Biodiesel is great except for the part about fuel vs food. its only good when its from waste cooking oil and that doesn’t scale well. gasification offers some good advantages over biodiesel because of the versitility. you could use the stalks and seed husks of the biodiesel plant, for example, that biodiesel could not. you could use coal.

The environmental advantage of biodiesel is the same advantage as gassifying wood… the carbon in the fuel is taken out of the air by a plant and then returned to the air during combustion. The negative environmental impact of both of these schemes is that land (which could be otherwise used as habitat or to grow food) is used to produce the fuel. Biodiesel can be produced from plants which take a year to produce a high yield. Wood takes decades to grow.

Also, having a tank of carbon monoxide (a deadly gas) seems a scary prospect to me.

Have you thought about the Brazilian ethanol model, powering cars on alcohol fermented from sugar cane?

Also, diesel is better environmentally per mile driven than petrol/gas hands down.

I wonder if your predilection for fancy cars causes a bias in your assessment of environmental impact?

Good luck with any projects you undertake.

In that case, you’re all set to go! Just make sure you’re in compliance with local laws, as well as any laws in areas you’re planning to travel/sell to, and have fun!

Oh, one more thing! I don’t know about Canada, but I know that in the US barbecue propane (sold for home consumption) costs about the same per gallon as gasoline. However, vehicle propane (same stuff, just sold under a different name) sells for half as much. It’s a tax thing. U-Haul sells vehicle propane here in the Cali, and it might be much the same up there.

Yeah, in essence, it’s the same, but don’t underestimate the red tape! I don’t know how it is in Canada, but I know that in California it went from being a home-brew project someone with even a small amount of know-how could do in a weekend with about $500 in parts and a good manual (adjusted for inflation), to being something that costs several thousand, has to be done in a shop, and there are only about three shops in the state that do it.

The other big problem is that propane (and most gasses) run great in carburated engines, and are easily adapted into bifuel systems. If you’re working with an injected engine, however, you have to to either convert it to carburated (big deal, costly), or invest in propane/gas injectors in addition to doing the bifuel conversion.

Good luck! It’s certainly worth doing! I’m currently trying to sell my ’06 VW Rabbit so I can get a beat-up old Toyota pickup and do just this. Someday, I’d love to drive a classic American muscle car that runs on propane and has clean-air stickers.

I don’t know how it is where you are, but where I am (California) you’re required to have a DOT-approved gas tank, it may not share an airspace with the people in the vehicle (like not in the trunk, unless the trunk’s been completely sealed off and vented), it may not have hoses exposed to the underside of the vehicle, and it must be installed by a “qualified” mechanic. So a lot’s changed.

Still, from my research, it looks like carburated engines are fairly easy to convert for an investment of $1,500-3,000 (as of last summer in California), and possibly less if you can define what “qualified mechanic” means, and perhaps do it yourself.

I can give you more info if you’d like, but it’d all be California-specific.

hammerhead — I definitely hear what you’re saying and agree we chop down too many trees, but of course woodgas can be produced with the same plants that produce biodiesel as well, so it’s not like I’d have to be chopping down beautiful oak trees. I think that rice husks for example are cited in the wiki article as one of the more appropriate sources of energy.

Cheers…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfDr-XXuvmo

Also, gas tanks are much safer than gasoline tanks.