energy.agwired.com

The smell of french fries fills the air. But this isn’t the back of some fast food restaurant… it’s a construction site where 100% biodiesel is fueling the heavy equipment.

Destiny USA, a destination resort under construction in Syracuse, New York, is dedicated to reduce the amount of fossil fuels in its construction site… and eventually at Destiny USA when it’s completed.

This press release from the National Biodiesel Board tells how construction companies and others are realizing the health, environmental, and energy security benefits of using cleaner-burning biodiesel in construction equipment:

“With the Destiny USA project, we will stop talking about our dependence on fossil fuels and instead demonstrate how we can earn our independence,” said Robert J. Congel, founder of Destiny USA. “This project will prove the viability of using 100 percent biofuel in all types of equipment, and will educate and challenge other developers in New York and around the country to adopt similar environmentally friendly approaches.”

Destiny USA will be a showcase for the world’s most advance technologies and services. Destiny began using lower blends of biodiesel, and is in the process of switching all 18 excavation and site work vehicles to B100. Through the duration of the construction, it is expected that nearly 100 different construction vehicles will run on biodiesel, consuming over 10,000 gallons of B100 per month for the next 6-8 months.

The Union of Concerned Scientists put out a report earlier this year that says construction equipment is the leading cause of diesel pollution in California (see my post from March 21st). And other construction companes and heavyequipment operators are getting the message. Earthwise Excavation of Snohomish, Washington; Turner Construction Company in Washington state; The Tennessee Department of Transportation; The Cherokee Boys Club, in Cherokee, North Carolina; Manatt’s, Inc., based in Brooklyn, Iowa; and North Bay Construction in Petaluma, California all have biodiesel success stories to tell.

The NBB has this link for you to read some of those stories.

There’s been some recent talk about turning algae into biodiesel… enough to catch the attention of the magazine Popular Science.

This article highlights an operation in Colorado with some great pictures, graphics, and even video of the process:

Algae seems a strange contender for the mantle of World’s Next Great Fuel, but the green goop has several qualities in its favor. Algae, made up of simple aquatic organisms that capture light energy through photosynthesis, produces vegetable oil. Vegetable oil, in turn, can be transformed into biodiesel, which can be used to power just about any diesel engine. (There are currently 13 million of them on American roads, a number that’s expected to jump over the next decade.)

Algae has some important advantages over other oil-producing crops, like canola and soybeans. It can be grown in almost any enclosed space, it multiplies like gangbusters, and it requires very few inputs to flourish—mainly just sunlight, water and carbon dioxide. “Because algae has a high surface-area-to-volume ratio, it can absorb nutrients very quickly,” (Solix Biofuels founder Jim) Sears says. “Its small size is what makes it mighty.”

Aptly named Freedom Fuels, LLC has opened a new biodiesel plant near Mason City, Iowa (see picture from the Freedom Fuels web site on the right).

This story on Grainnet.com says Freedom Fuels will produce about 30 million gallons of biodiesel a year:

“From the very first batch, the biodiesel exceeded specifications for quality,” said Brian Stork of Core Ventures Renewable Fuels and the General Manager of the plant.

“Since the plant started, all of the biodiesel that has been produced has met specifications.”

This brings the number of biodiesel refineries in Iowa to 11 producing 200 million gallons a year. Three more capable of producing 120 million gallons are under construction. Iowa also has 28 ethanol refineries putting out nearly 1.9 billion gallons annually with another 19 ethanol plants under construction or expansion that will add more than 1.4 billion gallons each year.