The prices of fuel keep on rising all over the world, and no one is winning except the big oil companies.
The consumer is losing more and more money on fuel for transport and other uses, and the environment continues to be suffocated by our fuel emissions. It’s just those big oil companies that happily sit on very fat wallets while the whole world goes to hell.
Us Tunisians are luckier than others because the government subsidizes a percentage of the fuel price to keep it lower for us, but the country won’t be able to go on doing that forever, as prices soar even higher and demand continues to grow.
That’s why, just like the rest of the world, we should be looking for alternative fuel and energy options.
There are many directions that companies and governments around the world are pursuing to get rid of the human dependency on petroleum based fuels, ranging from the simple to the really sophisticated.
An option that I find really accessible for a country like Tunisia, that can’t afford to invest a lot of money in hydrogen-powered fuel cells for example, is BioDiesel.
Biodiesel is fuel made from renewable materials such as vegetable oils or animal fats, or even recycled fryer oil. It is biodegradable and non-toxic, and has significantly fewer emissions than petroleum-based diesel when burned. It also functions in current diesel engines and reduces engine wear by as much as one half.
Biodiesel is made through a process called transesterification whereby the glycerine is separated from the vegetable oil. The process leaves behind two products – biodiesel (Mono-alkyl ester) and glycerine (a valuable by-product used in soaps and other products).
I really wish the government or some private companies would explore this option and maybe other ones too that could help reduce our dependency on environment-unfriendly foreign fuel and keep the fuel prices low.
This is always a an issue in rich/poor society.
Did you know that in Australia that the government buys their fuel from a company in the Netherlands for roughly 4 cents per litre? our prices have risen over $1 to about $1.50 for fuel!!!!!!
Its crazy, the rich are getting richer & the poor are getting poorer, i really wish there were more riots now.
Well,
even tho BioDiesel could be an opportunity the problem is that u need a lot of good terrain for the plants and a lot (and a lot) of water for example the oil of colza. So at the end this is not so good for Tunisia.
However I heard about an Israeli project which is based on the extraction of hydrogen via a desalinization solar system : a solar station extracts hydrogen from the sea and produce a storable energy!
I’m realy surprised why in Tunisia there are not so use of solar energy. Even in Belgium and Germany which are not so exposed countries to the sun there is a lot of solar systems.
Sami
Did you know that successful tests have been done by Auckland Institute of Technology Engineering students to run a diesel engine soley on Coconut oil, as a substitute for diesel.
It did run. I guess long term studies are required to ascertain the wear on parts and the
effects on the combustion.
What needs to be confirmed weather that Diesel Engine in particular is a maritime -dual fuel types. That is in port, engines use ordinary Industrial Diesel Oil (I.D.O).
When in open seas, the engine then switches to a heavy viscosity oil, which requires prior heating before entering the Injectors.
With that having been said, our cars here in the South are going to be flyin’, ’cause we’re not on that animal fat and grease!!! No sir!!
–I think in countries like the USA, if people make a point of driving smaller vehicles, cut down on the unnecessary luxury SUV’s.. and maybe opt to use public transportation.. or God forbid, WALK, when they can.. the fuel crisis won’t be as much of a “crisis”.