So what do y'all know about bio-diesel?

Was stopped outside the library today by nice young man wanting me to sign petition to get initiative about bio-diesel on the ballot.
OK, figure time to ask questions like good, if slightly scatterbrained DUer that I am...
Stuff is made from soy and canola. These crops don't have irrigation problems since they don't require huge amounts of water.

Asked about the energy output, since this is where ethanol falls down.
Bio-diesel has a 1:3 energy ratio as opposed to ethanol's 1.13 to 1.00
If I said it right, for bio-diesel you get three units of energy out for every one unit you put in. With ethanol you get 1 unit of energy for every 1.13 you put in...and ethanol is made from corn, II RC.
Said OK, sounds good, but how does it affect the soil?
Turns out that soy is a great nitrogen fixer...is used in fact as a fallow crop and plowed under.

Is this a nice green thing?
Cos I signed the petition...after first making sure that the petition was< indeed about bio-diesel and not about something else which I would NOT support...:tinfoilhat:

Think next petition outside library might have to do with curbside recycling. So much easier than saving cardboard, tin (as well as aluminium) cans etc. to haul to recycler when the pile gets too big...
:yoiks:

edit to apologize...I've posted this in the wrong forum...sorry!
:dunce:

to at least ease our addiction to oil.

A diesel powered vehicle can be converted to bio for about a grand, and that's cheap compared to the potential fuel savings. It works like this:
The vehicle is equipped with two fuel tanks - one for regular diesel and one the holds used fry oil that fast food joints are more than happy to give away rather than pay for disposal. When the engine is first started it uses the regular stuff while circulating and heating the oil. When the oil gets just below it's flash point, the engine switches from regular diesel to the used fry oil, and the car or truck doesn't even know what happened. It keeps running just fine! The only drawback, from what I understand, is that it smells like you're driving a giant french fry!

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Can't even change the gas engine to diesel like you could in older vehicles,

Two reasons

1. The vehicles electrical/computer system wouldn't let it run

2. It's against emission control regulations to change the engine in a vehicle now unless it is the exact same(model of) engine

Ya just can't take out that wimpy 6 cylinder 240/250/225 anymore and throw in a whomping 460/454/440 anymore (that'd be Ford/Chevy/Chrysler in that order)

That's one of the reasons I'm hangin' on to my 79 F150 4x4

79 is the cutoff date for vehicles that come under our "Clean Air Act"

It's harder on gas, yes

But it's paid for

The same kind of vehicle would cost me over 40 grand

I figure I can keep it on the road for the rest of my life for less than that

I do less than 3,000 cliks a year

so the gas cost is not that prohibitive.

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No -

I'm not

but I'll tell you a short (and true) story

When I was in trade school for auto mechanics in the early 70's, I befriended a black guy, or he befriended me -

I dunno, - don matter

Anyhoo, in the lunchroom at Trade School one day, a bunch of white guys(I'm white) came up to me and asked me why I was hanging around with Gary(the black guy)

I told them that we had similar views on things and that we got along . .

One of them responded - "Well don't you know that all them black people are assholes?"

I responded

"Well, I'm 24 years old,

And so far

All the assholes I've met so far are WHITE!!"

They just looked at each other in confusion and walked away

That was the end of that.

you found the right place, know what I mean!

Actually, the only thing I know about bio-diesel is I think Willie Nelson uses it to power his bus.

He says it smells like french fries.

Yay Melissa!