Adding blending content

[Jhananda]

OK, so I get that blending content would be acceptable to add to the content here, but I am not sure how to go about it.  Below are some topics that might require pages.  Please let me know what you think?

1) What is blending
2) How to blend
  a) External blending vessel
  b) Settling/dewatering
  c) precipitates: animal fat, free-carbon, lacquer, salt, sugar and water
  d) Sludge
  e) Sludge removal
  f) General blending recommendations
  g) Blending Precautions
  h) LEGAL ISSUES WITH BLENDING
3) Solvents for blending and anti-gel for Vegetable oil blend diesel fuel
  a) petroleum distillates: petrol, paraffin, diesel, mineral spirits, paint thinner
  b) polar solvents: acetone, MEK
  c) dimethylbenzene (aka) Xylene or xylol, toluol, lacquer thinner
  d) mis-fuel
  e) How to measure the % of petrol in your mis-fuel
4) Oils that can be blended
5) Blending biodiel with solvents
6) Filters and Filtering
  a) Bag Filtering
  b) Recycle processing filters with back-flushing
7) cold-weather performance of blends
Blending Research
9) Direct injection and blends
10) Owner’s manuals in support of blending
11) Improved WVO Fuel Economy with blends
12) Glossary of blending terms (or does this go into the general glossary?)

[Tony]

Very exciting to have you aboard - it sounds like an excellent plan!

Glossary possibly might be best merged with the main glossary, what does everyone else think?

Go ahead and get started on a page if you want, Julian has a guide here:

http://www.biopowered.co.uk/wiki/Creating_pages

Don't worry if it's not connected to the main pages just yet - we can always find it with the Recently Added pages or Orphan Pages special links.  Any of us would be happy to help with formatting too.

[Julian]

All look to be great pages Jeff.

I agree with Tony, acronyms could be added to the general acronyms page, applicable to both WVO and Bio, but specific blending terms could justify a separate page of their own.

The "What is blending" page could go in the "Introduction to veg oil use" category and then we can have a new "Blending" category within the WVO section as it's a separate discipline.

Pages that cross boundaries i.e. "Recycle processing filters with back-flushing" and "How to measure the % of petrol in your mis-fuel" can be indexed in other categories as well.

Again, as Tony says, bang out a few pages and we can categorise them once we've got something to work with.  Any problems, post on here and one of us will help.

While the wiki needs to have an international flavour, and in this respect welcome you with open arms, I think it's going to be necessary to have a rider at the top of many pages or certainly a strong rider in the blending category, pointing out that different countries have different regulations regarding on road use of non duty paid blending agents.

Good luck, it's great to have you on board.

[Tony]

Even so there is confusion over here regarding some blending solvents - the whole white spirits not being OK but turpentine being fine for one.  A wiki that clears this kind of thing up would be very useful, along with the usual advice on blending outside the tank

[Jhananda]

OK, it is snowing here today, so I cannot work on my van for the next two days. So, I am using the time in the library to add blending content to the Biopowered Wiki page.  Please excuse any errors I make.  I am not used to adding content to Wiki, so feel free to fix anything you want.

I started with adding content to the first page, because there was no intro to biofuels.

It looks like there is room for adding a third column, if that is an organizing strategy you all want to keep.  If we can work with three columns, then blending could be added to Biodiesel and Straight Vegetable Oil.

Speaking of which, don't you think the "Vegetable oil pages" should be call "Straight Vegetable Oil" to differentiate it from Biodiesel and Blending?

I agree we need to clarify legalities along with a basic understanding of blending technology.  So, we need not leave out a practice that is illegal, such as blending white spirits, we just need to define it as an illegal practice in some countries.

[Jhananda]

I have had trouble creating a new page, and I think the reason why is my access privileges need to be upgraded so that when I create a new page I get an "edit" button at the top of the page.

[Julian]

Jeff ...

Don't envy you the snow, most of the UK is enjoying almost summer like conditions today, but I bet it won't last!

Great start, broadens the scope of the wiki well, but the intension for the main page was to keep it purely as a menu plus a brief wiki intro.  All content was intended to have dedicated pages.  To this end I've put your text on a page called "Biofuels an overview" and categorised it under both Biodiesel and Veg oil.

We had much discussion at the outset as to how best to describe the use of vegetable oil being used as a fuel and couldn't come up with a brief title which covered all aspects whilst simultaneously being self explanatory.  Straight vegetable oil was one suggestion but the word straight seemed to preclude the blending aspect.  In the end we settled for simply Vegetable oil, but are still open to suggestions as we remain stumped!

I have added a warning at the top of the page regarding the legalities issue, but as this is not my area of excellence I hope others will improve upon it.

If you can put together a couple of blending pages, we'll make a category within the Veg oil section to start with then if volume warrants we could look at an additional column on the main page.

[Julian]

Jeff ...

You have full wiki editing rights, so you should be able to do anything.

The easiest way to create a page is to choose the page title you want and do a search on it.  The search results will tell you that no such page exists and ask if you want to create one.  Click the link and you get another page with a text box.  To start stick any old text in the box and click create.  The page now exists and you can edit it in the normal way.

To categorise your blending pages put the following at the bottom of each page ...

[[Category:Vegetable oil]]
[[Category:Blending]]

You can sign and date each page by adding four squiggle marks thus ~~~~

[Tony]

As I see it there are three ways of using veg:

Make biodiesel
Twin tank to run directly on veg
Blend veg

The latter two I feel do fit under the "Vegetable oil" pages section, but perhaps as two sub-sections?

I don't really understand why some forums are anti-blending - it's a perfectly legitimate way to use vegetable oil and very welcome for inclusion here.

[Jhananda]

As I see it there are three ways of using veg:

Make biodiesel
Twin tank to run directly on veg
Blend veg

The latter two I feel do fit under the "Vegetable oil" pages section, but perhaps as two sub-sections?

I don't really understand why some forums are anti-blending - it's a perfectly legitimate way to use vegetable oil and very welcome for inclusion here.

Thanks, Julian and Tony for the feedback.  I do happen to agree with Tony, it is a mystery why blending is treated so poorly on the various bio-forums; but, it should be treated as a separate, but equal, methodology.  And, maybe, since blending has been so disrespected, the Biopowered wiki page should treat it as a separate, but equal, methodology.

[Jhananda]

OK, so I have completed the blending intro page, but I am not sure how to make it show up on the main page.  You can find it here:
http://www.biopowered.co.uk/wiki/Blending

[Julian]

Ok, I've created a Blending category, renamed the page so it didn't replicate the new category and altered the category listings at the bottom of the page.  Reason for altering the bottom categories is because the main page automatically indexes the pages, so as it was the new page was appearing in numerous locations.

You can add the degrees symbol by holding "Alt" and typing "0176"  thus ... °

I've moved the disclaimer on your first page to the bottom ... it's not so "in your face" that way. I think in the litigious times it may be an idea to replicate it on other blending pages, what do you think?  To do so, just copy the code from the "Biofuels an overview" page.

In that vein, what are the regulations in the US ... are they nation wide or does it vary from state to state?

[Jhananda]

OK for your mods and suggestions, but the way you set up the bottom categories a link to the blending does not appear on either the biodiesel or vegetable oil pages

[Jhananda]

Also, I thought I would upload some images to the blending page, but I am not sure how to do that.

[Julian]

As previously categorised, the page appeared in three places in the index which seemed to be over kill.  The logic behind the change was that being veg oil based, the blending category would fall under the veg oil discipline and your latest page obviously in the blending category.

Pictures would be great, they always bring a page to life.

Up load is easy ... Once you're signed in, go to "upload file" in "toolbox" (left-hand side of each page), click "browse" and it's pretty self explanatory from there. We've been trying to give files descriptive names where possible.

If you want to view a previously uploaded photo, go to "toolbox", "Special pages" and "Gallery of new files".

If you need any other assistance, just post.

Keep up the good work.