Self-refining Biodiesel SUV Stops in Seattle

John Davis

biodieselsuv2.jpgThis is one of the most unique things I’ve seen in just more than a year of blogging for Domestic Fuel: a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that has its own biodiesel refinery in the back!

This story from the Seattle (WA) Post-Intelligencer says that Japanese sports journalist Shusei Yamada and the Biodiesel Adventure Team have started a quest to drive 20,000 to 30,000 miles around the world in the unique machine.. depending on the kindness and donations of strangers with used vegetable oil:

Standing in front of a donated diesel Toyota Land Cruiser, covered with decals and painted with a green-metallic tint that shifted slightly in color depending upon the angle of view, Yamada described how the vehicle can take many kinds of dirty, used vegetable oil and refine it for use as a fuel. The portable refinery, rolled out of the back end of the SUV, looked like a massive espresso machine.

Speaking with assistance from translator and collaborator Satori Murata, Yamada asked that individuals interested in promoting biodiesel and environmentally friendly transportation alternatives “spread the word” so they can find people willing to donate vegetable oil as they proceed across the country.

Having just shipped the self-refining biodiesel-fueled Toyota SUV from Japan to Vancouver, B.C., they have only driven about 250 miles of their tentatively planned 20,000 to 30,000-mile trip. “We’re a little nervous,” acknowledged Murata, noting they arrived in Seattle on veggie fumes. They are headed toward Los Angeles next, she noted.

“I saw the movie ‘Back to the Future’ and got the idea for this,” said Yamada, a journalist and photographer in Japan. He said he is most excited about eventually driving the vehicle across the Sahara Desert. Yamada said his portable refinery can process about 14 liters (3.7 gallons) of waste vegetable oil at a time and the tank holds about 340 liters (90 gallons).

The article goes on to say the idea is not untested, as the Biodiesel Adventure Team and this vehicle finished third in the commercial, unmodified biodiesel class at the 2007 Paris-Dakar Rally.

They have a web site, although, most of it is in Japanese. Check it out at BiodieselAdventure.com.

Biodiesel

Penn State’s Venture into Biodiesel Proving Effective

John Davis

pennstate.jpgOfficials at Penn State University say there has been no negative effects on tractors that they moved up to running on 100 percent biodiesel. The school started running its tractors on B20 in 2002 and more recently began testing three New Holland tractors (out of the 100 the school uses) on the B100.

This story by the college’s newspaper, The Daily Collegian quotes Glen Cauffman, Penn State manager of farm operations and facilities, as saying there’s been no degraded performance or power in the two years they’ve been testing the higher biodiesel content:

“[Using biodiesel] is the right thing to do because it is contributing to the greening of Penn State,” Cauffman said.

The stress to the environment is apparent in the black exhaust flowing from petroleum-based diesel fuel. The exhaust contains tiny carcinogenic particles, which are harmful to the environment and to people, Cauffman said.

“Petroleum diesel emits particles out of the exhaust of vehicles that are hazardous to the environment,” he said. “Those particles are especially bad for humans because when they get in your lungs, they are very difficult for the body to get rid of.”

The use of biodiesel fuels can translate from farming machinery into the lives of most Americans, said Andre Boehman, professor of fuel science and engineering.

“It could make big difference. A lot more companies are going to start to produce more diesel cars in the next decade,” Boehman said.

Boehman cited a test Volkswagen did on its vehicles, displaying the effectiveness of diesel fuels. The diesel-fueled car got twice the mileage per gallon in comparison, he said.

“We all should be driving diesel vehicles. They are anywhere from 30 to 100 percent more efficient in miles per gallon,” Boehman said.

Biodiesel, New Holland

AZ Bill Would Help Pay for Adding Biofuels

John Davis

boone.gifA bill introduced in the Arizona legislature would help pay the costs of gas stations adding biofuels to their lineups.

The Tucson Citizen reports HB 2620, offered by Arizona House majority leader Tom Boone (R-Peoria), will help stations meet the growing numbers of vehicles that can run the green fuels:

“We need to make sure Arizonans have cleaner fuel choices available to them,” Boone said.
He added that because of the state budget crunch, the bill would not allocate any funds toward the program, but it would “create a conduit through which to distribute and gather monies for the program.”

There are 7,127,966 vehicles on the roads in Arizona, said Cydney DeModica, spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Transportation. Bill Schaeffer, executive director of the Valley of the Sun Clean Cities Coalition, said of these vehicles, an estimated 150,000 are capable of running on E-85 and 230,855 could run on biodiesel.

There are 13 E-85 stations and nine biodiesel stations in Arizona.

The money to pay for the conversions would come from gifts, grants, donations or other state, federal or private sources and go into a central fund. The conversion costs, particularly to hold E85, are expected to be between $50,000 and $100,000. If a station already carries diesel, there’s no conversion to carry biodiesel.

Biodiesel, E85, Ethanol, Government, Legislation

Homegrown Mustard Biodiesel in Monterey-Salinas Buses

John Davis

mstbus.jpgBuses in the Monterey-Salinas, California area could soon be running on biodiesel made from mustard seeds. And what makes this idea even more intriguing is that the transit authority itself will be growing the alternative to the more conventional feedstocks, such as soybeans.

This story in the Salinas (CA) Californian says Monterey-Salinas Transit could be helping quell some of the “food vs. fuel” debate:

After planting, the crop requires little to no irrigation or tending, a major contrast with other higher-maintenance biofuel crops, such as corn, MST leaders said. Because mustard seed is planted as a cover crop during the Salinas Valley agriculture industry’s off-season, it would not displace other crops nor would it drive up prices for food, a concern recently cited as a potentially adverse impact of the biofuel industry.

Once harvested, mustard seeds are pressed into raw oil, which is then refined into biofuel.

“MST is very happy to be on the cutting edge of this technology,” said Zoe Smallwood, the agency’s marketing analyst. “We’re happy to be part of a sustainable fuel source.”

The transit authority will be growing a variety of mustard seeds to see which ones are best for biodiesel. Once the seeds are harvested and the oil is collected, MST will also use a local company, Energy Alternative Solutions Inc., to actually make the biodiesel.

Biodiesel

Green is Universal

Cindy Zimmerman

Universal GreenUniversal Studios theme park in Orlando was in the spotlight during the National Biodiesel Conference last week for its biodiesel use, but they are using ethanol as well – and that will be highlighted during the National Ethanol Conference coming up later this month.

Robert Winslow, Universal Senior Director Engineering and Environmental Sustainability Technical Services, gave a behind the scenes tour for the media during the Biodiesel Conference, which included a look at how they are using ethanol.

“In November of 2007, Universal Orlando joined NBC Universal to initiate our “Green is Universal” program,” said Winslow. “We can now say that all diesel equipment runs on biodiesel and every gasoline engine runs on either ethanol E10 or E85.”

Listen to Winslow’s comments here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/epic/universal-ethanol.mp3]

Here’s a You Tube video of Winslow talking about ethanol use at theme park in Orlando shot by Domestic Fuel reporter John Davis.

Audio, Biodiesel, Biodiesel Conference, E85, EPIC, Ethanol, National Ethanol Conference, News, Video

Challenges to “Science” Studies

Cindy Zimmerman

Scientists from the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory and others around the country are calling into question the assumptions and conclusions of researchers who published their findings last week in Science.

ArgonneDr. Michael Wang of Argonne’s Transportation Technology R&D Center and Zia Haq of the DOE’s Office of Biomass Program sent a letter commenting on the studies, which generated headlines this week that biofuels are worse for global warming than fossil fuels.

Wang and Haq note that the study authors “used the GREET model developed by one of us at Argonne National Laboratory in their study.” However, the model uses outdated data and the study authors used a worst-case scenario approach.

Searchinger et al. modeled a case in which U.S. corn ethanol production increased from 15 billion gallons a year to 30 billion gallons a year by 2015. However, in the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA), Congress established an annual corn ethanol production cap of 15 billion gallons by 2015. Congress established the cap — based on its awareness of the resource limitations for corn ethanol production — to help prevent dramatic land use changes. Thus, Searchinger et al. examined a corn ethanol production case that is not directly relevant to U.S. corn ethanol production in the next seven years.

Wang and Haq conclude, “While scientific assessment of land use change issues is urgently needed in order to design policies that prevent unintended consequences from biofuel production, conclusions regarding the GHG emissions effects of biofuels based on speculative, limited land use change modeling may misguide biofuel policy development.”

The full text of the Argonne response letter can be found here.

RFAThe Renewable Fuels Association notes others in the scientific community who are questioning the studies.

Dr. Lou Honary, Director of the National Ag-Based Lubricants Center at the University of Northern Iowa, notes in a letter to the editor of the New York Times:

“In technology forecasting, some predictions can be self-defeating just as others can become self-fulfilling. In this case, both reports and their projections of a pending global disaster due to inappropriate land use are overly simplistic and do not take into account many other related factors. The assumption that corn and soybeans are and will continue to be the long term source of raw materials for biofuels production is incorrect, and it is this assumption that leads us to make self-defeating projections.

Joining Dr. Honary in his caution about putting too much credibility in the conclusions of the reports is Dr. Bruce Dale, Chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at Michigan State University; and Chris Somerville, director of the BP-funded Energy Biosciences Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, in a Cleantech.com article.

Somerville said one of the papers’ fundamental claims, that using land for biofuels will inevitably lead to the expansion of agriculture, doesn’t have a historical precedent. “In the case of cereals, over the last 50 years there’s been a doubling of demand, but there’s not been an expansion of acreage,” he said to Cleantech.com.
“Expanding demand has generally not led to a corresponding increase in demand for land use. I would say it’s a speculative response for a speculative paper.”

Ethanol, News, Research

PECO Going Green

John Davis

peco.gifPECO, an electric and natural gas utility serving 1.6 million electric and 480,000 natural gas customers in the southeastern Pennsylvania and Philadelphia area, is now running all of its 580 trucks on biodiesel.

This company press release says the move adds to the 43 hybrid SUVs and seven natural gas powered vehicles the utility is already using. In addition, PECO is getting the biodiesel from a local source:

PECO has contracted with the Energy Cooperative, a local non-profit with members throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, to supply the biodiesel. The vegetable oil is blended with petroleum diesel from Sunoco and delivered to PECO sites. “So we continue to use Sunoco-produced diesel fuel and also help a non-profit organization that is dedicated to the use of environmentally friendly fuels,” Flemming said.

Susan Godwin, PECO’s manager of Environmental Safety and Industrial Hygiene, said the bio-diesel contract is just one of the environmental commitments PECO is keeping. “PECO is committed to becoming a model of green operations, which includes fleet energy efficiency,” Godwin said. “PECO is aggressively reducing GHG emissions while meeting our customers’ energy needs.”

Company officials say using biodiesel will reduce carbon emissions by 16 percent for every gallon of B20 used instead of petroleum diesel.

Biodiesel

Additional Feedstocks Among Points of Biodiesel 2020

John Davis

biodiesel2020cover.jpgThe second edition of Biodiesel 2020: A Global Market Survey has come out, filled with information on which direction the biodiesel industry is headed.

This story posted on EarthTimes.org says the biodiesel industry is entering four fundamental transitions: moving from edible feedstocks (soy and palm oils) to non-food feedstocks; moving from production in developed countries’ commercial markets to emerging markets in developing nations; moving up to 2nd generation technologies; and moving into government policies favoring sustainable fuels:

“Biodiesel markets world-wide are entering a period of rapid transitional growth, creating both uncertainty and opportunity. First generation biodiesel markets in Europe and the US have reached impressive biodiesel production capacity levels, but remain constrained by feedstock availability. In the BRIC nations of Brazil, India and China, recent government initiatives are spawning hundreds of new opportunities for feedstock development, biodiesel production, and export,” said Biodiesel 2020 author Will Thurmond.

“Biodiesel 2020 observes a fundamental transition in global transport fuels production. In the year 2007, there were only 20 oil producing nations supplying the needs of over 200 nations. By the year 2010, more than 200 nations will become biodiesel producing nations and suppliers,” said Thurmond.

The report concludes with some solid advice for biodiesel producers:

“Transitions in the biodiesel industry will create winners and losers in the near term. The Biodiesel 2020 study concludes biodiesel producers that are best able to adapt to transitions in feedstocks, government policies, markets, and technologies are most likely to succeed over the long term.”

Biodiesel

Global Biofuels Policy Effects

Cindy Zimmerman

World Ag ExpoBiofuels from an international perspective was on the agenda at the World Ag Expo in California this week. International seminars on Tuesday included “The World of Biofuels” and “The California-Brazil Connection: Ethanol, Biodiesel, Electricity and Beyond.”

PrimafuelOne of the panelists for the second seminar was Rahul Iyer of Primafuel, who spoke on international biofuel policy trends and the many opportunities and challenges facing American farmers. During a telephone press conference from the Expo, Iyer said there has been a dramatic shift globally toward a new type of biofuels policy. “It started back in 2005 in California when California adopted the Global Warming Solutions Act,” said Iyer. “The intention of this regulation was to create a technology-neutral market for low-carbon fuels.” Instead of stipulating percentages for ethanol or biodiesel use, the intent to reduce net carbon content of fuels by ten percent by the year 2020, “we don’t care what technologies you use to do it, you just have to prove to us that you’re doing it.”

Primafuel IyerHe says this that creates a challenge for ethanol and biodiesel producers “to figure out what their environment footprint is, what they’re carbon reduction is, because at the end of the day it determines whether they have a valuable product or not.”

The new Renewable Fuels Standard in the energy bill, what Iyer calls RFS 2, also challenges the industry to create more advanced biofuels that give greater and greater life-cycle carbon reductions emissions.” And at the same time, the European Union is developing it’s own low carbon fuels standard, “which coincidentally, looks almost exactly like California’s,” said Iyer.

Basically, Iyer says that the market place is going to create a premium for low carbon fuels that will cause an increase in efficiency from the farm to the fuel tank with better technology.

Primafuels is “a company focused on finding low-carbon fuels for the international community.”

Listen to part of Iyer’s comments here:
[audio:http://www.zimmcomm.biz/audio/iyer-1.mp3]

Biodiesel, Ethanol, International, News

Ethanol May Help Lower Gas Prices

Cindy Zimmerman

ReutersAccording to a Reuters news service article today, “explosive [ethanol] production is stifling an established driver of oil markets — U.S. gasoline demand — and could lead to lower prices at the pump.”

The article quotes analyst Eric Wittenauer of AG Edwards in St. Louis saying, “‘Ethanol blending could help ease U.S. refining bottlenecks and that could be ultimately reflected in lower prices at the pump.’”

The article continues on to say that as the ethanol delivery system grows, it should provide constant pressure on gasoline demand.

“Gasoline demand … on an underlying basis, is looking pretty weak in terms of growth,” said Adam Robinson, an energy analyst at Lehman Brothers. “And on the other hand, you’ve got ethanol which is substituting for gasoline in the existing pool.”

Equally important as reducing prices at the pump is ethanol’s role in reducing oil and gasoline imports. According to the outlook of Valero, the nation’s largest oil refiner, the “company foresees ethanol growth ‘offsetting gasoline imports to the U.S.’”

Read the whole article here.

Ethanol, News