This is amazing. We were hit harder than most with the rising fuel prices as diesel went over $5.00/gallon - some places, like California, even higher. Diesel had always been cheaper than even Premium, or whatever that highest one is. It was explained to us that the number of diesel fuel plants is the same as it was in the 70s. No new ones have been built so there's the same amount of production with a lot more demand.

If America's producers can gain a little more, we will all share in it. Tractors and equipment all take diesel, so this aids in their operating expenses which, in turn, will allow for more production in having more capital for seed, fertilizer, whatever. Plus, if they can sell the remnants of their crops on the back end, it would be a huge bonus.

I'm wondering if you would have to do some kind of conversion on the engines to run this stuff. I know that it's not bio-diesel, but I'm not familiar with what "synthetic" actually means. I am a girl after all.

One of my first posts on here talked a little about this. I'm sure glad the right guy won.

http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=29624

I do wish they'd give these guys a little more credit though. it's not like they dreamed it up and made it happen in a year. He's been thinking about it and working it out for at least fifteen.

Point taken. Not only is diesel used for heavy machinery, but it is used for heating homes in the northeastern US. Heating oil is basically diesel oil. I can remember paying under $1.00 per gallon for the stuff, back in the day. It cost under $250 f0r a whole season to heat the house. Now, what - $1000 - and that's certainly not all inflation.

According to some of the articles I read on this company, this synthetic diesel goes right into diesel engines after their process. No conversion needed in the vehicle. Alabama is positioning itself, through research at Auburn University, to become a player in both bio-diesel and synthetic fuels. But not ethanol; the future is not there.

Julie - being a girl doesn't disqualify you from having the brain power to figure this out! After all, you wrote a powerful comment on this post. A girlie-girl posting on a girlie-girl's post. We can take home the bacon, fry it up in the pan - and never never let them forget they are men!

PS - I put up a picture of a red Lexus concept car just to make Lexus proud of me. I heart red cars.

I love the idea of recycling to create fuels! If we only spent a little more energy using the crap we’ve already got, we might not be in such a big hole right now.

And any effort that assists in weaning ourselves off foreign, even domestic oil sounds pretty good to me. My only problem with diesels is that most of the engines that run on them these days are such gross-polluters (one of my pet peeves). But if we combined more diesel fuel production (and refined it into the low-sulfur clean variety), and did a better job of designing and producing better, cleaner diesel engines, then even I’d be happy. I think some car companies have begun rolling out new generation clean diesels already...

From what I keep hearing, it’s going to take a combination of everything we can come up with (clean diesel, plug-in hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.) to start making a difference for the planet and our future. Great post, Pat. Thanks.

If there's no conversion to engines - this is really something. There was some uproar in California about the semis having to replace their engines to adjust to the new bio-fuel. Private contractors who have just one or two trucks wouldn't have been able to afford it. Nor, could they afford to buy a new one. So they were going to have to stop taking jobs there. Sad. This is a win-win all around as far as I can see.

We had one of those oil heaters when we were in Oregon. This was two years ago. Filled the tank up for, I think, $650 - didn't even last us through the winter.

I'm partial to flashy too.

David -- Now why does the idea of "stimulus package" come floating into my mind as I think about the further research needed on these processes? This would be the perfect place to put a few chemical and industrial engineers to work, building the next generation of fuel plants for our mobility-minded economy? President Obama - our you reading OS??

Julie - Oregon? I had the impression you lived in Texas? Maybe that was then and this is now? Texas, the home of "black gold." Maybe they will start changing the cellulose in sagebrush into "green tea."

Paul managed a 7,000 acre ranch in Oregon. We were in Dallas - where I'm from - while we were buying our ranch. And now we're in Oklahoma. I guess I should change my profile it's been a couple of months. Just can't bring myself to do it, I guess.

I think that would be enough to fill up the fuel tank of the Americans come the time that fuel become scarce. Although, the question that would probably arise is if it will be safe fro the engines and for the environment as well.