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Recently, a school district in Indiana had to start school late. Normally, that’s not news for Indiana in the wintertime. But the weather was not to blame this time. Officials with the Maconaquah School Corporation in Bunker Hill, IN say some of their buses would not start earlier this month because of a sludge that was clogging the fuel filters. In an article in the Kokoma (IN) Tribune, it was described as the color and consistency of caramel. The problem was traced back to a biodiesel fuel tank where a fungus had grown. That led some media to speculate that the biological products in biodiesel were more susceptible to fungal growth. But Hoon Ge, a contract expert for the National Biodiesel Board from the MEG Corp. in Wayzata, MN, says it’s not the bio part that caused the fungus.

“Microbial fungus problems will happen in ANY diesel fuel, especially with ultra-low sulfur diesel” Ge says. “Sulfur actually inhibits [the growth of microbial fungi].” Ge says it is usually the presence of water that really gets the “bugs” growing.

He says it is an easy problem to fix and prevent. “The first thing is good housekeeping: eliminate any water. If you still see fungal growth [treat it with a biocicde].”

A specialist in Indiana did just that and had the problem cleared up in no time.

Check out my entire interview with Hoon Ge: Interview with Hoon
Ge. (6 min MP3)

You can’t enjoy paradise when the skies are filled with smog… that seems to be the idea behind a $61 million biodiesel plant planned in the Hawaiian Islands. The Blue Earth Maui Biodiesel LLC refinery would provide Maui Electric Company with enough biodiesel to run its largest electric plant.
The Honolulu Star Bulletin reports the plant would produce 40 million gallons of biodiesel a year to begin with and would move up to 120 million gallons a year by 2011. It would go to a power plant that produces about 85% of the power for Maui:

“This is a first step toward allowing Maalaea to generate all of its electricity without fossil fuels,” Maui Electric Co. President Ed Reinhardt said.

“At first there may be little or no savings for Maui rate-bearers,” Reinhardt said. “We believe that by creating a stable fuel source, we will eventually see a rate change accordingly.”

Palm oil as the feedstock would be imported to start, but officials are hopeful local farmers would produce future oils for the refinery.

And another story in the Maui News says Maui Electric Company has already used biodiesel to clear up a problem with too much smoke from a couple of its 12.5-megawatt diesel generators.