John Deere, a renowned maker of farm equipment, announced that their website now has a section dedicated to biofuel which will be relevant to farmers and other producers. Initial content of the site are a biofuel reference report and a video.
“The biodiesel content on the Web site will help provide farmers and others interested in biofuels with more detailed information on this topic and John Deere’s position on how these fuels can most effectively produced and utilized as high-quality energy sources,”
John Deere was one of the early companies to endorse B5 biodiesel in their products. They believe however that B2 is the correct way to implement the biodiesel adoption program since there are still issues in production, quality and distribution that have to be addressed by the industry.
An Agricultural Manager and I were discussing Biodiesel and he raised some very good points on Biodiesel and the common Filipino farmer. Not that I’m taking anyway from John Deere and their efforts to promote Biodiesel. In fact I’m thankful that they are taking the initiative to save the environment, I’m just stating the problems faced by farmers in the Philippines.
He said that Biodiesel is great but it still doesn’t make it that easy for the rural farmers of the Philippines. Especially for those who are in far flung areas with no access to electricity albeit with a road network in place. Which is a good point, considering that in Philippine farming, one of the major costs incurred by a farmer is the transportation cost to ship his goods to the market. The price of which is greatly dependent on the cost of fuel.
He said that what farmers in the Philippines really needed is a fuel source that they can supply on their own to power their vehicles and run their equipment. Straight Vegetable Oil fuel is a good prospect except for the problem that there really isn’t an engine available that can run problem free on SVO alone. Because of the high viscosity of Vegetable Oil, current engines modified to run on SVO are actually a dual fuel system that is still dependent on Biodiesel/Petrol Diesel. Biodiesel/Petro-Diesel is needed to start the engine and heat the SVO till it becomes viscous enough to flow through the fuel system. Also, before shutting down, you have to flush the engine of the SVO by switching back to Biodiesel/Petro-Diesel. The most stressed parts in the diesel engine in effect are the injectors and the fuel pump. What they need are engines specifically designed and built to run on SVO.
Original Article here
Category: Biodiesel
