http://www.treehugger.com/files/2008...ur_own_oil.php

the Brazilian Copaifera langsdorfii, to use its botanical name, can be tapped not unlike a rubber tree, but instead of yielding rubbery latex it gives up a natural diesel. According to the nurseryman selling the trees, one hectare will yield about 12,000 litres annually. *

Once filtered—no complex refining required, apparently—it can be placed straight into a diesel tractor or truck. We read that a single Copaifera langsdorfii will continue to produce fuel oil for an impressive 70 years, with the only negative being that its particular form of diesel needs to be used within three months of extraction.

Oddly this is not news. The Center for New Crops & Plant Products, at Purdue University reports that it was first reported to the western world as far back as 1625. They observe reports from 1979 saying "Natives ... drill a 5 centimeter hole into the 1-meter thick trunk and put a bung into it. Every 6 months or so, they remove the bung and collect 15 to 20 liters of the hydrocarbon.” The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation noted in a paper at the Eleventh world forestry congress back in 1997 on the topic of tree oil for cars that “... the potential of other alternatives such as the Amazon Copaifera langsdorfii need to be investigated.”


So how many trees would it take to match the oil output of, say, Saudi Arabia? Check our stats after the jump.

Saudi Arabia Oil Output Daily
11 Million Barrels

Output of One Acre of Copaifera langsdorfii Yearly
25 Barrels

Number of Acres Needed To Match Saudi Arabia Yearly Output
182,500,000 (Total Trees: 18,250,000,000)

Number of Acres in North America Alone
6,050,697,738

Number of Acres in North America Used For Corn (2007)
90.5 million

Amount of American Corn Spent on Ethanol
15% and growing

Frequency Corn Needs Replanting
Every Season

Frequency Copaifera langsdorfii Needs Replanting
Every 90 Seasons

UPDATE: Gallons of Oil In One Gallon of Diesel
7 (thanks lailoken!)

Some interesting metrics to think about. On a worldwide scale, it doesn't seem all that impossible to alleviate oil shortages with plants...and the natural carbon offsets seem worthwhile. It's just too bad these trees take 15-20 years to mature (by which time we plan on flying around in a hydrogen Jetsonmobile).

 

I once saw the Mythbusters drive a regular Volkswagen (edit to clarify: it was a regular diesel Volkswagen) on used cooking oil. They poured it through a cheese cloth to remove debris, but otherwise it was straight out of a fryer and into the gas tank. I know that the recycling company that serviced my restaurant paid us around $60 a month for several hundred gallons of that stuff.

I would be curious to see how the energy output of these alternative sources compares to that of traditional diesel. I suspect that the leftover oil from Firday's fish fry might not get me up a mountain with a 45,000 pound payload. They say that biodiesel only has a 9% lower output though, so maybe the tree stuff could be similar.

 

We used to have an O/O on here that ran a '99 Mack called the Veggie Mack....people called it The Rolling French Fry. I did a story on him a few years ago for a publication. His truck ran on vegetable oil...he got the conversion done by a place called Griesel Conversions, that has since changed to:

http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/

At the time I did the story, he had put about 86,000 miles on his truck, with better than 60% of those miles being powered by around 8,000 gallons of used grease, since the engine can actually run on either fuel source at the flip of a switch. He had a pair of 135 gallon fuel tanks, one dedicated to diesel and the other to grease, with two more grease tanks added on, one at 100 gallons and the other at 60 gallons. The engine uses diesel to start, but he could then switch over to grease and average over 6 miles to the gallon, very comparable or even slightly better than what he would get with diesel.

It would run on used grease or unused veggie oil. Back then, with Veggie oil at around $3 a gallon, it wasn't worth it. Today, though? :? So, he ran on the used stuff. He put 50 gallon drums at several restuarants in his area and they would dump and he would pick up. He'd run it through the strainer at his house and into a tank and that's where he would fuel. Pretty nifty setup.

 

From the link you provided:
That's pretty interesting, assuming it's verifiable.

I know that we were basically just glad to have someone take the oil, so we didn't have to dispose of it. The fact that we got the $60 a month was just a bonus. Many restaurants are probably in the same boat. I'm surprised that I haven't heard of more people setting up this kind of system. Even if you could only round up a couple hundred gallons a month, do the math.

 

http://www.goldenfuelsystems.com/res...goldGath05.php

Is this the mack? I am going to call them for some more info. Thanks

 

The only downside to cooking and veggie oil is if the vehicle sits for a period, you will need to drain the tank(s) and replace injectors and fuel filters. Vehicle will not run worth a flip and keep shutting off on you if you don't do that and that's assuming you can even get it to start. Have to keep the oil stirred up or it will simply wax up on you.