Train fares - rant!

[JohnB]

A man moved to Leeds and was renovating his house. He needed plasterboard, so off he sets in his van.

Driving around, he pulls to the kerb and asks a passer-by, "Is there a B&Q in Leeds?"

The passer-by replied, "No, but there are to 'D's in Bradford."

There's a B&Q in Carmarthen

[ujoni08]

You get various figures for the CO2 emissions per Km per passenger for cars, buses, trains and planes from different websites. Here's one set from

www.aef.org.uk/downloads/Howdoesairtravelcompare.doc

Rail - normal suburban (about 130 - 45 grams CO2 per kilometre)
Rail - high speed, few stops (about 165 - 80 grams CO2 per kilometre)
Bus - well used service (about 80 - 45 grams CO2 per kilometre)
Air - (below 500 miles) (about 460 - 330 grams CO2 per kilometre)
Air - (long journeys) (about 330 - 210 grams CO2 per kilometre)

My car emits 119 g/Km on diesel (£30/year road tax), but I stopped using diesel in Feb 2008. I make my own biodiesel from waste cooking oil, which I believe emits 78% less CO2, so 119 minus 78% = 26.18 g/Km, which seems to compare favourably with the above. It's also tax free and costs me 35p/litre to buy and trans-esterify to methyl ester (biodiesel). When TSHTF there will be no more waste cooking oil for me though...

Jon

[adam2]

The burning of waste cooking oil produces almost the same amount of carbon dioxide from the exhaust as does the burning of FF. This is unavoidable since the two fuels must have very similar compositions in order to produce similar results when burnt.

Despite this, the burning of waste cooking oil is to be prefered on enviromental grounds. The carbon dioxide released is that absorbed quite recently by the growth of the oil seed rape, sunflowers etc.
The net effect on the climate is therefore limited to the carbon produced by any FF used in processing and transporting the fuel.

The burning of FF is returning to the atmosphere, carbon that was removed in ancient times, by the growth of forests etc.

[ujoni08]

Yes, and it provides me with a hobby, and a feeling of independence from government fuel taxes and the profiteering of the big oil companies. Something like splitting logs for my wood-burner.

I believe it also emits no sulphur and much lower levels of particulates. As you say, the whole life-cycle of the cooking oil, it's production and transportation, etc has to be considered. If we take the intended use (cooking food for human consumption) into consideration as being the end of its life cycle, then using it after that as a low-emission transport fuel has to be better than pouring it down the drains. It was added to animal feed until the BSE epidemic, after which it was banned for that purpose. The government hastily withdrew the tax on home brewing of biodiesel, to encourage a larger take-up, and so prevent it all going down the drains.

Smells like hot chips with a whiff of whiskey when you drive!

Jon

[RenewableCandy]

Not only that but I have it on good authority (Yorkshire Water no less) that it b***ers up the drains if it gets poured away, too. FOG (Fat, Oil and Grease) gives rise to a lot of extra miles done by (blue-and-) white vans as engineers frantically go round unblocking drains. I chuck ours on the garden.