Biodegradable Diesel Rated Oil?

[RWEST]

How about this: Green Earth Technologies

Using animal fat and nanotechnology to create a biodegradable oil. Seems interesting, no?

 

[RalphVa]

Oils are biodegradable. The only thing that keeps them from being dumped is the metal content of some of the additives. Synthetics have very few and ought to be very biodegradable.

Best place for them to go is back to be redistilled and recycled into new oil.

Ralph

 

[RWEST]

Ralph - Did you check that link? 1 barrel animal tallow = 1 barrel oil. Seems hard to believe, to me anyway.
edit - And, can you imagine nanotech oil - the molecules could be 'programmed' to stay on the bearings and journals forever, so there'd be no more cold-start worries!!

 

[SnowRidge]

Oils are biodegradable. The only thing that keeps them from being dumped is the metal content of some of the additives. Synthetics have very few and ought to be very biodegradable.

Best place for them to go is back to be redistilled and recycled into new oil.

Ralph

Tell the people of Valdez and the Price William Sound area that, and see what kind of response you get.

 

[MikePA]

I think Ralph was referring to refined oil not crude oil.

 

[SnowRidge]

Mike, I suspect you are right, but just because something is "biodegradable" doesn't mean that it is OK to dump it. The Exxon Valdez incident is the perfect example. It's cargo was biodegradable, yet is caused tremendous environmental damage.

We can't just dump petroleum based oils, even if they contain no metals. The natural biodegrading process for them is far too long, and synthetic oils may contain man made elements for which no biological breakdown mechanism exists, so they certainly aren't candidates for dumping.

 

[MikePA]

Mike, I suspect you are right, but just because something is "biodegradable" doesn't mean that it is OK to dump it. The Exxon Valdez incident is the perfect example. It's cargo was biodegradable, yet is caused tremendous environmental damage. We can't just dump petroleum based oils, even if they contain no metals. The natural biodegrading process for them is far too long, and synthetic oils may contain man made elements for which no biological breakdown mechanism exists, so they certainly aren't candidates for dumping.

Agreed.

 

[RalphVa]

If you dump almost any kind of "biodegradable" material in the same place all the time or a lot of it in one place, you'll overload the capability of the biosphere system in that area to "eat" it.

I have no problems whatever with a couple quarts of oil dumped at various places on my property. However, if I dump a whole drum of it somewhere, it'll cause a problem. I do collect most of the used oil and take it to auto stores that presumably send it to recycle places. However, if it's too tough to collect a couple quarts of oil because of the location of the drain plug, etc., I have no problem with dumping it on the ground.

Even an asphalt road will biodegrade if left to the elements.

Ralph

 

[Soundguy]

However, if it's too tough to collect a couple quarts of oil because of the location of the drain plug, etc., I have no problem with dumping it on the ground. Ralph, The natural gardener
God's original intent

!!!

nice post from the natural gardner...

soundguy

 

[California]

This ought to be interesting! The professional petroleum engineer and the professional waste water treatment engineer discuss pouring oil on the ground.

I know both of you are polite and reasonable. I would like to learn more about this topic (I have spots where Dad dumped oil that still won't grow anything) so it will be interesting to see where this topic goes if you guys are willing to discuss this further.

Ralph, what happens if that oil gets into the groundwater before it is completely broken down?