BioDiesel
For the past couple of months, I've had a strange fascination with Biodiesel. I've been reading everything I can find on it. In case you don't know, biodiesel is probably the only thing that can save us from ourselves. The short version is this.
We want to drive huge trucks(Expeditions, Suburbans, HUMVEES), but we don't want to pay high prices for gasoline. We are sending brave men and women overseas to fight and die for the last half of the petroleum on the planet. Some people (idiots) point to Hydrogen as the solution. Its clean, its plentiful, its also completely impractical. My guess is that it will take 30 years for the major car companies to make hydrogen commercially viable.
Gas/Electric Hybrids are a good start, but they don't go far enough at solving our problem. Take a look at the
Volkswagen Jetta - Gas vs. Diesel
| 2.0L Gas Version | 115 hp | 122 lb*ft Torque | 24 City | 31 HWY |
| 1.9L Diesel | 100 hp | 177 lb*ft Torque | 38 City | 46 HWY |
Now, look at the Honda
Civic Sedan vs.
Civic Hybrid:
| Regular | 115 hp | 110 lb*ft Torque | 29 City | 38 Hwy |
| Hybrid | 85 hp | 87 lb*ft Torque | 47 City | 48 Hwy |
Without any changes to technology(off the shelf diesel technology) and using our current infrastructure(diesel pumps everywhere), the diesel has mileage comparable to the hybrid. Stick with me folks, I'm going to do a little extrapolation here. The hybrid gets 1.6 times better gas mileage than the regular in city driving and 1.26 times better mileage in a highway than the regular. If VW made a Diesel electric hybrid Jetta, it could conceivably get 61 mpg in the city and 58 mpg in highway driving. For those keeping score at home, that's twice the mileage of a gas Jetta.
Now, diesel is a bit dirtier than gas, which is where BioDiesel comes in.
Check this study from Harvard and draw your own conclusions.Also, look at this
report by the Union of Concerned Scientists which completely neglects biodiesel in their analysis, claims that a diesel vehicle is more expensive than a gas-hybrid vehicle, and that the fuel savings of a diesel is insignificant when looking at the emissions of gas vs. diesel.
The main benefit of biodiesel is its production puts money in the pockets of American farmers. Our needs could eventually be met entirely by domestic farming. GO USA.
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