Photo by merfam. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Sure, you might be able to describe the difference between cellulosic ethanol made by Coskata and that made by Mascoma. Or, perhaps your biofuel knowledge is just right to explain how cellulosic ethanol and corn ethanol are different, and what each might mean to the environment. But trust me, the general public has a long way to go to understand what all these new fuel types are. Remember the posts about filling up with the wrong fuel?
Anyway, I'd just like to point out this letter to the editor that appeared in today's Washington Post. In a May 3 editorial called "The Greening of Montgomery," the WaPo mangled the difference between biodiesel and ethanol, suggesting that while switching Montgomery County's fleet of diesel cars to biofuels would be a good move, because of the problems with ethanol, care should be taken. A reader, Lynne Tucker of Bethesda, wrote in to clarify just which biofuel can go into what type of engine. What we can learn from this is that, as we educate ourselves the latest and greatest green car news, there's a lot we need to do to educate others.
The idea seems simple enough, in a time when all of the good ideas for reality TV have come and gone: take Tommy Lee of Mötley Crüe and hip-hop star Ludacris and pitch them against each other in a show called Battleground Earth. The goal of the show is for each of them to go green and become more environmentally aware, while performing stunts and having the whole thing filmed.
The show won't air until this late summer, but the two performers are out and about filming episodes right now. Last week, the two and the crew were in Texas where they, among other events, needed to find ways to refuel their biodiesel tour buses. The stunt was to outsell the other at Keller's Drive-In. By selling a lot of greasy food to customers, the kitchen could make more grease, which could then be turned into the biofuel. Ludacris offered $20 to the person who could eat the most corn dogs. Looks like they've got the recycling angle down, but not the reduce part. Maybe next season.
The DTE Energy company, which provides natural gas and electric services to Michigan customers, is going to start using biodiesel in its fleet of 800 diesel trucks and service vehicles (things like bucket trucks and light-duty vehicles). DTE will present a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the shift to the biofuel, but didn't announce the percentage of biodiesel it will be using. DTE did say that Michigan-based biodiesel supplier RKA Petroleum will provide the fuel and that the switch is the "environmental equivalent of taking about 120 of those vehicles out of service." Since "environmental equivalent" can mean a lot of things, we can't just calculate the biofuel percentage. What we do know is that even if you're providing energy to a lot of people, greening up your own supply isn't a bad idea.
Photo by Kopper. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
Missouri has its fair share of complicated biodiesel relationships. On the one hand, there is the side that's against the biofuel. On the other, hand we have the state's push for a biodiesel mandate of five percent. As part of that push, fifty "agricultural economists, truck drivers and petroleum specialists" (as described by KOMU) spoke about the state's B5 mandate yesterday. While some see the environmental and economic benefits of using B5, others who spoke at Holt's Summit said the mandate was unfair. One complaint is that the biofuel only gets blended in if biodiesel is cheaper than standard petroleum diesel. One reason to pay special attention to the Missouri case is that it would match the highest biodiesel mandate in the country, if implemented.
California's NorthStar Moving Corporation has just converted all of its trucks to run on biodiesel fuel. All of the fuel used by the moving and storage company will now be veggie-based. Additionally, their fleet of vehicles has also been fitted with battery-powered rear lift gates as opposed to hydraulic, meaning that the engine does not need to idle for extended periods.
NorthStar reportedly has tried greening other aspects of their operation. All of their boxes and stationery are made from recycled material and are reused when possible. The company claims that skylights and windows are used for natural lighting when possible and their warehouses are well-insulated. We applaud these efforts, of course, especially the use of biodiesel. With diesel prices as high as they are, we wonder what impact biodiesel may have on the market, considering that cost is often a driving factor when it comes to our energy needs.
The lawsuits and complaints in the green car industry are flying about non-stop these days. Porsche vs. London. Tesla vs. Fisker. Michael Papp's troubles. State-based emissions and fuel economy regulations in the U.S. Here's yet another to add to the list: The European Biodiesel Board (EBB) vs. American biodiesel producers.
According to the Northern Echo, the EBB has filed a complaint with the European Commission that claims that U.S. biodiesel poses unfair competition to inter-EU producers and asked for duties to be paid on imports of B99. The problem, the EBB says, is that American producers get U.S. subsidies when they make the biofuel and then also get European subsidies when they export it to Europe. In the Northern Echo's example, U.S. biodiesel is sold for half as much as domestic biodiesel in the UK.
People, Prosperity and the Planet (P3). Sounds like a nice collection of "P" words, no? It's also an annual call from the Environmental Protection Agency (known simply as the Agency by some) to finds innovative solutions to a dirty world. The EPA has announced the winners of this year's P3 competition - which is open to college students and teams - and two biodiesel projects are among them. Both Loyola University of Chicago and Drexel University will get their $75,000 prizes for biodiesel projects. Loyola's winning entry will allow the student to build a lab that will turn cafeteria vegetable oil waste into the biofuel. Over at Drexel, the students have developed a biodiesel reactor that uses bubbling alcohol vapors and acid catalysts to prevent soap formation and is therefore able to make biodiesel more efficiently. Other schools won for their work on treating wastewater and disinfecting drinking water, among other things. Read more about the P3 winners after the jump and on the EPA website.
Biofuels like ethanol and biodiesel are already available, so why would they show up on our list of future technologies? A one-word answer: cellulose.
Currently, mass-produced ethanol is created by the fermentation of sugar and in the U.S. granulated corn is distilled to make alcohol and combined with gasoline to make E85. Unfortunately, corn is a poor choice when it comes to the creation of ethanol. Alternatives are on the horizon, though, which could potentially make biofuels a much better choice. Cellulosic ethanol could be considered ethanol version 2.0, with large-scale plants currently being set-up which might be able to offer the fuel at very low prices. When the fact that American roadways are already littered with E85-capable vehicles is added into the mix, cellulosic ethanol stands to make a large dent in our petroleum usage.
Over at the La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley, California on Wednesday night, the people behind Berkeley's Biofuel Oasis are hosting a biodiesel film night in order to raise funds and biofuel awareness. The funds are intended for BBO's new solar powered fueling station and the awareness, well, that's just there for its own sake. One of the films, Fat of The Land, documents a 1994 trip by four women around the U.S. in a biodiesel-powered "Fat Mobile," making their fuel in fast-food restaurant parking lots. The filmmaker will be attending the festival, so if you have questions on how biodiesel was received by the general public in the mid-1990s, this could be a chance to ask. Other video entertainment on the schedule includes excerpts from Revolution Green and Freedom Fuels. There will also be an "Ask a Mechanic" booth and free homemade organic popcorn. If you've got a biodiesel co-op or other green group in your neighborhood, using the template from this event might be a good idea. Whether you want to include puppetry is up to you.
Jatropha, a plant whose seed is used to produce biodiesel, is joining the long list of non-native plants growing in Florida. My Dream Fuel LLC claims to have a million seedlings in the ground at a Hendry county nursery already with another million to come before June. According to owner, Paul Dalton, his is the first company to do large jatropha planting anywhere in the country. With missionary-like zeal he asserts, "There are about 100 buyers for every gallon you produce" and that the plants are easy to grow, requiring little fertilization and only "occasional watering". (Other sources claim the plants need 60 inches of water yearly to be productive.)
My Dream Fuel LLC which will soon, "...open a $1.5 million, 15,000-square-foot center for seed crushing and plant cloning..." is trying to convince farmers whose citrus orchards have been affected by canker disease to give jatropha a shot, as well as cattle ranchers seeking diversification. An article about the venture in the Naples Daily News says that Dalton is not alone in his optimism about the future of the crop in Florida and states that "Roy Beckford, an agricultural and natural resource agent for the University of Florida/IFAS in Lee County, has pushed Jatropha as an alternative crop for South Florida growers for years."
The article, which ends on the high note of plans a few other farmers have for the crop, is followed by a lively comments section that becomes slightly more pessimistic and it grows in length. We hope our readers will share their thoughts as well.
There are plenty more hurdles to overcome than just the automobile when it comes to the greening of our transportation needs. One of the first that comes to mind is the airplane, which has truly become a necessary part of many people's daily needs. So, we were keenly interested in a press release from MBtech (pasted after the break) regarding a new 2.0 liter turbo diesel aircraft engine that will be shown at the SAE World Congress in Detroit this week. According to MBtech, the new engine delivers "considerably higher performance and torque but also 20 percent less fuel consumption," and is capable of running on either diesel fuel or kerosene. We're not certain on the status of using biodiesel in flight with this particular engine, but we know for sure that testing is being done in that arena.
Gas2.0, a website focused on biofuels, has published a very interesting set of 22 dispelled biodiesel myths. Some of them are dispensed with very straightforwardly and all are in favor of using biodiesel.
The, um, busted "myths" range from common confusions between ethanol and biodiesel to the real impact of biodiesel in the environment and how easy or difficult is to find. Common questions about its use directly in cars, its impact on power and consumption, exhaust smell and emissions are also answered.
One issue which, in my opinion, is not clearly answered is what happens to warranties on new cars whem biodiesel is added to the mix. Sure, only a few carmakers clearly state which blends of biodiesel are accepted (PSA, for instance), a little more info on this topic would've been nice.
Photo by Soylentgreen23. Licensed under Creative Commons license 2.0.
As we noted when Dubai announced a test of GM Hybrids for taxi and limo service, just because the Emirate has a lot of oil doesn't mean it isn't interested in checking out alternatives. News is out today that the Dubai Group has made a large ($49.5 million U.S.) investment in Malaysian biodiesel company GBD and now has a 30 percent stake in that company. The emirate-owned Dubai Investment Group's CEO, Abdulhakeem Kamkar, said that renewable energy and biofuels are the "preferred industry focus" for the DIG (the DIG is a subsidiary of Dubai Group). By the end of the year, GBD's huge biodiesel plant should be able to produce up to 500,000 metric tons of biodiesel a year from palm oil (d'oh) and jathropha.
Blue Sun Biodiesel, the company that supplies B20 to the top biodiesel municipal fleet in the nation, has got at least one wealthy friend. An anonymous "private individual" has given the company a $3 million unsecured term loan for building up to ten new biodiesel blending and terminal locations this year. The facilities will handle B20 (branded as Fusion biodiesel) and B100. The $3m is not the only good financial news the company is announcing: an undisclosed amount of credit is also being finalized "to support continued infrastructure development" (full text pasted after the jump). After a possible merger with M-Wave fell through earlier this year, Blue Sun must be glad to have at least one major financial deal notched up for 2008.
There are plenty of flex-fuel capable cars on the roads, but there is not nearly enough ethanol available to power all of them on the gasoline alternative. It's no secret that corn-based ethanol is not the answer to our oil woes, but if that's the case, what alternatives should we be looking closest at? Regular readers are surely aware that cellulosic ethanol is the way to go when it comes to alcohol-based fuels, but even with that process, a crop of some sort is required. Additionally, biodiesel offers plenty of advantages over petroleum-based diesel fuel, but an oil-rich crop is required for its creation as well. A new study from the University of Washington was commissioned to find the most desirable crops for biofuels which suggests that algae and fast-growing trees be considered as the cream-of-the-crop, so to speak.
"While some biofuels may be an improvement over traditional fuels, we believe we should focus much more on the biofuels of the future that can be developed in small spaces, rather than extensively on crop lands," according to lead author Martha Groom. "We also must shun biofuels that are grown by clearing biologically-rich habitats, such as tropical rainforests, as has occurred with oil palm and some other biofuels," she adds. The study also recommends that a special look be taken at crops which sequester carbon as they grow.
We may add that another benefit to both algae and fast-growing trees is that nobody is growing them already for food.
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