Here I be! answers are in order: yes no no yes and Tuesdays. And that ladys and gentleman is why I am not a professional comedian.
Ok, yes, I've been watching this outfit for sometime. Yes I would run there fuel, after 6 months of the mass public running it. They have not done any massive fleet wide tesing with their fuels that I have found yet, like when I was at the 76 oils co. and they promptly destroyed multiple bus engines for the C.A.T. bus system here, along with many other engines. Peanut oil sheesh! EL-oops-O! anyways...
Almost all bio fuel is separated at a chemical level from its non fuel products like lye, etc. The "hydrothermical fractionation" is the 1st thing that they are doing different. It is more expensive to do, it produces a better product. They are getting a better "cut" of the fuel by choosing to not mix in more of the so-so fuel with the best part, and are counting on people paying more for a higher quality fuel.
Carbon range is the amount of carbons in the molecular chain, the length of the chain is what determines the product, sort of.
Petroleum Fractions by Carbon Range
If you have a chain that is c12 it is gasoline, or kerosene, or diesel. Diesel sells for more money per gallon, so where you your refinery put all your c12? It changes by who is paying what that week. Also factor in how many refineries have been allowed to be built, believe me every oil company out there would build more here if allowed to, which would effect lower prices, but that's another story. So the refineries that are capable doing this to bio fuels usually don't, because there is more profit in refining crude oil. Somebody at that outfit is a hell of a salesman to make this risk happen.
Less carbon in the fuel = less pollution. Lower carbon count also = more power within its range. They just have to choose to "throw away" the higher carbon chains to get cleaner, more powerful fuel.
As for the negative effects, bugs: far less likely to exist in this fuel, as the pressures and temperatures that the process uses should wipe all life from anything on planet earth except for those fluttery things that live in the under ocean volcanoes. If the reintroduce some pre-distillation column, they could reintroduce them. HIGHLY doubtful. As for the rubber eating part, I'd fire a 5% possibility. Again the different process does not add chemicals to cause the reaction, because it's not needed. But in an attempt to push product through at a very high rate of speed (faster production = less investment per gallon) they might add some chemical to do part of the work. The biggest thing I would like to know about is their catalyst(s) and how it's used. That would tell tons of the story. Yeah might as well ask Col. Sanders for the 11 herbs and spices! I would buy a gallon, heat it up to 110 F, keep fluid circulating, and submerge an assortment of materials into it for a month to see what gives. Definitely more trustable than most other bio fuel processes.
On the algae based fuel- yep, one of our fearless leaders at the company I work for now has quite the experience with it, He started testin with it in the early 70s, and still is running a couple years more testing. The biggest problem is it takes a lot of acreage to do it, and his production rates currently are light years ahead of anything any one out there is producing now. He simply will not due it until the last problems are solved. He figured out corn ethanol before the current idiots, but would not do anything with it because he new the starvation it would cause around the world, and unfortunately was right. The algae thing is land, and water consumption, but he has the water problem 99% solved.
Currently focused 2 things,#1 on the plastics to fuel recycling, as that can have a bigger impact on the environment by pulling the waste out of the landfills. Regardless of what you all here, way more plastics go into the trash dumps than is publically announced. Huge portions are recycled out from the trash companies, to be returned within the year. Currently we are testing a grain bag that is used for storage on the farm then usually gets trashed, or buried in the back 40 of the farmers land from what we understand. Does this sound familiar to any of you?
#2 Part of that water problem, he can solve a tremendous amount of contaminated water problems world wide. M.I.T. has done some similar work on it, but is about 7/100 as clean as his, this project is not through the company, but on the side, and will require a few million to get it up to scale. Multiple major interested customers in Nevada currently on private and government levels. This guy is an Einstein that grew up on a farm, turned Marine, and won't leave problems unsolved. Oh yeah, the Marines will be the first to get some of his new ammo design, all I could say is ounces = pounds and pounds = pain, and he is a pain killer. 6-7 years out from final testing. If he had 100 million to play with he could probably solve 20% of the worlds problems, no joke.
BTW, our synthetic fuel will kill theirs. no bio, fully synthetic, 100% post consumer, just fighting local bureaucrats mostly now. Oh yeah almost no sulfur, and way more lubricate action than anything ever produced. I have already told my boss I want part of my pay in fuel for the Hummer. The current customers wanting it is refineries wanting to buy all we can make to use as a blend stock to improve their numbers. On their website they have fuel specs, but don't reference either of the 2 main labs in the US as a sourced lab qualified by all refinieries, not sure if they ever have, but if so I think they should advertise it- my 2c.
More questions about the fuel, or if I missed something just ask, you've all figured out I have no problem droning on and on
to the most minute detail...