Alternative Fuels

Hi all, Not sure if it's worth posting here, but there's a site listing gas refills across SA if anyone is interested: GasNearMe Not too shabby if you're looking for gas refills in the winter time

This is something that has drawn my attention. Looks like these guys have taken the first step towards getting this tech to the consumer market , unfortunately I could not see any prices ,, http://www.lightsail.com/opportunity/ Lets hope for the best , the only problem would be , what to do with the BMV

Yes I know. We're years away etc etc. But I can't stop shaking the feeling that there are some great things happening in this space. We're not there yet, but I think we might be getting closer. Some stuff in this space: Low pressure room temperature storage using metal hydrides: https://www.gknhydrogen.com/product/ 95% efficient Electrolyzer from Hysata (Aussie based company). Looks like Australia is taking green Hydrogen seriously. https://hysata.com/ Check out this hydrogen Genset: https://h2sys.fr/en/products/hydrogen-powered-generator-sets/ We can only push back 25% of our breaker's capacity back to the grid. That means that some people actu…

Renewables accounted for 50.4% of the European Union’s electricity generation in the first six months of 2024, data from industry association Eurelectric shows. That’s a sharp increase from calendar year 2023, when renewables comprised 44.7% of the bloc’s mix, according to Eurostat. When including nuclear, 74% of the EU’s power came from low-carbon sources in the first half — up from 68% in 2023. https://theprogressplaybook.com/2024/07/03/the-eu-got-more-than-50-of-its-electricity-from-renewables-in-first-half-of-2024/

Turns out that F1 uses a lot of electricity for each race, and typically the infrastructure at the circuits is inadequate, so the teams run their own generators. F1 is keen to reduce their carbon footprint, and will run their own power station at this weekend's race in Austria. This will run on green diesel. The generators will be supplemented by a solar panel array. https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/f1-to-trial-own-paddock-power-station-to-slash-carbon-emissions/10488233/

Here are two places: http://www.biogreen.co.za/ - I think, they are now national. And here: http://www.green-diesel.co.za/ And if you want to make your own: http://www.green-diesel.co.za/processors/ Must admit, after seeing the mess that surrounds the process of making Biodiesel, all which is perfectly normal, making my own does not fit anywhere in my realm.

Hi All Back even before I was filling my Nissan with "freezable" diesel, I was part of a international test of Butanol, which was run on an old 5 cylinder Passat (Shame, nasty to call it now an old car, she ran like the clappers!). The purpose was that Butanol is a more practical alternative to Methanol or Ethanol, since it requires no modification to the basic fuel system pipes/feeds/etc. Although my data was comprehensive, I no longer have rights to certain parts of it, so I can only give you my opinion and generalisations gathered from the tests on my own vehicle. 1. Butanol can be made organically, the same as Ethanol can be made, it takes a bit of effo…

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20201112-the-green-hydrogen-revolution-in-renewable-energy This seems to be using solar/wind to power a process which will split hydrogen out of water, then use the hydrogen as a store for the fuel. So there is still power available when the sun is down and the wind ain't blowing. This seems inefficient, but if you can do it all on a base of renewables then does the inefficiency matter? OK... it means you need big solar/wind farms. If it's in the desert then where does the water come from? Might this be a problem? Sure, you can convey water into the interior, but there's a cost and a carbon footpring to that. OK... so the electr…

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/to-store-renewable-energy-try-freezing-air/ This sounds like something Eskom could use instead of pumped water storage and diesel

https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2019/11/07/what-does-your-car-run-on

I've noticed that some biodiesel traders have closed down and it's a little easier to get used oil these days. I wonder if they ran into claim problems. I was a bit surprised when often as I passed by one of them a few years ago and they were regularly filling current or very late year models with B100. I know that the average diesel mechanic immediately blames biodiesel for any problems that may occur on a diesel and it just opens the way for them to hammer the customer with an exorbitant bill and he/she just has to suck it up because they were stupid enough to fill with bio (according to the mechanic) Water in biodiesel or regular diesel fuel is the biggest problem…

I spent the day sorting out our winter heating. About 5 tons cut and most of it moved. Probably two more loads to do in the morning. Nice work for a sunny autumn day!

Want to get some free electricity? These devices are fairly simple to build.

I,m still looking for a biodiesel supplier somewhere in GP or NW. I'm not interested in producing, but I would like to find a place where I can drive in with a few 200 l drums and buy enough biodiesel to run tractor, generator, cruiser etc on for a few months. Can anyone help?

I watched this video. It's about success stories of people who are using renewable energy, and it worked well for them. I think this success stories are inspiring. So I am sharing this video with you. Technologies highlighted include geothermal heat pumps, solar energy, offshore and onshore wind energy, solar thermal hot water, electric vehicles, and anaerobic digesters.

Hi all Thought it is about time that I contribute something to this forum. I wanted to start earlier to show how the project progressed, but I was too worried that it might not work...! It all started after visiting a youngster close to us in the former Transkei - in the corner of his kitchen was a two-plastic-drum-model biogas digester! With about 2L of cattle manure slurry he was cooking his daily meal on a little gas hob. It was an incredible eye opener for me! The concept was just too simple not to try it at home. We have been living off-grid on solar since being back on the farm for about 4 years now. It has been great, but the one area of improvement …

Turns out sometimes snopes publishes stuff that is true. http://www.snopes.com/2016/10/19/method-to-convert-co2-into-ethanol/ It still takes electricity though :-)

It may be the cold front's fault but I've been looking into heating, Currently I just have a gas heater and a 3kw fan driven eskom bill enhancer. I've done some reading up and am wondering if ethanol fireplaces are a viable alternative to gas heaters. There are a few benefits like they can be very pretty and require no installation no chimney, no gas lines. Also burns cleanly. I like the idea of not worrying about the gas bottles and not having to go refill said gas bottle and also know when the fuel is going to run out. The cons seem to be much less heat, the units themselves are rather ridiculously priced so there is that; and then also ethanol cost, so what are we talk…

Seeing as biodiesel can't be bought anywhere for whatever reason I'm going to try to DIY. This will be to run my generator on, which is a lister type slow speed engine. I should be able to get hold of used vegetable oil, so I'll try with that. As far as I can figure there are three routes you can go. First is to mix in vegetable oil with diesel and run on that. Various sites on the web say up to 50:50 is fine. Just filter the oil first. Second is to run the engine directly on the vegetable oil. This seems relatively easy to do. You need to have a separate tank for the vegetable oil and a valve to switch between diesel and the vegetable oil. The vegetab…

About 7 years ago I had a hungry Nissan Sani 2.7 turbo diesel with 2 fuel tanks, and this thing was a killer on the pocket, so biodiesel was a great alternative fuel and saved a fortune on fillups (there was a place here in Pinetown that supplied)... All went well for a long time, and in the donkey, any possible power loss/gain went unnoticed... Then we went for a conference in the Berg, in the middle of Winter. The Sani stood for 2 days outside in the cold (negative) temperatures... Lo and Behold... Sani wont run... The biodiesel had frozen! Took us 8 hours to get from the Drakensberg back to Durban, pumping and coaxing frozen biodeisel into the engine Still us…

I've started experimenting with biogas. It is actually very easy if you have the feedstock. I wrote about it here : Biogas from goat crap....... That was a crude experiment to see if it can work, the next step is to build a 1000l version in an IBC to try and run a single burner in the kitchen.

Does anyone know of a biodiesel supplier in W Gauteng or NW? I don't want to make it, rather just buy a drum at a time to run my generator and tractor, and hopefully cheaper than normal diesel.

I do wish this post was about me telling you I am runnung my bakkie in bioduel. Wish it was. I see the newer diesels cant use biofuels? Injectors clog? Thanks