The little guy on the left might not look very pretty, but it could be beautiful when it comes to turning food waste into biodiesel. It’s the larva of the Black Soldier Fly, and this bug is at the heart of EcoSystem Corporation’s MAGFUEL™ biofuel feedstock model.
This company press release says EcoSystem is using the larvae to turn food scrap waste into natural oils for biodiesel feedstock:
When at full capacity, Black Soldier Fly food scrap waste conversion technology could yield up to 190,000 gallons of crude (non-food) natural oils per acre of bioreactor surface area annually. In comparison, soybean yields an average of 40 gallons of oil per acre annually. EcoSystem’s integrated bioreactor is estimated to be deployed at a cost of less than $100 per square foot with minimal use of utilities for other than periodic cleaning and heating.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the annual food scrap waste generated per capita in the U.S. is 1,678 pounds, of which 11% are food scraps. 40% to 50% of nearly all food harvested never gets consumed according to the University of Arizona’s Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology. Nationwide, household food waste adds up to $43 billion per year. Residential households waste an average of 14% of their food purchases, and fifteen percent of that includes products still within their expiration date but never opened.
EcoSystem estimates that 25% of the volume of retail, restaurant, and industrial generated food waste could be converted into Black Soldier Fly larvae. Based upon U.S. 2010 Census data, up to 100 million gallons per year of MAGFUEL™ natural oils could be produced and sold to U.S. biodiesel producers using EcoSystem technology.
This product could be a real win-win situation… creating a high-quality, competitively-priced biodiesel feedstock, while taking more waste out of landfills.
A Seattle-based company has come up with a new method of boosting the growth of algae that will help make the green scum more commercially viable for biodiesel production.
A bipartisan group of congress members has introduced a bill that would require that 80 percent of all new automobile and light trucks sold or manufactured in the U.S. be capable of running on either E85, M85 (a methanol-gasoline blend of 85 percent) or biodiesel.
The group has developed a type of biodiesel that, even at a 100 percent mix, won’t gel at more than 60 degrees below zero. That’s even colder than what conventional petroleum diesel clouds at (about -15 for the not-so-green fuel). It’s Permaflo Biodiesel, and to put it to the test, Ryan West, Director of New Uses for the alliance, led a group on a 1,400 mile trip across Alaska to the Arctic Circle. Along the way, they ran B100 in their vehicle and generator as they camped their way across the state in temperatures this winter of more than 20 below! 
There is an advantage to self publishing because you can truly say what you want to say. And Ronald H. Bowman, Jr. does just that in his book, “The Green Guide to Power Thinking Outside the Grid”. I originally thought the book was going to be about the development of the “
Senators John Thune (R-SD), Jon Tester (D-MT), and Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) have 
The proposed legislation would change the definition of “Renewable Biomass” to more closely conform to earlier versions of the RFS and the 2008 Farm Bill. That would allow pre-commercial and post-commercial waste from national forests to be eligible feedstocks under the definition of “Renewable Biomass” and allows for waste materials to be removed from our public lands which will assist in reducing fire danger.
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