energy.agwired.com

The Udall Legacy Biodiesel Bus Tour is wrapping up its 54-day, 8,606-mile, 26-cities, six-national-parks, six-Native-American-communities, cross-country tour. As you might remember from my posts in June, the biodiesel-fueled journey promotes environmental and Native American issues.

This story in the Tuscon (Arizona) Citizen says the trip wraps up Saturday in Southern Arizona, the home of the congressman for which the tour is named, Morris K. Udall:

For almost two months, 13 young people have put into action the words of the late congressman from Tucson.
In a tribute to Udall’s environmental legacy, they have traveled across the country in a green-certified biodiesel bus looking at a variety of environmental projects that have been successful.

The 13 who have made the long trek say they will take back with them many stories on how to treat the environment better… and you can bet at least one of the chapters will include biodiesel.

Some of London’s famous black cabs will be going green. About 3,000 of the Radio Taxis Limited cabs will be running on a 30 percent blend of biodiesel.

This story on Biofuel Review says the biodiesel will reduce CO2 by 7 percent, significantly reduce oxides of nitrogen and carbon monoxide, and drop particulates by 4.7 percent. It does all this and delivers a nearly 10 percent improvement in mileage. It all adds up to a fleet-wide reduction of CO2 by nearly 3,000 tonnes:

Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, said: “London already has the best taxi service in the world, and I am working with the taxi trade to make it the cleanest. New regulations introduced this year, mean that the capital’s 20,000 black cabs must now meet strict emissions standards, making vehicles less polluting to help improve London’s air quality.

The heavy metal band Korn will be running its tour on biodiesel this summer. Members Jonathan Davis, bassist Reginald “Fieldy” Arvizu, and guitarist James “Munky” Shaffer made the announcement that the band’s eight buses and eight cargo trucks will run on biodiesel during a press conference today covered by MTV in New York’s Times Square:

Surrounded by a crush of photographers, fans and curious onlookers, Korn revealed that on the band’s Family Values Tour this summer, they’ll be traveling in vehicles that operate on domestically produced biodiesel fuels.

“We all have children, and I just worry about my kids’ kids,” Davis, the proud owner of a Toyota Prius, said during the press conference. “[I worry about whether] they will have a place to live [and I hope] that they won’t have to live underground. I think it’s time we really did start trying to do something about getting rid of oil in general. We have the means to fuel cars in different ways. We have the technology to do it. We’re doing our part to set the wheels in motion.”

The band also announced it would start its own formula of biodiesel called Korntastic… although it’s still in development.

No, it’s not cheap biodiesel… although it certainly could end up being biodiesel for just peanuts. What I’m talking about is scientists at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service looking at using peanuts as the feedstock for biodiesel… maybe even cheaper than soybeans.

This article from the ARS web site says it could push the goober into the forefront of biodiesel research:

Agronomist Wilson Faircloth at the ARS National Peanut Research Laboratory at Dawson, Ga., and Daniel Geller, a collaborative engineer at the University of Georgia, are testing a peanut called Georganic. It’s not suited to current commercial edible standards for peanuts, but is high in oil and has low production input costs.

Georganic—or similar varieties—will likely be the future of peanut biodiesel because it can be planted and grown with just one herbicide application for weed control, compared to the three to four applications typically sprayed during a growing season for edible peanuts. Additionally, these fuel peanuts are grown without fungicides, which are the greatest input cost in traditional peanut production.

Right now, soybeans are primarily used for biodiesel, and they produce about 50 gallons of the fuel per acre. But peanuts could produce as much as 120 to 130 gallons per acre.