Re: [Amc-list] Disposing of gas, oil, brake fluid and coolant

[Archimedes <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>]

>" Ethylene glycol (and the new-tech, safer alternative propylene gycol)
>" is produced from natural gas.  If dumped on the ground and thus
>" returned to the environment, it does create a toxic "plume" wherever
>" it lands; but once again it is biodegradeable -- within six to eight
>" months, nature will have reclaimed its components.
>
>except for heavy metals dissolved in it, if there are any.


Keep in mind that heavy metals are already present in rocks and dirt naturally; and there are bacteria that can digest or otherwise make use of all of them.


>i've noticed an apparent retreat from the pink propylene glycol back
>towards the green ethylene glycol recently.  while it doesn't affect
>environmental biodegradability, us higher forms of life are affected.


Yep.


>there's a company that pushes propylene glycol as a coolant, whose
>name escapes me.


Sierra?


>i do recall that the founder published a scientific
>paper [the real thing] on research showing that 10% propylene glycol
>rendered ethylene glycol completely nontoxic.


Hmmm...  Haven't seen that; I'll have to search for it.


>one dirty little secret of biodiesel is the massive amounts of
>glycerine that's produced as a byproduct.  if all current users of #2
>diesel / heating oil could switch to biodiesel [not that we could grow
>or make that much], the byproduced glycerine would flood existing
>markets for it 100x over, and you wouldn't be able to give it away.
>research is just starting to find what else it could be used for.
>antifreeze maybe?  even that wouldn't make much of a dent.


Some of us in the biofuel community here in Richmond run SVO (straight vegetable oil) in their diesels, specifically because there really is little in the way of "byproducts" (other than some food particles in your filter and a strange exhaust smell) using SVO.  I'd like to, but I'm not that adventurous.  Besides, it's getting harder to find free vegetable oil because there are so many people chasing it down now.

The quantity of glycerine produced also varies greatly depending upon the type of alcohol used.

As biodiesel increases in popularity, there are going to be a lot of uses discovered for glycerol; just because so much of it will be available.  Many uses are already well-studied:

        http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~bhe/pdfs/asabe066223.pdf

It's going to be interesting to watch various fuel options develop over the next few years.  With every oil field in the world declining, and with China and India finally becoming mobile, the energy market is going to be a very dynamic place.  I doubt most of us will be running our AMC's on petrol in twenty years.

-- Marc




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