Just wanted to post a few photos from last week's biodiesel lesson at Jalurn Suk School. P' Nok, SFS coordinator, came along as our "guest lecturer" to teach the students how to make biodiesel for their families' tractors. She also gave the students a really clear lesson about the range of plants used for biofuels.
The English lesson taught a number of new plant names: Palm, Peanut, Rice Bran, Jatropha, Sunflower and Soybean - while some of these crops can be detrimental to the environment when grown as large monocultures and chemical fertilizers/pesticides are use, and palm is ill-suited to northeastern Thailand, farmers can plant all of them and are able to produce their own plant oils for use in cooking and locally producing biofuels. While the latter possibility is still a long ways away, SFS farmers are already growing Peanut and
rice bran from the mill is already being processed into rice bran oil.
Also part of the English lesson: Sugarcane, Cassava and Corn - these crops are used to make ethanol, which farmers cannot produce themselves. When farmers grow them, chemical fertilizer and pesticides are required because they aren't suited to the northeastern soils and climate. The prices for these crops are also increasingly volitile. Yet they are expanding throughout the region, as farmers are attracted by the possibility of earning high prices and lower labor inputs per
rai.
Over-used cooking oil -
bad for your health and can't be made into biodiesel
That bottle's got a mixture of sodium hydroxide (6.5 g.) and methyl alchohol (200 mL)
Pouring the re-heated, recycled veggie oil into the sodium hydroxide/methyl alchohol mixture
Mixing up the sodium hydroxide/methyl alchohol with the re-heated, recycled veggie oil
Party time!
Biodiesel is not a weapon!
The English lesson taught a number of new plant names: Palm, Peanut, Rice Bran, Jatropha, Sunflower and Soybean - while some of these crops can be detrimental to the environment when grown as large monocultures and chemical fertilizers/pesticides are use, and palm is ill-suited to northeastern Thailand, farmers can plant all of them and are able to produce their own plant oils for use in cooking and locally producing biofuels. While the latter possibility is still a long ways away, SFS farmers are already growing Peanut and rice bran from the mill is already being processed into rice bran oil.
Also part of the English lesson: Sugarcane, Cassava and Corn - these crops are used to make ethanol, which farmers cannot produce themselves. When farmers grow them, chemical fertilizer and pesticides are required because they aren't suited to the northeastern soils and climate. The prices for these crops are also increasingly volitile. Yet they are expanding throughout the region, as farmers are attracted by the possibility of earning high prices and lower labor inputs per rai.
Over-used cooking oil - bad for your health and can't be made into biodiesel
That bottle's got a mixture of sodium hydroxide (6.5 g.) and methyl alchohol (200 mL)
Pouring the re-heated, recycled veggie oil into the sodium hydroxide/methyl alchohol mixture
Mixing up the sodium hydroxide/methyl alchohol with the re-heated, recycled veggie oil
Party time!
Biodiesel is not a weapon!
0 comments:
Post a Comment