The diesel tree--grow your own fuel

[Atash Hagmahani]

http://www.reuk.co.uk/The-Diesel-Tree.htm

The diesel tree - copaifera langsdorfii (pictured above) - from Brazil has an amazing property. Much as a rubber tree can be tapped for latex, or a maple tree for maple syrup, the diesel tree can be tapped for natural diesel! No refining is necessary, just a simple filtration process yields diesel fuel oil suitable for use directly in many vehicles.
 
 The diesel tree can be tapped every six month for 20+ litres of fuel, and it will continue producing for around 70 years. One acre with around 100 mature (15-20+ years old) trees would produce up to 25 barrels of diesel per year which could sustain the fuel needs of small farms (40 litres per tree per year). With one gallon of diesel typically taking around 7 barrels of crude oil to produce, natural diesel could also become a cash crop for S. American farmers.
 
 With a reported potential per acre yield of 1,250 gallons per year, the diesel tree compares very favourably with the 30 gallons of ethanol which can be derived from an acre of corn. Note however that natural diesel must be used within 3 months of extraction or it loses its potency.

The diesel tree is native to Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, and Paraguay and is evergreen. It will grow to around 35 metres tall with a 1 metre diamater trunk in locations with a mean annual temperature of 20-27 degrees Celcius, no frost, 1000-4000mm of annual rainfall, and acidic soil (4.5-7.5pH). 

Just happens to be native to roughly the part of the world where I will be looking for land. Even better than the Jatropha tree as you don't have to do anything to refine it.

You can also use the terpines as laquer.

Although I think that the future will have far fewer internal combustion engines, it would be a good idea to have some source of fuel.

[opsec]

I bet if you put in a fuel preservative like PRI-D, that would keep for years instead of 3 months. Something else to keep in mind, since such fuel would not be refined, you would probably need to keep a large supply of fuel system injector cleaner to treat the engine regularly. Something else that most people don't know about diesel fuel is that algea can grow in it. Truckers have to occasionally put a bottle of algicide into their fuel tanks to keep it from gumming up the injectors.

[Atash Hagmahani]

Good points, Opsec. I'm glad someone here knows something about Diesel engines, because to tell the truth, I don't.

I didn't even know this amazing tree existed, until recently. I will gather information about it and post in it my wiki.

After re-reading the article, it seems to me that a better use for the trees would be to produce enough fuel to run a bus into town for supplies, and to shuttle people to destinations such as hospital. I don't think that net-caloric-loss farming is practical long-term.

[opsec]

My thoughts precisely. Use the fuel to power a farm vehicle that is used solely to interact with the outside economy (hospital, hauling to farmer's markets, monthly trip to town for supplies, etc.) Otherwise, just live on the self-sufficient farm.

[Publius]

This is somewhat exotic way to have biodiesel, but can be a continuous process as apposed to waiting for a crop to grow and be harvested once a year. http://www.biodieselnow.com/forums/13.aspx Just an idea in it's infancy, but has a lot of promise.

[offdalip]

Bioalgae grows at a much faster rate than trees or seeds

http://www.oilgae.com/