From: Jeff Green [activist@bongoboy.com]
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2005 7:17 PM
To: HVBIODIESELCOOP@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HVBIODIESELCOOP] Free Press Articles on Bio-Diesel

A Little Energy Independence
Jeff Green

Just two years ago the few die-hard advocates of using used cooking oil as an automotive fuel were pretty much shouting to an almost empty and uncaring room but that has all changed – and in a very short time. Today, bio-diesel fuels are all the rage and getting attention from government and industry in a very large way.

The ability to generate automotive quality fuel from waste vegetable oil (WVO) in your own home was the initial attraction for early adopters. With start up costs for equipment at a little under $2000, a little scientific knowledge, a ready supply of WVO collected from local restaurants and some commonly found chemicals, the ability to become auto-energy independent was quite attractive. Moreover, the cost to produce that fuel is about $1.60 per gallon (when using WVO), which is less than the price of petro-diesel bought at gas stations.
 
In 2003 the US used nearly 25 million gallons of bio-diesel, mostly in an assortment of 350 – 400 municipal and commercial fleets. Harvard University, for example, uses B20 fuel (20% bio-diesel mixed with 80% petro-diesel) to run their maintenance vehicles and the State of Idaho has embarked on a wide-scale B20 program to make the state energy independent and to address air pollution problems in Boise. Soybean farmers have been using bio-diesel on their farms as a tool to raise awareness of the product and to save a little money as well. Minnesota recently passed a law requiring petroleum-based diesel fuels to contain a blend of 2% bio-diesel by 2005.
 
In Germany there are 1300 bio-diesel stations and the French require that all petro-diesel be blended with 5% bio-diesel. Last year the US was home to 200 locations where bio-diesel could be purchased at the pump and in 2004 twenty-five new locations opened with five in Colorado and ten in New Hampshire. While there are none in New York and only two in Connecticut, this number should grow rather rapidly in the coming years.
 
These fuels are generated from a variety of sources including WVO, rapeseed (canola), soy, peanut, and sunflower oils as well as from waste animal fat. Most vehicles run on a mix, usually B20, but virtually any newer diesel engine can run on 100% bio-diesel without significant modifications.

Bio-diesel fuels can account for a significant reduction in air pollutants. For vehicles running on 100% bio-diesel there is a general reduction in carbon monoxide of 43%, a 56% reduction in hydrocarbons and a 47% decrease in particulate matter and as such will easily meet new US air quality standards for diesel engines. Bio-diesel is non-toxic, largely non-polluting and can be handled in the same way as petro-diesel, mixed in the same tanks, and carried in the same trucks.
 
There are some drawbacks however. For one, bio-diesel will lower fuel economy ratings in standard diesel vehicles by about 11%. For another, while the higher oxygen content in bio-diesel will reduce the amount of some pollutants, nitrogen oxide emissions will see an increase but, adding cetane enhancers to the fuel can reduce these.
 
Bio-diesel tends to “gel” under cold weather conditions so kerosene or petro-diesel needs to be mixed in to keep the engine running. Since petro-diesel forms deposits in vehicular fuel systems, and because bio-diesel can loosen those deposits, they can migrate and clog fuel lines and filters. Anyone switching to bio-diesel will need to look carefully at their fuel filter and engine seals for signs of clogging and weakening after a couple weeks of use. But, once this is done, the vehicle should run trouble free.
 
Sources for the raw materials required to produce bio-diesel are many and varied. A large potential is spent fats or “yellow grease”. Yellow grease is inedible fat, oil and grease used and removed from the food service industry. Fryolators, grills, and water-to oil separators are the major producers of yellow grease. Renderers clean the grease and prepare it for other uses in chemicals, soap, cosmetics, plastics, lubricants, livestock and poultry feeds. Recent concerns about BSE in the beef industry may lead to the reduced use of the rendered yellow grease as a feed ingredient potentially making it available for bio-diesel. However, according to government sources, and under full-scale production, competing uses for yellow grease would limit bio-diesel production to about 100 million gallons per year or 6,523 barrels per day. Therefore, the best raw materials for production are feedstocks and seed oils.
 
From an economic perspective, bio-diesel can provide a much-needed shot in the arm to farming communities suffering under low prices for soybeans, cottonseed and peanut oils by increasing their incomes without the help of federal subsidies. A 1998 joint study commissioned by the US Department of Energy and the US Department of Agriculture traced many of the various costs involved in the production of bio-diesel and found that overall, it yields 3.2 units of fuel product energy for every unit of fossil fuel energy consumed, assuming the feedstock is soybean oil. A higher yielding feedstock will improve these numbers.
 
Envisioning a bio-diesel nation is going to be difficult. There is simply not enough arable land in the United States to grow enough feedstock to produce enough fuel and produce food for a growing population at the same time. For other nations, it will not be prudent to move existing crops from food use to fuel. However, there has been a recent study using a type of algae that contains upwards of 50% oil. These algae can be grown under desert conditions and utilize farm waste and excess CO₂ from factories to help speed its growth. In order to generate enough material to replace fossil fuels, an area of about 45,000 sq miles, about the size of Ohio, would be needed for production. To put this in perspective, the US planted about 117,000 sq miles of corn and about the same in soybean last year.
 
Bio-diesel is made through a chemical process called transestification where glycerin is separated out from the fat or vegetable oil. This involves mixing lye and methanol (which produces methoxide) and adding that to the oil. This process leaves behind two products - methyl esters (the chemical name for bio-diesel) and glycerin, a by-product usually sold for soaps and other products.
 
For the home user, the apparatus involved consists essentially of two common 55 gallon drums, an agitator assembly with motor, an oil transferring system, a heating system, Ph test strips, vessels for making the methoxide, a thermometer…. All told, about $1800 worth.
 
The commercial producer will need to think much larger. A plant capable of producing 15 million gallons of fuel a year will cost upwards of $10 million and require more than 100 million pounds of raw materials and, in order to make the generated fuel competitive, the feedstock would have to cost around 15 cents per pound. At that price, and assuming other costs remain stable, the generated fuel would cost about $1.50 a gallon to produce. Add to that, shipping, salaries and profit for the company and the price will increase considerably. However, as petro-fuel prices increase the costs involved with bio-diesel will become more competitive. Today, however, the cost is too high to make the large-scale manufacture and wide-use of bio-diesel an economic reality.
 
There is only one large-scale distributor of bio-diesel in the northeast, World Energy, which is based in Chelsea, MA. Their main product is “B20”, a blend of 20% bio-diesel with 80% petro-diesel, which they distribute to large trucking fleets. World Energy will also deliver (they’ve a 500 gallon minimum) to smaller purchasers as well though the price will be higher per gallon.
 
One such smaller user is the Connecticut Bio-diesel Co-op run by Jim Burke (ctbiodzl@sdf.lonestar.org) that sells bio-diesel for about $2.75 a gallon with a 30-gallon minimum. Jim donated use of a bio-diesel powered truck to help with the Democracy Rising march as it passed through Connecticut in the summer of 2004 and helped raise awareness for alternative fuels along the way.
 
In New York’s Mid-Hudson Valley, a bio-diesel co-op was started this past summer (rpilkington@hvc.rr.com) joining an earlier one operating in the town of Saugerties that also buys fuel from World Energy. Over the past year several farms in the Valley have switched to homemade bio-diesel for their trucks and equipment and the environmental club at Marist College is seeking to recycle their food service’s waste cooking oil into bio-diesel to run their maintenance fleet. Judy Malstrom (mummink@earthlink.net), who lives in Clinton and ran for the NY State Senate on a platform of “sustainability”, is putting together a network of businesses, agriculture and private citizens that may ease the collection of WVO and raw feedstock to feed the growing need for locally produced bio-diesel fuels.
 
 
Resources:
 
How to Make Bio-Diesel
http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel.html
 
Hudson Valley Bio-Diesel Co-op
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HVBIODIESELCOOP/
 
The Connecticut Bio-Diesel Co-op
http://ctbiodzl.freeshell.org/ 
 
World Energy
http://www.worldenergy.net/
 
National Bio-Diesel Board
http://www.biodiesel.org/