Teaching biodiesel? Girl Mark is here to help
Maria "Girl Mark" Alovert is a dedicated biodiesel advocate, and her biodiesel homebrew classes are certainly in demand. To help people help themselves, she recently started up a new Yahoo! group specifically for educators (at schools or museums or camps or wherever) who want more information on teaching biodiesel curriculum. The list is meant to be low-volume and designed to help teachers coordinate their projects and documentation.
Mark started the list a week ago but has already found interested teachers from around North America who have contributed documents, like a PowerPoint slideshow on biodiesel designed for 4th graders. Right now, Mark is looking for a co-moderator, preferably someone who works with kids with an interest in biofuels, to help run the site. You can check out the group here.
Related:
[Source: Biodiesel in Schools Yahoo! group]
UPDATE: Girl Mark said she's not really responsible for "starting" the group. It just sort of grew out of an idea the New Jersey science teacher Dan Smith.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
TIMMAH! 2:23AM (5/25/2009)
Doesn't biodiesel kill the latest generation of clean diesel engines though? (I don't remember exactly what the issue was, but it had to do something with the post-processing of the exhaust creating different by-products since biodiesel wasn't petroleum-based.)
Reply
tomb 11:59AM (11/18/2009)
There is speculation about the temperature at which BD burns and whether or not it is sufficient to "clean" the DPF (diesel particle filter) now on most diesel engines. Since BD is cleaner with less particulate matter to capture this issue maybe counteracted since there is not as much to be cleaned off the DPF ceramic surfaces.
As well several manufacturers have chosen the method of supplying extra fuel to achieve this process with what is called "post combustion injections" of fuel into the cylinders to get more raw fuel into the exhaust system to cause this reaction.
There is speculation that the extra fuel will "wash" down the cylinder walls past the piston rings and into the oil of the engine causing dilution. Used Oil Analysis shows this to happen in some diesel engines when running 100% BD. Personally my 2007 Jeep Grand Cherokee with the MB 3.0L V^ Common Rail Diesel does NOT show any contamination or dilution of the oil by the B100. On the other hand others have reported the issue in the new Jetta TDI engines.