Just wondering if anyone’s come across biofuel or synthetic fuel equivalents to paraffin/kerosene. There is I believe a fuel called SPK (Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene) which I think is being developed as an aviation fuel. I’ve not managed to find a source of this - only need a few litres to try out, not a tanker full!
I haven't heard of anything of the necessary grade. Depending on your stove, other options may be usable although not ideal. What stove/s are you wanting to use this in?
Just standard brass paraffin pressure stoves, particularly the small “96” size, mostly UK made equivalents (Monitor 17b, RM Thermidor) which I use for expeditions.
Thanks @brassed-up I haven't stuck my toes into the brassie pond so others will need to give specific advice. I would have a lot of hesitation in trying anything other than kerosene in them, but it depends on cleaning the riser. The stoves where biodiesel could be safely tried are those with designs for field cleaning. And the more rugged types, at that. The MSR XGK would be one example. At the other end, the stoves with vapouriser tubes built into the burner should never be used with dirty fuels- they become uncleanable if deposits are laid in the cast tubing. Yours have the riser as vapouriser and these I don't know about. AFAIK, the biodiesel needs to get hotter than kerosene to vapourise, so may not do so. And may leave residue which will need to be cleaned out of the inside of the riser.
@brassed-up If I recall correctly, sometime last year Shell tested a synthetic kerosene on a commercial flight in Europe. I imagine Europe would be where this technology is being developed. As a brass stove user, I would not use diesel or biodiesel in a standard brass stove, except in emergency. It will not burn as well as kerosene, and commercial diesel will leave other residues in the burner. Check out Shell's website or media releases. Cheers Tony
Thanks Scrambler and Tony for your helpful thoughts on this. I’m partly interested in this as there may come a day (probably after I’m gone!) when fuels derived from fossil carbon will be less readily available. More immediately, I have been refurbishing larger stoves for people living in off-grid situations for day-to-day cooking. Some of these folks base their lifestyle around low carbon living and have enquired about the possibility of firing their stoves with an equivalent biofuel as an alternative to conventional paraffin. At the risk of complicating the issue I am also interested in carbon monoxide emissions. I would always recommend having a CO alarm when using a paraffin pressure stove in a van, yurt, hut etc and ensuring ventilation. Nevertheless I have had an alarm go off when using a big roarer (Primus no. 2) in my bothy. So….would be interesting to compare CO emissions from paraffin with any alternative fuels.
I know there have been tests to re-use deep fry oil (after extensive cleaning of course!) in airplanes. I have not followed this further so dunno where they stand. I think it was the Dutch KLM company (Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij) who were involved. If yourself or the people living in off-grid situations want a bio fuel I'd suggest to use alcohol. This would limit your choice of stove/heater etc. to non-pressurised equipment, or stoves that can easily be converted to the use of alcohol (use of a specific alki burner or large jets and air flow restrictors), but you'd be able to use tried & tested equipment saving yourself a lot of extra work and testing (and, most probably, frustrations! )
Biofuels - Lufthansa says biofuel trials successful, but should they continue? - Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism @brassed-up A New hope - bio-paraffin
Synthetic kerosene vs biofuel. In the states there is a product available called KleenHeat that is sold as a kerosene alternative and is intended for use in kerosene heaters. It is a synthetic kerosene/paraffin. I've never used it in a stove but I believe others here have done so. It is not a biofuel. Synthetic kerosene/synthetic fuel (or synthetic oils in general) is not biofuel. (However, it does seem to me that the distinction is not always clear since the carbon starting material for synthetic fuels could be biological in some cases.) The way the terms are used, synthetic fuel is made in a chemical process of turning hydrogen gas together with either CO2, CO, or in some cases methane (CH4) into long chain aliphatics (oils) which can then be broken up to shorter chains to produce napthas (gasoline/petol) or kerosene sized chains. The process consumes more energy than it creates -- so it is only "green" if you do some funny carbon and energy accounting. The dream however would be to efficiently use sunlight to more directly carry out the necessary chemical reactions.
There's a lot here on the site concerning CO issues and stoves. The search function is very good and that info can easily be found. We have had some quite recent discussions on the subject.
Shell’s synthetic kerosene: World first – synthetic kerosene takes to the air | Shell Global Synthetic kerosene | Shell Global Tony
