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From the guys who brought you biodiesel brewed from coffee grounds (see my post from Dec. 11, 2008), now they’ve come up with a process to turn the 11 billion pounds of poultry waste produced in the U.S. each year into the green fuel.

Science Daily has details of the process from the researchers at the University of Nevada-Reno:

In the study Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, Narasimharao Kondamudi, and Jason Strull note that chicken feather meal consists of processed chicken feathers, blood, and innards that have been processed at high temperatures with steam. Currently feather meal is used as animal feed and fertilizer because of its high protein and nitrogen content. With as much as 12 percent fat content, feather meal has potential as an alternative, nonfood feedstock for the production of biofuel, the report says.

The researchers describe a new process for extracting fat from chicken feather meal using boiling water and processing it into biodiesel. Given the amount of feather meal generated by the poultry industry each year, they estimate this process could create 153 million gallons of biodiesel annually in the U.S. and 593 million gallons worldwide. In addition, they note that removal of fat content from feather meal results in both a higher-grade animal feed and a better nitrogen source for fertilizer applications.

Starting next month, nine counties in Northwest Oregon will require all diesel to contain at least 2 percent biodiesel. This comes two years after all gasoline statewide had to have a 10 percent ethanol blend.

This story from OregonLive.com says that while the city of Portland has already mandated a biodiesel blend since August 2007, Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington, Clatsop, Columbia, Tillamook, Yamhill, Polk, and Marion counties will now also require biodiesel:

State officials, including the Department of Agriculture, say biodiesel produces fewer harmful emissions than regular diesel and is a renewable energy source produced in part by Oregon farmers, rather than by foreign sources.

“Pure biodiesel, or B100, contains only eight percent less energy per gallon than the diesel motor fuel currently offered for sale in Oregon,” Page said in a news release. “A two percent biodiesel blend, or B2 blend, has less than two-tenths of a percent less energy that the standard diesel motor fuel. That is such a small difference that motorists should see no noticeable effect on their fuel mileage.”

Officials are cautioning biodiesel users that the fuel actually clean fuel lines and tanks, so they should be ready to change fuel filters after the mandate goes into affect on August 1st.

While the big National Biodiesel Conference is geared toward the big producers, there is a gathering for those folks who like to brew up a batch of the green fuel in their garages.

After spending the last three years in Colorado, the Collective Biodiesel Conference is being held at American University in Washington, DC. This year’s meeting features Josh Tickell, author and director of the biodiesel film “Fuel,” which used to be known as “Fields of Fuel,” winner of a Sundance Film Festival award in 2008. Tickell will give his presentation, “The Trillion Dollar Energy Breakthrough.”

Josh will discuss ground-breaking technologies enabling the creation of biofuels from non-food sources. These technologies include: algae, biomass generated by sustainable means, and the use of innovative farming techniques which not only generate non-food sources for biofuels, but also provide food and support the environment. Josh will settle the debt of the mythological public view of biofuels, and will be map out solution pathways to fuel and energy independence for the United States.

In addition, conference attendees will get a free ticket to the screening of “Fuel.”

For more information and registration, click here.