My local gas price is now 1.99. What's yours?

[backagain]

(Looks out window) Yup $4.39 a gallon. Had to fill up to go to work this week.

 

[Alistair]

I have a huge amount of free gas but haven't released it yet.

What kind of storage device do you use?

 

[backagain]

What kind of storage device do you use?

I believe it is with his butt.
High storage capacity.

 

[Vannie]

What kind of storage device do you use?

The storage tank is similar to a huge propane tank. We use it for BBQing.

I have a natural gas Dodge Ram pickup that I just fart directly into the tank. 2 blasts will usually get me to Walmart and back. Road trips are tough though and a lot of planning.

 

[Araucaria]

I paid $3.48 per gallon today.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

This thread was meant for country rednecks or pecheros who get taxed through massive gas consumption.

Belly you have a way with words.

 

[peeonme]

I drive a f150 ecoboost it's a 2021 model used for both personal and business. On a recent 700 mile trip I averaged about 23.5 mpg. In the burbs pulling my utility trailer with lawn equipment I get around 12 mpg. Gas was up to $5.00 per gallon but has dropped to just under $4.00. I loved the $2.25 per gallon price but am thankful that I can afford a good ride and the gas to run it.

 

[Rickrock]

Our gas prices just rose about 25 cents over night. They are $3.69 now.

 

[NotHardUp1]

The storage tank is similar to a huge propane tank. We use it for BBQing.

I have a natural gas Dodge Ram pickup that I just fart directly into the tank. 2 blasts will usually get me to Walmart and back. Road trips are tough though and a lot of planning.

That reminds me. Whatever became of biofuel? I had an engineer friend in Albuquerque who converted his vehicle to run on it, and set up a small distillery in his garage to transform cooking oil from local restaurants to burn.

Did it die during the global warming move from carbon based fuels, or was it just never a very viable option for large scale adoption (I don't mean the cooking oil, just using algae or whatever to make it)?

 

[Kulindahr]

That reminds me. Whatever became of biofuel? I had an engineer friend in Albuquerque who converted his vehicle to run on it, and set up a small distillery in his garage to transform cooking oil from local restaurants to burn.

Did it die during the global warming move from carbon based fuels, or was it just never a very viable option for large scale adoption (I don't mean the cooking oil, just using algae or whatever to make it)?

Primarily it got boring because big business got involved.

Ethanol is the U.S.' primary biofuel, a business with revenues in the vicinity of $30bn. Diesel biofuel, which is the category the cooking oil falls into -- called that because of the type of engine that burns it -- is an interesting fuel because Rudolf Diesel, who invented the diesel engine in 1897, originally used vegetable oil as the fuel, and these days biodiesel is made primarily from soybean oil, corn oil, canola oil, and "recycled feedstock and waste" (for which I can't find a definition). It's big business and getting bigger; production of biodiesel in the U.S. has more than doubled sine the start of the pandemic. A growing sector is animal fats, primarily from slaughterhouses and meat processing plants; in a distant third is algae, which ultimately should be the primary source because it can be grown in the wastewater ponds at sewage treatment plants using the abundant resource we all contribute to. A big focus is breeding algae that have higher fat content to make it more cost-effective, but the biggest barrier to broad production is that while other biofuels get substantial tax breaks and other forms of federal government subsidy the algae approach gets none (though a few states provide some, notably California -- which I think is where there's an effort to grow algae using forest waste from logging as the food source).

And while it used to be possible to ask for the used cooking oil from places like McDonalds, nearly all restaurants now have contracts to sell their used oils to biodiesel companies -- so no more stunts like the famous pair who drove a VW Bug across the U.S. using oil they got free from restaurants.

 

[Kulindahr]

I paid $3.48 per gallon today.

Oh, if only! I've had to cut back my conservation work due to gas prices -- it's still $4.89 here.

 

[Vannie]

That reminds me. Whatever became of biofuel? I had an engineer friend in Albuquerque who converted his vehicle to run on it, and set up a small distillery in his garage to transform cooking oil from local restaurants to burn.

Did it die during the global warming move from carbon based fuels, or was it just never a very viable option for large scale adoption (I don't mean the cooking oil, just using algae or whatever to make it)?

Good questions. I can remember in the 80's small restaurants had a basic metal drum barrels for old grease and fat collection. Every thing from rendered sausage and meat fat to basic deep frying oil went in there. Smelled horrible after a while and was kept outside.

A business did pick it up and provide a new barrel periodically. But the useable product from it must be very small. Not sure. I'm sure small places still have grease collection.

Most large places and nursing home/assisted living have huge in sink grease traps that are cleaned out by the dish washers. Our old grease was just put into contractor bags and put in the trash collection dumpsters.

I'm sure there is still a market for it but dont know how much is being recycled today though for biofuels or other things.

 

[Kulindahr]

Good questions. I can remember in the 80's small restaurants had a basic metal drum barrels for old grease and fat collection. Every thing from rendered sausage and meat fat to basic deep frying oil went in there. Smelled horrible after a while and was kept outside.

A business did pick it up and provide a new barrel periodically. But the useable product from it must be very small. Not sure. I'm sure small places still have grease collection.

Most large places and nursing home/assisted living have huge in sink grease traps that are cleaned out by the dish washers. Our old grease was just put into contractor bags and put in the trash collection dumpsters.

I'm sure there is still a market for it but dont know how much is being recycled today though for biofuels or other things.

In addition to my post above:

NASA and the U.S. Air Force are working on turning chicken fat into aviation fuel.

A group in Britain is turning fats and grease from the sewers into biofeed for algae that turn it into methane.

Here's a chart that shows how one company is reusing not just fats but the meat scraps and bones of the animals the fats come from:

I love the idea of the Air Force running its jets on chicken fat. I have just one question: are Air Force bases going to start smelling like Kentucky Fried Chicken?

 

[Vannie]

Fascinating ^ Thanks Kuli.

Now I want an extra crispy breast

 

[Kulindahr]

Fascinating ^ Thanks Kuli.

Now I want an extra crispy breast

No problemo.

I keep an eye on the diesel side of things because I still entertain the idea of getting a traveling house, A.K.A. RV, and my expectation is that I should get a diesel one since oil from the ground is just going to get more expensive but biodiesel promises to keep diesel prices lower.

I just wish someone would figure out how to make diesel from kudzu -- that shit grows so fast it would solve our fuel problems for centuries. Some outfits are making ethanol from it and found it yields a lot more ethanol per acre than corn does, but I'd rather have biodiesel.

 

[PrinceCory]

I purchased fuel today. It was $3.55'9 before my 30 cent per gallon loyalty discount.

 

[Kulindahr]

I'm confused: prices were trending nicely downward, got to $4.49, but today when I drove by my usual station the sign said $5.89!

 

[Araucaria]

I'm confused: prices were trending nicely downward, got to $4.49, but today when I drove by my usual station the sign said $5.89!

Of course the petroleum companies will say it's because of hurricane Ian. Never mind that it's clear across the country from where you live, and at any rate it's way too soon to have any impact on the market. Because any excuse to raise prices is the way they do business.

 

[m1thousand]

I have no idea ;-)

 

[Kulindahr]

Of course the petroleum companies will say it's because of hurricane Ian. Never mind that it's clear across the country from where you live, and at any rate it's way too soon to have any impact on the market. Because any excuse to raise prices is the way they do business.

The storm track doesn't even come close to where the gulf coast refineries are, so if they're claiming that it's pure justification.

One of the real problems is that there aren't enough refineries in the U.S. Application to build a new one was started back in Clinton's second term and still hasn't cleared the federal bureaucracy! If not for the bureaucrats there would be two additional refineries now, one on the Gulf coast and one in California. The latest estimate I saw, which was maybe four years ago, was that if those were built and in action the price of a gallon of gas would drop by eighty cents or more.