TROY, Mich. Ford Motor
Company is actively working to
develop agricultural tractor
engines powered by energy
sources other than diesel fuel.
Company engineers, working
alone and in conjunction with
governments and university
research departments throughout
the world, have investigated a
variety of fuels and engine
adaptations.
Among the fuels studied so far
are vegetable oils, liquid propane
gas, various gaseous fuels and
hydrogen, plus alcohols including
methanol and ethanol.
According to W. J. Howard,
executive engineer for advanced
engineering for Ford Tractor
Operations (FTO), some of these
fuels have already been dropped
from consideration as potential
power sources.
Few Viable Alternatives
“The gaseous fuels, such as
W.J. Howard, executive engineer for advanced engineering
at Ford Tractor Operations, inspects a prototype alcohol
powered Ford Series 10 tractor. The company has conducted
extensive field tests of alcohol-powered farm tractors in
Brazil.
Soybean oil & ethanol have most tractor fuel promise
natural gas and hydrogen, were
ruled out for agricultural tractors
because of limited fuel-storage
capacity,” explains Mr. Howard.
“A farmer would need a trailer
tied behind his tractor Just to carry
enough fuel to operate it.
“At this time, liquid propane gas
does not appear to be practical
either because of unpredictable
price fluctuations.”
Howard says that most
vegetable oils need additional
refining to restructure them to
meet requirements as a fuel, and
at this time do not appear to offer
short-term promise. Some in
teresting results have been
discovered using a mixture of
soybean oil and diesel fuel,
however, and Ford currently is
studying soybean-oil mixtures in
cooperation with several
universities.
Soybean Ofl Shows Promise
Last April, FTO supplied a
■ee-
cylinder diesel tractor engine to
the agricultural engineering
department of the University of
Missouri. Researchers there
modified the engine to run suc
cessfully on a blend of soybean oil
and diesel fuel.
A more ambitious research
program is currently taking place
at tile University of Alabama in
Huntsville where researchers at
the Johnson Environmental and
Energy Center have had excellent
results using degummed soybean
oil as a diesel-fuel extender.
According to senior research
assistant, Joseph F. Peters, in
preliminary tests a turbocharged
diesel engine achieved maximum
and continuous horsepower using a
mixture of one-third degummed
soybean oil and two-thirds #2 diesel
fuel with about the same fuel
consumption as with 100 percent
diesel fuel.
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Currently, the Alabama
researchers are using a Ford four
cylinder 256-cubic-inch-displace
ment turbocharged diesel engine
which has been modified for direct
injection. Various blends of
soybean oil and diesel fuel are
being examined and final results
should be available by the end of
1963.
Good Supply of Soy Available
Peters says that degummed
soybean oil, which is a by-product
of soybean meal, can be used as a
fuel without further refining, even
though it is a little more expensive
than plain diesel at today’s prices.
The soy oil may prove extremely
valuable to farmers in the event of
a future fuel shortage, particularly
during planting and harvest time,
when the farmer must be in the
field. _____
EQUIPMENT, INC*
There is current] y an oversupply
of soybean oil in North America,
and producers are searching for
other uses. Dr. Peters estimates
that one season of soybean-oil use
as an emergency fuel could
eliminate the present glut.
However, U.S. farmers alone have
an additional billion-gallon
potential, since only about one half
of the soybeans now grown are
used for oil extraction. The
widespread use of soybean oil as a
fuel also could bring the cost of
soybean fuel down.
Alcohol Fuel Promising
The most promising alternate
fuel to date is 100 percent ethyl
alcohol. Alcohol shows such strong
potential that Ford has developed
actual prototype tractors fueled
(Turn to Page D2l)
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