Hi, I have been lurking on the list. I enjoy nature. I go camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking. When I go into the wilderness, I go there to get away from the noise of civilization.
I drive a 30mpg gas vehicle. I have worked on my own vehicles since I started driving in 1976 - motorcycles, cars, trucks, powered boats. This includes general maintenance to bodywork, engine replacement to engine rebuild, to performance build of a 1973 Opel GT (my favorite) I have worked for a former independent power producer (IPP) - Kenetech (they were a very large player in the windpower business) - on the thermal operations side of the business - natural gas and dual fuel (natural gas/fuel oil) cogeneration plants and wood-burning power plants ranging from 16MW to 48MW in size. I worked in plant operations, mechanical maintenance and computer maintenance. I could assist in the electrical maintenance if needed. (As an aside, we had two UPS power supplies at the main plant I worked in. One was a 24VDC system with 4 deep cycle 6V flooded cells. The other was a 120 VDC system with 20 deep cycle 6V flooded cells supplying an inverter to supply AC power for emergency loads.) I am a proponent of nuclear power as the safest form of power generation - see The Health Hazards of Not Going Nuclear by Petr Beckman Having said all that. I bought the Tri-Magnum plans from Quincy-Lynn Enterprises (now Robert Q. Riley Enterprises - http://www.rqriley.com) shortly after it appeared in Mechanix Illustrated in Feb 1983. I never did get around to building it, but I did hold on to the plans. I also bought the plans for the diesel powered Centurion (same source). And again, I haven't built it. This past April as gas prices started to climb, and I had a 50-mile commute for my current project, I started seriously investigating the alternatives. I started with electrics and hybrids. I was impressed at the advances in the technologies since the mid-80's. The batteries were still lead-acid and still the heaviest part of the conversion. The motors were now built for this application, not surplus aviation generators and there were commercial controllers built for this. (I wouldn't have to build my own from someone else's schematics and try to figure out why I keep getting those strange surges on the downhill runs.) Then I saw that NESEA was having their 13th annual Tour de Sol starting here in Connecticut in May. I immediately put that on my calendar as a must-see event for my homework list. I then started doing homework on alternative fuels, having worked with wood-burning power plants and knowing of agriwaste power plants and trash- and tire-to-energy plants. I came across the veggie van. Ok, yeah. A couple of hippies in their van found a way to burn vegetable oil in a diesel. How much of the wacky weed were they consuming along the way to keep from worrying about how far they were not going and how many times had they seen the Grateful Dead live? I read further on the web site and got hooked a bit more. I read about Rudolf and how he had created the diesel engine to run on all the oils that were more plentiful than that gasoline that took a lot of refining to make. I saw the university studies. I saw the government uses. I saw the commercial ventures. I saw the grass roots. I contacted my local state representative (a member of the Transportation committee) to see what was being done on the state level. "What's biodiesel?" "Alternative fuel" is considered to be ethanol/gasoline mix. Home-built or home-converted electric vehicles are covered under the "composite vehicle" inspection code with sane rules that are fairly easy to meet with the technology available and with smart safety standards that will keep the aircraft generator with the 6 boat batteries and a lawn mower engine running a car alternator off the road. So, my visit to the Tour de Sol and talks with the NBB reps. and with the U of Wis. people in their HEV "Alumnium Cow" runninng biodiesel through their diesel genset convinced me that I was going to have a small diesel powered vehicle in my hands by the time prices started climbing higher next year. With the commercial ventures starting around the US, it's going to be available at the pump within five to ten years, I'd bet. I have From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank. I have Convert It, Michael Brown. I have my Riley plans, my lifetime of learning, my desire and best of all, folks like those on this list and others who are helpful an diverse in their opinions. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] Biofuel at Journey to Forever: http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html Please do NOT send "unsubscribe" messages to the list address. To unsubscribe, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
