Fuel For Thought

My houseguests have moved on. After a quick tour of the lab, I brought them to DeKalb, where they caught a ride to Madison with Piper and Frog. P&F are driving an old Mercedes modified to run on biodiesel. More on that below.

After work and dinner, The Moof and I played a 13x13 game of GO. It was damn close -- I had (21 - 19 = 2) points and he had (18 - 18 = 0) points. We thought about another round, but the adrenaline rush was beginning to subside and I wasn't sure I could focus enough for another game.

Instead, we talked about transportation and fuel sources. I was raving about P&F's biodiesel car, which has already made cross country trips with virtually no fuel cost -- running on grease. However, we realized that neither of us knows very much about the way diesel cars run, or how they compare to gasoline cars. So we took out the computers and the encyclopedia and began educating ourselves.

This was not a purely academic endeavor, as we may purchase a used diesel car and convert it. At the moment, we have concluded that biodiesel is cleaner than conventional diesel but conventional diesel is dirtier than gasoline. So we don't know which is more environmentally friendly: biodiesel or gasoline. Furthermore, biodiesel is renewable and obtainable without invading other countries... which is a definite plus.

We identified seven different types of cars that are available now: pure gasoline, conventional diesel, pure electric, gasoline/electric hybrid, biodiesel, natural gas, and ethanol. Hydrogen fuel cells were not considered, as they are not an option that is currently available to us. Out of the types we considered, we agreed that the first three (in order of the above list) were not environmentally desirable. The next two are strong possibilities, and the last two we still know very little about. I need to learn more, then make a conscious decision about what type of vehicle I am going to drive.

Fuel For Thought

My houseguests have moved on. After a quick tour of the lab, I brought them to DeKalb, where they caught a ride to Madison with Piper and Frog. P&F are driving an old Mercedes modified to run on biodiesel. More on that below.

After work and dinner, The Moof and I played a 13x13 game of GO. It was damn close -- I had (21 - 19 = 2) points and he had (18 - 18 = 0) points. We thought about another round, but the adrenaline rush was beginning to subside and I wasn't sure I could focus enough for another game.

Instead, we talked about transportation and fuel sources. I was raving about P&F's biodiesel car, which has already made cross country trips with virtually no fuel cost -- running on grease. However, we realized that neither of us knows very much about the way diesel cars run, or how they compare to gasoline cars. So we took out the computers and the encyclopedia and began educating ourselves.

This was not a purely academic endeavor, as we may purchase a used diesel car and convert it. At the moment, we have concluded that biodiesel is cleaner than conventional diesel but conventional diesel is dirtier than gasoline. So we don't know which is more environmentally friendly: biodiesel or gasoline. Furthermore, biodiesel is renewable and obtainable without invading other countries... which is a definite plus.

We identified seven different types of cars that are available now: pure gasoline, conventional diesel, pure electric, gasoline/electric hybrid, biodiesel, natural gas, and ethanol. Hydrogen fuel cells were not considered, as they are not an option that is currently available to us. Out of the types we considered, we agreed that the first three (in order of the above list) were not environmentally desirable. The next two are strong possibilities, and the last two we still know very little about. I need to learn more, then make a conscious decision about what type of vehicle I am going to drive.