Promotion of waste vegetable oil as alternate fuel for large diesel fueled vehicles.
Introduction:
Daily thousands of trucks, busses and delivery vans travel the roads of our city and province, this making the transportation industry responsible for a fair amount of the carbon dioxide emissions affecting us today. Status Canada shows that the transportation industry has grown dramatically since 2004, growing at a range of 5 % per year. The increase in the transportation industry also brings an increase in oil demand at times where the world has passed its peak oil point. Peak oil is the term for reaching the maximum global oil extraction and entering a rate of production decline. With oil supplies falling, humankind most find alternate and effective energy sources if it wants to keep up with demand and its way of living. Our economy relies extremely on oil for its survival; we use oil in everything from tires, plastic covers, and of course the transportation of food and other goods. This makes oil shortages as being catastrophic for our society. Finding more efficient alternate fuel sources can help slow down the demand for oil as well as drift from our need for it. There are plenty of new sources of energy in the works such as solar, wind, tidal and geothermal power, these are extremely environmentally friendly. Though these new energy sources are good for our planet, the only problem that they bring is that they are yet not strong enough to surpass the capabilities of fossil fuels. We are still far for finding a source of energy to replace oil, but some technologies can be used in certain aspects in today’s world that could lead to the decrease on oil demand. Looking at the transportation industry today, local vehicles that do not travel long distances can utilize alternate sources of energy thus reducing emissions and fuel demand. Many of the current buses, trucks and delivery vans run on diesel fuel, this engines posses the capacity to be modified under 3000 dollars in order to run on straight waste vegetable oil. This could is a good source of energy and can be acquired at low or even no price from local restaurants since these places must pay to get rid of this oil. This technology still requires the vehicle to start and turn off on diesel, but it multiplies the mileage per gallon of fuel and also producing lower carbon dioxide emissions.
Abstract:
Limited supplies, production decline and demand on the rise, we must find new sources of energy to counter our dependence on fossil fuels. The transportation industry is responsible for big part of this demand for it requires fuel to run on its daily basis. This project aims to the promotion of waste vegetable oil as an alternative form of fuel for diesel running transportation vehicles in cities and towns, aiming to reduce fuel demand as well as emissions.
Research question/problem:
Having experienced the wonders of waste vegetable oil as fuel (a friend has converted his bus and traveled to British Columbia with it). It was clear that this new source of fuel could be of great help to society for there are thousands of restaurants that need to get rid of their waste vegetable oil on the daily basis. My research question is how to promote the use of WVO as an efficient fuel source and how to properly promote this to an industry that will benefit from it. We are at a time where new sources of energy are crucial to our survival, so the need for an alternative source to an industry that relies on fuels for its operation is very important.
Audience:
The audience for this project would be mostly companies that use diesel fueled vehicles for their business. These companies can see great savings by converting their car fleets to waste vegetable oil; the cost of the conversion will pay itself at the end due to less necessity to purchase diesel fuel. One tank of fuel would last twice to three times longer than before for the diesel fuel is only needed to start and turn off the engine. These companies can be on a minor scale at first such as small delivery trucks, vans, etc.
Realization:
In order to realize this project, a full on research on the extent of use of the waste vegetable oil must be done. This information will come from first hand experience with people that have used the technology in the past. To properly promote the project, a full-scale campaign must be done. Posters, promotional pamphlets, a how to convert your car booklet and an informational website are the deliverables.
Learning outcomes:
The learning outcomes of this project would to increase my knowledge about this and other forms of alternate fuels that are already out there but yet not implemented, also to explore to what extent these sources of energy can be implemented in a small, medium or larger scale. Also my aim is to get on the track of promoting a more sustainable society with the use of resources we already have without the depletion of our planet.
Bibliography:
"Energy Management." Chain Store Age 83.6 (2007): 61. Business Source Complete. EBSCO. Web. 11 Apr. 2010. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=25311396&site=ehost-live
Ito, Robert. "Convert Your Car." Los Angeles Magazine 53.3 (2008): 76. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Apr. 2010
http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=31145604&site=ehost-live
“ Vegetable oil fuels”, Government of Alberta, Agriculture and rural development.
http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/eng4435
Joshua Tickell ; edited by Kaia Roman , “From the fryer to the fuel tank : the complete guide to using vegetable oil as an alternative fuel”. Greenhaven Press, 2006.
Joseph Dunlavy, Augustine Akuoko-Asibey,
Robert Masse and Denis Pilon. “An Analysis of the Transportation Industry in 2005”
Status Canada, June 14, 2006.
"Biofuels—The Next Great Source of Energy?." Britannica Book of the Year, 2008. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, 2009.
No comments:
Post a Comment