ConocoPhillips produces renewable desiel fuel in Ireland
One thousand barrels a day of renewable diesel fuel is being created in Cork, Ireland by ConocoPhillips. The fuel is created using mostly soybean oils and meets EU standards for diesel fuels.
No additional equipment was needed at the factory for production of the new fuel, and it is being transported along with petroleum based fuel. This fuel is expected to allow Ireland to meet the carbon dioxide emissions standards required under the Kyoto protocol.
Although soybean oil is being used at this time, ConocoPhillips claims that their process can work with other vegetable oils or animal fats.
[Source: Yahoo.com]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Howard Lee Harkness 9:26AM (12/20/2006)
Weak article; needs some editorial proofreading, background fact-checking, and spell-checking.
1) It's "diesel", not "desiel". Named for the inventor of the diesel engine, Rudolph Diesel.
2) "claims that their process can work with other vegetable oils or animal fats." Claims? 'Their' technology? Biodiesel manufacture is already widely-known, proven technology. Biodiesel can be manufactured from just about any source of lipids.
3) 1000 bbl? Do you really mean 55,000 gal (US), or 1000 gal (US) or 4546 liters (1000 Imperial gal)? The source feedstock is sometimes measured in bbl, but the output is usually measured in gallons, either US or Imperial, because that is the way it is sold.
Trivia question for your background research: Who financed the development of the first commercially successful diesel engine?
Trivia question for conspiracy buffs (are you there, Tim?): Who killed Rudolph Diesel, and why?
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Don Borden 2:58PM (12/20/2006)
Maybe I missed something in school but I don't understand how making 1000 gal/day of diesel from soy is going to allow Ireland to meet their CO2 emmisions standards under Kyoto protocol? As I understood my chemistry anything that burns (combustion is probably a more correct term)creats CO2 and 1000 gal/day is not a lot fuel for a country the size of
Ireland.
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CIDI 5:45PM (12/20/2006)
HLH wrote: "Claims? 'Their' technology? Biodiesel manufacture is already widely-known, proven technology."
'Their' biodiesel isn't a fatty acid ester. They hydrogenate vegetable oil somehow (it sounds like making margarine to me -- hope I'm wrong!) and mix it in with regular petrodiesel. I don't know what the bio/petro ratio is.
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