The Coming Competitive Milieu

David Benton wrote:I think the most promising biofuel is the one made form algae growing on sewage ponds . perhaps it should be a policy that biofuels are made form waste products only . im sure we have enough waste to supply a decent amount of fuel .
i have property near a river , because of the low flow and awarm weather it has grown a huge amount of water weed . i wonder if this could be used , ive already tried composting some .

That is in fact biogas.

There is a train running on the biogas made from a slaughterhouse in Sweden. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4373440.stm

the research here , and i think in Texas is to make biodiesel out of pond algae . http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00030.htm
a google search shows its not a new idea , but these guys are the first to do it in everyday conditions .

David Benton wrote:the research here , and i think in Texas is to make biodiesel out of pond algae . http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0605/S00030.htm
a google search shows its not a new idea , but these guys are the first to do it in everyday conditions .

Biogas can be made out of many different organic materials. If the original is something that at present is treated as waste there are very low costs, and it should not subtract from food available. If the solid and liquid output are pumped back on to the land the productivity of the land so treated will improve, without a need for fertiliser. I have done this myself, and seen a large coffee and mixed farm in Kenya running on this system.
On the whole, despite the Swedish example, I don't think a large number of trains can run on biogas. The Swedish trains run on a minor line, but the main lines run on electricity which is mainly of hydroelectric and nuclear origin.

It will be interesting to see if the methane powered transport vehicles work out. Methane was tried as a bus fuel in Seattle about 10 years ago and the operating and maintenance results were not good. Our local bus fleet is now moving to hybrid/diesel coaches--using ultra low sulfur fuel-- that have reduced pollution while remaining reliable to operate. Also, the specific case of obtaining methane from rendered bovine guts doesn't look all that eco-friendly when one considers that beef production and dairy farming are notoriously unfriendly to the environment.

electrification of the railway meansit can be run by any fuel .hybrids may be the way of the future , with electrification of steep grades , amd diesel / nattery taking over on the flat .

In Germany (at least in my region, Rhine-Neckar) electrification is pretty much the current fade.

Pretty much all "main" lines are electrified, and the number of electrified secondary lines is increasing as these are included into S-Bahn networks and the like.

Diesel is used on the "country" lines here, often those with some sort of infrastructure that would need high investment for electrification - like old tunnels. Pretty much all non-electrified lines in the region were just contracted out again recently, so nothing will change there until the mid-2020s.
Methane or other biofuels have afaik not yet been considered by DB or other German operators as Diesel replacements. In particular the western parts of this region are large rape seed producers (which is used in biodiesel) though, i'd expect at least biodiesel to make some appearance on DB stock DMUs in the area.

Could also have something to do with the three nuclear power plants in the region.

David Benton wrote:electrification of the railway meansit can be run by any fuel .hybrids may be the way of the future , with electrification of steep grades , amd diesel / nattery taking over on the flat .

I think the operators of the East Coast route have been considering an electro-diesel design that could run under the wires from London to Edinburgh, and then diesel to Aberdeen. But it seems to me (and many others) that the Aberdeen routes should be electrified, both to Edinburgh and Glasgow. I think the Scottish government is likely to do so, as they have the power to do that.

that would be good , George .
Theyre electrifying the auckland surbuban network here , which would leave a 80 k m gap between the exisitng main trunk electrification , and auckland . Hopefully that will be leectrfied in the near future too .
presuming the govt is sucessful in its bid to buy back the railway operations .