its funny about home grown fuel. the algae is interesting, but has its own array of disaster potentials, one serious issue simply from it being engineered and then escaping containment......farm crops or land used to grow other non food crops instead of food is not really a great idea.. if butanol was the direct goal it would be one thing, but for myself ethanol and bio-diesel are not so easy to accept after some some time to look farther down the line and with what has already proved out since the 80's.......well none of the current options are ideal for our i.c.e. fleet over the long term. food crops should only fuel people directly as commercially produced. making your own fuel from your own land is great imo in any event. but wasting food on transportaion via machine i now find patently retarded. theres more oil and gas in this northern american continent then needed to maintain status quo for home grown fuel past our grandchildren, but it(oil is mostly in canada btw) is being bought by asia amongst others and rightly so these days.
presently the most abundant home grown fuel.... direct automotive fuel..... we have in the usa, seems to be natural gas. its here and ready in most areas. many in the n/e still heat with diesel which is pathetic, but it is what it is distribution wise and not cost effective to use natural gas in those areas...i hope that changes rapidly over the next ten years.
i looked into this direct comparison as titled. heavily at one point, as the technology was readily available and cheap, still is to a point. i regret not buying the systems and vehicles.
my current main source of income is in oil and gas exploration... i actually drill oil and gas wells, the primary well type that we work with is natural gas in michigan, but obviously we work just about anywhere. recently i have had opportunity and discussed some issues with the top man from a mid level national operator.
my main complaint is the lack of cheap compressor capacity for the home user. i need something for my base and something that is mobile, and not with an out of reach price tag. i pressed for this to be a goal of all of the operators....they cry about the price being down, when minimal infrastructure investment will benefit all over the long haul and short term..
this guy just like everybody in nat gas is losing his ass having to drill wells in other areas of the country because of contracting issues due to the states actual operating rules that the various operators are operating in(for protection of us all in most accounts). but not always.. good for union types, bad for companies that end up folded because of it. i have been to areas that always had "firewater" long before columbus found america and fire grounds. pollution issues will always exist directly from drilling, but some of the recent things are stacked ridiculously. "fracing" a zone 8000 feet below a watersource doesnt do shit to groundwater. it cant. a casing failure in a groundwater zone could though. there is no direct correlation to this from the fracing, but disposal of produced water in different zones i suspect is the likely cause for complaints.
of course these big picture guys dont realize theres many many people like me and even more that are curios to the issue just like Stxrangerbumper that will and can easily convert their vehicles to operate on natural gas. this is easily done just buying used municipal or fleet vehicles...a few auction hunts can prove to be a cost effective way to get a natural gas or duel fuel vehicle.
this is a good fuel source to ease some factors, but not a forever fuel either.
i tried the veggie oil, besides being alot of work, getting the oil was not easy where i was.
that pushed me into waste oils like motor, tranny, hydraulic, types of machine tool oils etc..
these oils where i currently live and in many places are getting hard to get in consistant quantities. just like the waste vegetable oils, the waste oils from machines that was always free and easy....well the shit goes for up to 90 cents a gallon now. and the 90 cent stuff is the stuff i need.
so, back to where i started when looking for a better way to power my ranger. natural gas right at the house. of course, this would skyrocket rapidly if the demand increased heavily.
so i am looking to run both natural gas and wmo in my diesel powered vehicles at the same time and hope to have this ability sooner then later, and setup a duel fuel gasoline/ng system in one of my other vehicles.
so, i swapped a diesel into my rig to have an affordable daily driver. works great. the alternate fuels is use for it is crazy as its availability varies widely. but all in all, is is very very cost effective compared to my small blocks in the exact same chassis.
but, i am now thinking of a current 6.2 gm or ford swap with natural gas as the main fuel but also able to run gasoline and ethanol as well..
i can say one thing only that i feel is certain. shit is always changing.
you directly ask the question as a matter of being able to save on the cost of personal mobility--cost effectively i assume---.
and, whatever the most cost effective thing is i can do, is usually what i do. not because i want to, but because i have too.
diesel, natural gas and electric seem to be the first steps away from refining gasoline. but i am not willing to bet on it.
a vehicle that can run on propane, natural gas, gasolines/ethanols, and electric only if need be seems to be the best way to go. thats a real hybrid multifuel vehicle in my eyes.
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