History of BioFuel | www.stillisstillmoving.com - 0 views
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Fueling up with ethanol and vegetable oils was common long before the development of the internal combustion engine. Vegetable and animal oil lamps have been used since the dawn of civilization. Increasingly efficient heaters and lamps meant that higher quality fuels were developed. For example, small alcohol stoves (also called “spirit lamps”) were commonly used by travelers in the 17th century to warm food and themselves. One of Ben Franklin’s spirit lamps is on display in a Philadelphia exhibit.
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Fueling up with ethanol and vegetable oils was common long before the development of the internal combustion engine. Vegetable and animal oil lamps have been used since the dawn of civilization. Increasingly efficient heaters and lamps meant that higher quality fuels were developed. For example, small alcohol stoves (also called “spirit lamps”) were commonly used by travelers in the 17th century to warm food and themselves. One of Ben Franklin’s spirit lamps is on display in a Philadelphia exhibit.
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At the end of WWI, gasoline quality was declining, and Detroit dropped the standard compression ratio to 3.8 to one. According to Scientific American in 1919, there were to options. One, lower the compression ratio even further, sacrificing efficiency but allowing the continued use of low-grade petroleum. Or two, use more ethanol in the fuel mix in order to conserve petroleum and allow the creation of more efficient, higher compression engines. The choice was further skewed in the direction of ethanol when the US Geological Survey announced, in 1920, that oil was running out.[20]
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"Around the 1850s, lamp fuels in the US and Europe were usually made from animal and vegetable oils, often combined with alcohol. "Camphene" (a camphor oil scented blend of turpentine and ethanol) was by far the leading fuel in the US with at least 90 million gallons sold per year.[14] But a tax on all alcohol in the US, including industrial alcohol for lamps, meant that other sources of illuminants were needed. The kerosene industry arose as a direct result of this tax on its competitor - and not because whales were running out, as the "whale oil" myth would have it. "Kerosene" was named as the solar (keros) fuel in imitation of "camphene." The highly volatile byproduct, called "gasoline" in the hope it would be used in municipal gas light systems, was usually blended unsafely into lamp fuels, or just poured into streams or burned off."
