Biogas train

There is a train in Sweden (Linkoeping) running on the biogas produced by the local slaughterhouse.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4373440.stm

thanks George , interesting article . New Zealand has a large meat industry , theres been some talk of using tallow as biodiesel .
A couple of pacific island students at university here have done a project on using cocconut oil to run diesel engines . at thier ambient tempeature you can run it with no modifications to the engine or oil . i think it was around 6 coconuts to get a litre of diesel equivalent , and it can be processed in your backyard .

Mr Diesel designed his engine to run on vegetable oil. Petroleum oil came later.

I am not sure how the Linkoping train uses the biogas. The news item on tv didn't explain that.

I can imagine what refried beans can do for Mexican railroads

DutchRailnut wrote:I can imagine what refried beans can do for Mexican railroads

This contains some information on biogas and how to make it. This is a serious source of energy which does not damage the climate and will not go up in price when the oil runs out.

http://www.angelfire.com/mac/egmatthews ... index.html

Dutch Railnut , that reminds me of guys that used to post alot on the amtrak forum , always on about greasy burritos . wondered what happened to them .

George , havent got time to read your links ( 2am here , just got home from a 50 litres of diesel road trip , arggh) , i will read , as i was googling re the possiblty of using vegie oil instead of 2 stroke oil , which is dam expensive . Guess what , 2 stroke petrol engines orignally ran on vegetable oil . however they carbon up using it quite quickly apparently .
i will get round to trying it anyway , on a chinese $ 100 generator .

David Benton wrote:Dutch Railnut , that reminds me of guys that used to post alot on the amtrak forum , always on about greasy burritos . wondered what happened to them .

George , havent got time to read your links ( 2am here , just got home from a 50 litres of diesel road trip , arggh) , i will read , as i was googling re the possiblty of using vegie oil instead of 2 stroke oil , which is dam expensive . Guess what , 2 stroke petrol engines orignally ran on vegetable oil . however they carbon up using it quite quickly apparently .
i will get round to trying it anyway , on a chinese $ 100 generator .

Vegetable oil is a separate topic. I know very little about it. However, I do know about biogas, having made it in Kenya and Nigeria.

I think it interesting that in Sweden they are running a single rail car on biogas. The item appeared on the late night BBC News in depth programme Newsnight. They did not explain what kind of motor was being used. I think probably it was a modified diesel, but petrol engines can also be used. I think fuel cells may be the final choice, but I don't think large ones are easily available yet. Hydrogen will certainly be used in fuel cells.

I did know a farmer in Kenya who used biogas for static engines. He used a generator for his farm electricity and a static pump to lift water from the dam for the farm and the household. However he hadn't adapted any vehicles to use it.

There has been some discussion in Britain of hydrogen fuel cells for locomotives. They would be used on lines that are not busy enough to be worth installing overhead electric power. They would probably have and advantage over road lorries.

There are people in Britan who use vegetable oil from chip shops and other kitchens to run diesel engines. One is a canal boat; others are vans. However, they are supposed to pay tax on the oil. People who bought new vegetable oil were caught last year and fined for not paying tax.

In Wales the Ffestiniog Railway has always run its steam engines on oil (nasty smell - I don't like it). They have a tanker that goes round to garages and workshops and collects old sump oil. I think the Forestrty Commission doesn't want coal burning locomotives in their forests. I find theiur trains always give me a slight headache and the smell isn't right.

At

http://www.svenskbiogas.se/pdf/en/Bioga ... d_2005.pdf

there is a good description of the swedish biogas railcar.