Yesterday, I told you how oilheat industry officials have set out a plan to make more use of biodiesel blended to burn in home furnaces. For those who might be worried about the performance of the green fuel in your home heater, a new study indicates it will do just fine.
This story from Purdue University says researchers have been testing degummed soybean oil and No. 2 fuel oil as an alternative to heating fuel:
Klein Ileleji, an assistant professor of agricultural and biological engineering, tested blends of 20 percent, 50 percent and 100 percent degummed soybean oil – an unrefined and cheaper product to produce than soy methyl esters, commonly known as biodiesel – and found that the 20 percent blend didn’t degrade a home furnace’s parts or heat output. The only issue found with the 20 percent blend was a slight early degradation of the furnace’s seals and gaskets, which manufacturers could fix by switching to a higher quality product. Ileleji’s findings were reported in the recent early online version of the journal Fuel.
“You are going to reduce the sulfur emissions with degummed soybean oil. The things you should be worried about with a biofuel, such as the pour point temperature and heating ability, were not affected,” Ileleji said. “You want to keep the properties of your No. 2 fuel oil, and at 20 percent degummed soybean oil, you would minimally affect those properties.”
Ileleji found that a 20 percent blend worked well in furnaces without any modification to the heater’s design.
The Indiana Soybean Alliance and the Indiana United Soybean Board funded the research.
The deadline for getting in your two cents’ worth on the U.S. EPA’s proposed Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS2) is rapidly approaching, as this Friday, Sept. 25th will mark the end of the comment period.
The project will be developed by the Renewable Energy Group of Ames, Iowa, in conjunction with Bunge North America and International-Matex Tank terminals, two companies with a presence in the River Parishes. The project will be located on property on IMTT’s St. Rose terminal.
More homes across the country, especially along the East Coast, could soon be burning a combination of biodiesel and heating oil better known as Bioheat®.
The National Renewable Energy Laboaratory (NREL), a laboratory for the Department of Energy, is testing higher blends of ethenol to be used in vehicles. Researchers are trying to find out, because these new ethanol blends could play a significant role as America tries to wean itself off petroleum based fuels.
They say that fiction is truth sprinkled with a few well placed lies. In this week’s book, “Black Monday,” by 
Although UNICA supports the idea in some aspects, they also note that various aspects need further analysis. One such area of concern involves the challenges in defining the concept of food security, due to the crop’s dual functions as to provide both food and energy. The proposal, as currently written, could lead to restrictions in growing sugarcane that would, according to UNICA, “have the reverse effect in terms of food security, by restricting the production of additional sugar.” Brazil supplies 60 percent of the world’s sugar needs after supplying its own.
Mark your calendar for October 1st and 2nd for the third annual Alternative Energy Symposium held at the campus of Chicago State University.
A car that is part Prius Hybrid, part algae-biodiesel burner, has completed a 3,750-mile trip from San Francisco to New York City… the first cross-country trip running on a blend of algae-based gasoline in an unmodified engine.
The trip was sponsored by the Veggie Van Organization, the group founded by movie producer and biodiesel advocate Josh Tickell that is dedicated to moving the country away from petroleum. The trip was also to celebrate the nationwide opening of Tickell’s film FUEL, which aims to inspire green energy solution thinking, such as the Algaeus.