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Do you prefer cold pressed olive oil or would you rather take pumpkin seed-, sun flower- or maybe thistle oil for your salad? The engine is not as picky as man. Plenty of diesel motors "eat" if you let them so, also other than their currently so expensive favorite kind of kerosene.
Already the inventor of the CI engine ignited his first car with eco-friendly peanut oil. Not eco-friendly, because vegetable oil would not combust toxics, but rather because it does not contain sulfur (provoking acid rain) and blows only as much carbon dioxide into the air, as the oil plant has ingested during its growth. Since the times of Nicolaus Otto and Rudolph Diesel fuels made of mineral oil have been preferred mainly because of their cost.
From this point of view high gas-and diesel prices are a long-term blessing for mankind. Carmakers and gas corporations are forced to invent serious alternatives due to the pressure of consumers and even formerly much too expensive or laborious systems now pay off.
Besides "Bio-Diesel", which is thin fluid and easier combustible made of rape oil produced in a quite extensive method, ordinary cold pressed plant oil finds favor particularly concerning German diesel drivers. Cars which for circa 900 Euros have been transformed to run with salad oil in our neighborhood have fuel tanks. The engine is being started with ordinary diesel. Meanwhile Salad oil from the main tank is heated up to 70 degrees, in order to become thin fluid. Then a switch and the car runs “organic” until being put to rest again. Then at the end of the journey the driver has to operate a button, to put diesel oil into the system. This is how one avoids what many gas producers fight against with ordinary bio-diesel: Pure, cold vegetable oil congests the tubes.
Advantages of this method which requires technical knowledge and caution from salad-oil drivers especially during freezing temperatures are: More than 30 percent of the energy is being consumed during the production of bio-diesel. Cold pressed plant oil only consumes 15 percent. Plant oil is clearly cheaper in production. Furthermore it has a higher energy content than bio-diesel and encloses about five percent legated oxygen, whereby consumption is reduced. In addition mineral oil tax drops out, what makes the price of currently circa 60 cent per liter (admittedly not in the supermarket) pretty attractive in Germany, where one can find plentiful rape acreages.
Disadvantages: Not every diesel car can be retooled to take plant oil. If each car in Europe should be run by this means, there would be a need of gigantic rape plantations. Beside that the system is not completely proofed yet, which is why the car manufacturers warn to be aware of it. Nevertheless the idea shows that with guts there is much on the car sector that is worth to be put to the test.
If you take a look at California’s first standard ready hybrid family cars Toyota Prius beating every vending record this is the best argument. According to the requirements hybrid cars like the Prius drive eco-friendly and cheap with electro- or gas engine, appreciated by stars like Meg Ryan, Leo DiCaprio and Sting. Schwarzenegger's government has even cleared special lanes for hybrid cars on the chronically blocked highways.
Not necessarily because of economical reasons but originally regarding expenses Vienna's Public Transportation runs its busses with liquid gas already since the sixties. Liquid gas is also preferred by many drivers in countries of South America and Asia, because it is cheaper. There is a big advantage compared to diesel, as explained by Johann Ehrengruber, speaker of Viennas Public Transportation: "We have around 500 busses which are exclusively run on gas. The coverage of 500 km is by far sufficient and there is no smut in the offgas." An eco-bonus which is also being used by Shell and Co. when developing new synthetic fuels like "GTL" and "BTL" made of gas and biomass. Extra bonus: Petrol pumps for these kinds of fuels do not have to be retooled in a laborious manner, like it would bet the case for hydrogen cars in the near future.
But also here nearly all car manufacturers are fiddling about, because the method with hydrogen and fuel cells, which is already being used by transfer busses on modern airports like Munich, would surely be the best for the environment. The only offgas would be harmless water vapor.
Tip: Not everyone can afford to buy a new thrifty hybrid car and due to the fact that Austria suffers from high fuel costs we have composed a few useful fuel saving tricks from Innsbruck's gas foot professional Gerhard Plattner for present day car driver's. Much of this should be common knowledge. But some of it is new. It's worth gleaning!
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