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Biofuel Diy

  • 20-06-2007 7:48pm
    #1
    Lazairus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 303 ✭✭


    Hello my fellow activists ,

    O.k i have a field of about 4 +/- acres .

    This is purely for my own research , i want to grow my own crops in that field ,

    when i say crops , i mean PPO crop , so i can burn it in my deisel car for next year ,
    I have many Questions as follows ,

    1. what crop produces the the best yield , Rapeseed???
    2. How will i harvest it
    3. do i need a contractor to harvest it
    4.how will i produce the finished product ie biofuel( will a contractor do it)
    5.Proportions , how much crop will last my car how long( i drive moderate distances)

    thanks in advance
    CH


Comments

  • #2
    meelick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 108 ✭✭meelick


    Lazairus wrote:
    5.Proportions , how much crop will last my car how long( i drive moderate distances)

    Sorry I don't have a reference for this, but I think that it's something like 25 acres of corn (not that we have the climate in Ireland anyway) to feed an average (E85) family car for a year. I'd be interested to hear what the equivalent would be for rapeseed. Anyone?

    Cheers,
    Dave.


  • #3
    meelick
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 108 ✭✭meelick


    Some more on this from wikipedia, specifically the return on rapeseed oil:

    "According to a study written by Drs. Van Dyne and Raymer for the Tennessee Valley Authority, the average US farm consumes fuel at the rate of 82 liters per hectare (8.75 US gallons per acre) of land to produce one crop. However, average crops of rapeseed produce oil at an average rate of 1,029 L/ha (110 US gal/acre), and high-yield rapeseed fields produce about 1,356 L/ha (145 US gal/acre). The ratio of input to output in these cases is roughly 1:12.5 and 1:16.5."

    So, if by some miracle you manage to get 1000 litres from a hectare (2.472 acres) in Ireland, the cost of processing may well prove prohibitive. And I'm not sure if that equates to 1000 litres that you can use straight in your bio-dieslel car. Anyway, say you manage to produce 1500 litres on your 4 acres, then at 60L a fill, and you fill every 2 weeks, that's 25 fills, or 50 weeks. Wow, almost a year. That's scary! :)

    It would probably cost a fortune to do it on such a small scale, though.

    Cheers,
    Dave.


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