see the significant progress Mighty River Power has made in this area," Mr Parker said.

- Additional reporting Simon O'Rourke

Motor powered by sewerage pond goes like stink
Saturday December 16, 2006
By Mike Houlahan  

A car running on fuel made from algae grown on human sewage has made its world debut. The 5 per cent blend biodiesel was taken for a road test from Parliament by Energy Minister David Parker and Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons.

They took the four-wheel-drive for a spin around central Wellington to assess the new fuel's efficiency. The sewerage pond byproduct performed admirably, the green-brown liquid performing with no discernable difference from normal fuel. The biodiesel was developed by Marlborough company Aquaflow, and is understood to be a world first.

Most of the world's bio-diesel comes from specifically grown crops such as rape and soya beans, but the algae fuel can be made from any organic waste. Aquaflow's first batch comes from sewerage ponds, but waste from freezing works and dairy farms are considered other potential bio-diesel well-springs.

Aquaflow believes its process is a scientific breakthrough regarded by international researchers as being years away. It has spent five years and about $1 million to develop its bio-diesel to this point. It was used successfully in a static engine test at Massey University's Wellington campus on Monday, but Mr Parker's test drive was the first time a vehicle had driven anywhere powered by the fuel.

The minister's excursion did have some people's nerves on edge as it neared the 10-minute mark, but he steered the four-wheel-drive back on to Parliament's forecourt before jokes about needing to call a tow-truck became a reality.

"This is an example of how many other benefits there are from things which make good from a climate change perspective," Mr Parker said. "It helps clean up the water, but it also provides a fuel source."

The Government has just revised its energy research programme, with the scheme highlighting the importance of developing renewable fuel. Development of the algae fuel was partly funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology.

Aquaflow hopes its fuel will be able to go into full production to facilitate the Government's target for diesel to be 5 per cent blended with bio-diesel.

"It will be economic or we wouldn't be doing it," Aquaflow spokesman Barrie Leay said. "It's all about scale. The two things are going to be the energy-efficiency of the process - if the energy balance is not right it doesn't work economically - and the capital involved."

Mr Leay said bio-diesel was about 90 per cent cleaner in terms of greenhouse gasses than regular fuel, but vehicles did lose about 3 per cent efficiency compared with mineral diesel. "There's a little bit of a trade-off but not sufficient for most people to even notice."

[MotherBear]

And the latest is .....

New engine runs on fresh air .

Can't get much cheaper than that (she said optimistically).

[MotherBear]

You can't say they're not giving everything a good go.

Lighting up with cow-power
5:00AM Monday August 18, 2008
By Angela Gregory

Power generated from cow dung has been identified as one way New Zealand could make billions from an emissions trading scheme.

The work of a Christchurch company in using biomass for electricity generation is offered as an example of a business opportunity in a report issued this morning as a curtain-raiser to a climate change conference in Auckland.

The 4th Australia-New Zealand Climate Change and Business Conference will be attended tomorrow morning by the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand, Kevin Rudd and Helen Clark, who will give their views on climate change.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has also agreed to participate in the conference by making a video address.

More than 80 expert speakers from around the world will explore current climate change issues of relevance to business, such as implementing emissions trading and investments.

More here.