energy.agwired.com

Just when you thought thieves had run out of new things to steal, now the old grease from restaurants has become the latest pilferable item.

Officials are blaming the home-made biodiesel craze for making criminals out of people who just might not have realized that’s it’s wrong to take that used cooking oil. Some probably good-intentioned folks have been taking the old oil to make new, green fuel.

This article in the Cincinnati Enquirer says the problem has gotten so bad that companies such as Griffin Industries, Inc. – a grease, animal by-product waste, and grocery scraps recycling company – has had to hire folks such as former cop Larry Findley to stop the crime:

Grease thieves will often sneak behind restaurants at night, break the locks on containers and spill grease everywhere, said Findley, who has worked for Griffin Industries for 16 years. Thieves will often make off with 1,500 pounds of grease in one haul and sell it for between 10 and 15 cents a pound, Findley said.

“This is a recent phenomenon. These people are the worst kind of thief,” Findley said. “They don’t know they are stealing. The Internet is replete with how to make this stuff. They have no idea what they are doing.”

And officials say these thefts are costing the restaurants as the criminals are trying to take as much grease as fast as they can and end up spilling a lot of it on the ground in the process… creating an environmental hazard.

So the next time you think you see the Hamburgler behind that fast-food chain, it might just be an eco-thief. C’mon folks, let’s be honest about how we get our feedstocks, please!

Scientists in India are experimenting with a method that could make biodiesel production a whole lot more efficient.

Instead of heating sunflower oil and methanol for several hours, researchers at the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology are running the mixture over a bed of fungal spores. This article on the Wired Science web site says an enzyme produced by the fungi turns it into biodiesel… without spending energy to produce the fuel:

Typically, biodiesel is made by mixing methanol with lye and vegetable oil and then heating the brew for several hours. This links the methanol to the oils to produce energetic called esters. Unfortunately, heating the mixture is a huge waste of energy, and a major selling point of alternative fuels is efficiency. An enzyme called lipase can link link oil to methanol without any extra heating, but the pure protein is expensive.

Instead of purifying the protein to run this process, the scientists found the fungus Metarhizium anisopliae produced it on its own. So, they’ve turned that fungus into easily used pellets and are now well on the way to producing energy without spending energy… and that’s the whole idea, right?

In a blur of yellow… pushed by a yellow flame shot out of the back of a J60 Pratt and Whitney jet engine… this Corvette funny car might be one of the fastest things on Earth.

Kevin Therres’s funny car that runs on canola oil-based biodiesel wowed the crowds this week at the Hot August Nite event at the Castrol Raceway near Edmonton, Canada. This story on the Driving.ca web site says it’s fast… really fast:

“The car runs the quarter mile in around 6.5 seconds at a speed of 250 mph. He has put it up against regular jet funny cars and won.” “The Bio-Diesel works very similarly to diesel,” said Carl Perlinger, Milligan’s business development manager. “Kevin and his crew had to make some minor adjustments to the injectors to make sure they are getting enough fuel, but I have seen it run and it works.

Perlinger goes on to say that the canola biodiesel has special lubricity qualities especially valuable to this type of racing. Of course, we already know of the environmental benefits of the green fuel… and the shedding of dependance of foreign oil.

For more than 100 years, The Sir Walter Scott has sailed the waters of Loch Katrine in Scotland… one of the last coal-powered steamers in the country. A 2.2 million Pounds (4.35 million U.S. dollar) renovation is due for the old girl, and officials want to run her on biodiesel.

This story in the Scotsman.com says the conversion will take place after the current tourist season:

The work is part of eight months of extensive improvements to the last single screw-driven ship on Britain’s inland waterways, which has carried millions of passengers since launch in 1899.

Two new boilers will be installed to run on 40 per cent bio-diesel to cut operating costs and smoke, which left soot on some passengers’ clothes. The switch will mean the boilers no longer have to be fired up two hours before departure or be constantly hand-stoked. There have also been problems sourcing the high-quality coal required.

The change is environmentally good news for Loch Katrine… which supplies Glasgow with most of its water.

The change will also include overhauling the hull and building quarters for passengers during foul weather.