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Tractor low on gas? Try peanut oil
Well, it works in campus buses
By ANGELA COSBY
R«J and Hlack Contributing Writer
Thanks to Jimmy Carter, Georgia’s
renown as the peanut state has increas
ed. Now one University professor has
found a better use for goobers than
peanut butter. John Goodrum of the
agricultural engineering department is
testing peanut oil as diesel fuel.
Last year two campus buses were
partially fueled by peanut oil, but that
was only the beginning of the experi
ment. Now, after almost two years'
work, the fuel is being tested extensive
ly in the laboratory.
This will be the first well-documented
experiment concerning the use of
peanut oil as a fuel.
"We’re unique in that way,"
Goodrum said.
The project is being funded by the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, and
the U.S. Department of Energy gave a
$95,000 grant to Goodrum through the
agricultural-engineering department
for the research.
With the results the experiments ex
pect to put out a research report to the
Department of Energy. One or two
technical articles are already being
printed.
“We want to spread the information
to anyone who’s interested,” Goodrum
said.
The long-term objective of the experi
ment is to enable farmers to use peanut
oil as an emergency fuel. Presently
selling for about $2 a gallon, it is too ex
pensive for everyday use. But it has
“quite a bit of long-term promise,”
Goodrum said.
"It is a simple low-cost technique to
make fuel that can be grown and used
on the farm,” Goodrum said.
Peanuts are composed of about 45
percent peanut oil, and one acre of
peanuts can provide about 150 gallons
of oil. Farmers could use the oil from
about 10 percent of their crop to run the
machinery to grow the crop for the
following year, Goodrum said. With a
peanut grinder like the one the ex
perimenters have just bought, farmers
could make their own fuel
The U.S. Department of Agriculture
is now trying to breed peanuts that have
a higher oil content. It has developed
some peanuts that have 60 percent oil
rather than 45 percent, Goodrum said.
The experiment began in fall 1980.
The ag-engineering department first
tested a tractor, and when it was confi
dent the fuel was safe to use, it was
tested in two University buses. Ex
perimenters first used a fuel composed
of 30 percent peanut oil and 70 percent
diesel fuel. Later they used 50 percent
of each. This summer or next fall they
hope to try a mixture with 75 percent
peanut oil, Goodrum said.
After 20,000 miles on each bus, the ex
periment had to be discontinued
because it became too expensive. The
buses use a lot of fuel, and Goodrum
said he preferred to experiment on a
smaller scale.
"Technically it seemed to work well.
There were no large mechanical pro
blems, just a small filter problem,"
Goodrum said.
He explained that the fuel left a
residue on the filters that had to be
cleaned once every 4,000 miles.
But, he added, “We were very pleas
ed with how it worked out.”
The peanut oil is now being tested in
two diesel engines that are connected to
a computer Through these tests the ex
perimenters hope to discover what pro
blems may occur inside the engine. The
engines will be run 1,000 hours or more
as temperature, fuel, power, and ex
haust, among other things, are checked
on the computer
“We can tell early when something
goes wrong,” Goodrum said.
But there are still many unanswered
questions concerning this fuel and some
faults that must be dealt with, Goodrum
said.
For example, should straight peanut
oil be used, or should something be add
ed? Should the engine be changed to
suit the oil, or should the oil be refined?
Also there could be an air pollution pro
blem, though the exhaust from the
buses looked a little cleaner than with
regular fuel, and there was a lower
level of smoke, Goodrum said.
One problem the experimenters have
encountered is that peanut oil is thicker
than diesel fuel, so they must develop
ways to make it thinner. Some ways to
do this are to warm it or to develop a
highly processed peanut oil which is
almost identical to diesel fuel and mix
this with crude peanut oil. However this
would add to the cost. Goodrum said.
Because of the thickness of peanut
oil, it would now be possible to use 100
percent peanut oil only in the warm
summer months.
Though the fuel is expensive, changes
in federal-government policy toward
peanut growers may encourage more
people to plant the crop, bringing the
price down and making peanut oil more
practical for use as a fuel.
"It could provide an income crop.
That could get a few people excited,"
Goodrum said.
Staff lllustnition/Jimmy lloMer
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STUDENT AFFAIRS
SCHOLARSHIPS
For
GRADUATE STUDY ABROAD
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Information is now available on the following
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This information has been prepared an submitted
by the office of Student Affairs
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