Canada: Biodiesel Technology Is An Opportunity to Become More Responsible and Create Jobs - Editorial
- posted by Daniel @ 1:04 AM

 
Canada: Bioproducts - Budding Industry Will Flower Slowly
- posted by Daniel @ 1:03 AM

 
Indiana: Nation's First Soy Biodiesel Metered Blending System Opens
- posted by Daniel @ 1:01 AM

 
Illinois: Soybeans Help Highland Park Cut Exhaust
- posted by Daniel @ 1:00 AM

 
Springfield, IL busses will be running on Biodiesel, in: Illinios: SMTD First To Buy Biodiesel Fuel
- posted by Daniel @ 12:58 AM

 
Great Lakes alternative fuel news: Indiana Becomes Home to Nation’s First Fuel Terminal Offering Biodiesel(.pdf format)
- posted by Daniel @ 12:55 AM

 
From Wired News,

"Veggie Fuels Feed Bottom Line By James Bernard Frost

02:00 AM Jul. 25, 2003 PT

When Joshua Tickell drove his Veggie Van across the country in 1997, fueling it with used vegetable oil he obtained at Kentucky Fried Chicken, Long John Silver's and other fast food chains owned by PepsiCo, he received a great deal of lighthearted attention from the mainstream media for the van's deep-fried fumes. Although the media thought it was funny, Tickell was serious.

Six years later, with the Department of Energy's 2003 Annual Energy Reportshowing that more than two-thirds of known oil reserves lie in the troubled Middle East, the laughter seems hollow.

A curious blend of consumers -- from clean-air activists to school districts to the U.S. military (PDF) -- are now running their diesel engines off either straight vegetable oil, known as SVO, or vegetable oil that has been converted to diesel fuel, or biodiesel. The results, they're finding, make more than just environmental sense.

Steve Smith, a Berkeley, California, resident who drives a 1982 Mercedes 300-GD SUV, has converted his car's diesel engine to run off SVO using a conversion kit made by German-based Elsbett. "With some mechanical experience, it took me a weekend and a few weekday nights to install," Smith said.

Smith collects free fuel, up to 35 gallons of used corn oil a week, from a local Indian restaurant. "My engine runs off of samosas and pakoras," he jokes.

Smith pre-filters the oil with a "sock" that he obtains from the SVO-supplier Greasel.

"I've also added a VorMax filter (an advanced fuel filtration system that removes contaminants), so I don't have to change the fuel filter every week."

Pawl Katan, an SVO advocate from Prescott, Arizona, who has helped modify four Mercedes diesels to run on SVO, notes that the deal is good for both vehicle owners and restaurateurs. "It costs (my local restaurant) about $1 a gallon to have their used fryer oil picked up. I save them money."

Fears of engine clogging, void warranties and the price of commercial conversion kits (both the Elsbett and Greasel systems run about $800) keeps all but the most savvy from modifying their vehicles to run off of straight vegetable oil. Even Craig Reese, co-owner of Neoteric, a Canadian-based company that is building prototype SVO conversion kits to compete with Elsbett and Greasel, notes, "I had a professional mechanic install the Elsbett kit (in my first SVO vehicle.)"

Because of this, most interest in bio-based fuels has revolved around biodiesel.

Maria "Mark" Alovera, publisher of the Biodiesel Homebrewers Guide, makes "home brew" from a chemical reaction involving lye and methanol. "It costs me about 45 cents a gallon to produce," Alovera said.

It's not just enthusiasts, though, who are turning to biodiesel as a viable alternative fuel. Big business is involved as well.

Jenna Higgins, Director of Communications for the National Biodiesel Board, points out that commercial biodiesel production has tripled between 2001 and 2002 (from 5 million to 15 million gallons). "Proctor & Gamble, West Central Soy and World Energy are all NBB member suppliers."

"Over 300 fleets are running on some grade of biodiesel."

Greg Piraino, an engineer with Applied Engineering in Phoenix, has worked with the Deer Valley School District to run their buses on B20 (20 percent biodiesel, 80 percent diesel). The buses have logged over 10 million miles.

"It's an impressive figure," Piraino said, "They have 165 buses that have been running off of biodiesel for four years."

Blue Sun Biodiesel, located in Fort Collins, Colorado, recently received a $1,000,000 grant from the Department of Energy to research varieties of canola in an attempt to increase oil yield in the crop. Although soybean oil has been the primary source of commercial U.S. biodiesel, canola oil is used widely in German biodiesel production, and is considered the superior crop.

John Long, founder of Blue Sun, spoke to the farming industry's interest in biodiesel. "(Farmers are interested in this because) canola is a short-cycle crop, with a four-month growing cycle. They can grow winter wheat and then canola in the same year, reducing fallow crop time, and thus increasing income," Long said. "Our (company’s) values are three-fold: U.S. energy independence; sustainable, rural economic development; and clean air."

Long's comments on farmers bring up an important point that biodiesel activists like Joshua Tickell, who is currently fundraising for his film, Fields of Fuel, have been trying to make for years. This isn't just about global warming concerns; it's also about the bottom line.

"Biodiesel is in its infancy. As biodiesel (use) grows, the price will drop," Tickell said. "Meanwhile petroleum is only getting more expensive. Sooner or later, the price curves will cross."

And when they do, we'll all drive a bit more hungrily."

From me:

This industry stands to be a huge boost for Midwestern farmers in and around the Great Lakes region. It would be of great benefit to all of us here in the area if we had local companies manufacturing retrofits, local companies collecting and filtering these fuels, local gas stations operating biodiesel pumps, etc. Another excellent way to bring economic activity back home, reduce monies going to hostile regions, and reduce the amount of carbon pumped from underground sequestration, namely in the form of coal, oil, and natural gas. We need to bring it home!
- posted by Daniel @ 10:21 PM

 
From Alt Power Digest:

"New Bulb May Power Electronics
Mon Jul 21, 1:32 PM ET

Mike Martin , sci.NewsFactor.com

A new type of tungsten filament -- the world's most
widely used light source -- may emit enough energy to
power electric cars, generators, and consumer
electronics, say researchers at Sandia National
Laboratories.

Normal light bulbs have little effect on photovoltaic
cells, which change light at certain wavelengths into
electricity. The new filament -- a lattice fabricated
with an internal crystalline pattern -- emits enough
energy at the same wavelengths to power small engines
and other electronic devices, claims Sandia physicist
Shawn Lin."

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All-Energy News and Discussion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/All-Energy

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Hmmm....are we seeing the early stages of the emergence of optical energy transmission systems? Will we be replacing utilty lines with fiber optic cables? Will you be able to plug your optical transmitter in at the wall and focus it on the power receiver cells of your boom box 100 feet away from the outlet? Will you be able to run fiber optic cabling from the fuell cell operated light bulb under the hood down to the four wheel motors instead of copper wires? Stay tuned....
- posted by Daniel @ 4:19 PM

 
Another take on the recent British offshore wind initiative: Wind Powers Brit Energy and Jobs

- posted by Daniel @ 1:10 AM

 
Another from Wired News, the debate over hydrogen vehicles continues. The latest from the Naysayers' camp: Fuel Efficiency Trumps Fuel Cells - (Personally I have a hard time buying it, but all sides deserve an equal voice. After all, blogging is not running for office at this blog.)
- posted by Daniel @ 12:58 AM

 
I've included the story on Venice because it raises an issue many in our country will face in the coming years, and highlights the need for renewable non-polluting energy. Expect to see more and more of these stories all over the net...
- posted by Daniel @ 12:53 AM

 
From Wired News, a story about some of the early effects of Global Warming and the battle to save Venice, Italy from a combination of rising oceans and sinking land. For centuries, St. Mark's Square has been slowly slipping closer to Atlantis. Here's how a massive system of floodgates could turn the tide...The Lost City of Venice



- posted by Daniel @ 12:35 AM

 
Interesting goings on in sustainable energy theory:

How the International Sustainable Energy Organization (ISEO) can solve
the crucially important energy issue, ailing since the Rio Summit and Kyoto
- posted by Daniel @ 4:29 PM

 
Hey, if any engineers read this, could you guys look at an idea I have and tell me if it would be of any assistance to the fledgling OTEC movements? What if you built your floating OTEC plant such that it collected sea water from a huge shallow concrete bowl painted black to increase the water temperature differential between collected surface water and deep cold water? Wouldn't such a move allow a wider area of viability on the oceans for OTEC technology as you could either draft shallower for cool water, collect greater energy if you went to the same depths for cold water as a non solar-boosted OTEC, or operate in colder northern waters than is currently feasible with bare OTEC technology?
- posted by Daniel @ 4:11 PM

 
Another from ENN, it seems there's serious happenings in the Asian connection. They're coming up with a "new" way to desalinize sea water and produce energy. I've got one acronym for these guys: OTEC! Anyway, read all about the latest Russian / Chinese environmental shennanigans in: Russia and China may build floating nuclear plants
- posted by Daniel @ 4:07 PM

 
From Alt Power Digest on Yahoo Groups:

Date: Wed, 23 Jul 2003 14:43:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Hydrogen car near, energy firm says

Jul. 23, 2003. 07:31 AM
Hydrogen car near, energy firm says
Stuart Energy sells filling station
Firm's technology `bridge to fuel cell'

TYLER HAMILTON
TECHNOLOGY REPORTER

Consumers won't have to wait 10 or 20 years before
hydrogen-powered cars make it to the local dealership,
says the chief executive of Stuart Energy Systems
Corp., a leading supplier of hydrogen fuelling
stations.

Jon Slangerup said internal combustion car engines
that run on hydrogen gas, similar to vehicles powered
by natural gas, could see "mass commercialization"
within two years, at least a decade sooner than
hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles that companies such as
Burnaby, B.C.-based Ballard Power Systems Inc. are
helping to develop.

"The fuel cell, indeed, is the ultimate in the ideal
future state," said Slangerup. "But instead of waiting
15 or 20 years for that to be perfected, we now have
internal combustion engines running on hydrogen for
stationary and mobile applications."

Slangerup said Mississauga-based Stuart Energy will
detail at its annual meeting in September the progress
being made with internal combustion car engines that
run on non-polluting hydrogen gas. He said a related
announcement will be made at that time, but would not
elaborate.

The company has a partnership with Ford Motor Co.,
which is testing both fuel cells and traditional
internal combustion engines that can be powered by
hydrogen. The latter is being produced at Ford's
manufacturing facilities in Windsor, potentially a
permanent home for the product, said Slangerup.

Ford's Model U vehicle contains an electric drive and
a hydrogen internal combustion engine that could be
replaced by a fuel cell when that technology is ready.
In both scenarios, a hydrogen-fuelling infrastructure
will be needed to keep the vehicles going — and that's
where Stuart Energy enters the picture.

Within two years, the company expects to have a
hydrogen fuelling system for the home — called a
personal energy station — that's about the size of a
large residential air conditioner, said Slangerup.

This energy station, along with storage containers,
would initially cost less than $20,000 and would be
capable of fuelling two hydrogen-powered cars each day
and providing back-up or primary electricity to the
home, depending on whether solar panels are used to
charge the system.

"We're working with the largest home builder in the
United States right now, which is absolutely wild
about the idea of offering a total green solution,
including solar panels, to their customers and
incorporating (the cost of the system) into the
mortgage," said Slangerup.

"This is going to be a big market for us."

The energy station takes in water from a standard
garden hose and converts it into hydrogen and oxygen
through a process called electrolysis. The hydrogen is
either used right away as a power source or stored in
a carbon-fibre tank for later use, such as filling up
your car. Pure oxygen is released as the only
by-product.

One criticism of any hydrogen production process,
including electrolysis, is that it consumes power,
typically through the burning of fossil fuels, to
create the hydrogen fuel. So while the end product may
have zero emissions, the process to create it doesn't.

Slangerup said that the ability to store hydrogen
offers flexibility in creating it. Renewable and clean
energy sources, such as solar, wind, hydro and
geothermal, are one option. The other option is to use
energy from the traditional power grid during off-peak
times and store the hydrogen for later use.

To walk the talk, Stuart Energy buys six-month blocks
of wind power from an Ontario wind farm to power its
85,000 square foot Mississauga facility, which employs
160 people. Another 50 employees work out of
Belgium-based Vandenborre Technologies, which was
acquired by Stuart Energy earlier this year for $10
million.

The personal energy station concept is gaining
momentum. Stuart Energy signed a co-development deal
last month with the hydrogen division of oil giant
Royal Dutch/Shell Group, which gets the non-exclusive
right to act as an agent of the technology.

"Why would they want to do that? What's in it for
them?" asked Slangerup rhetorically. "They see the
future as a highly distributed system of hydrogen
generators."

He said it may take 50 years before gasoline-powered
cars go the way of the dodo, but as the price of gas
and other oil products go up, hydrogen and the
infrastructure to provide it will gain momentum.

In that future, hydrogen will be produced in the home
and sold at fuelling stations along the highway,
creating a more decentralized infrastructure that
literally changes the balance of power.

Internal combustion engines that run on hydrogen will
get us to that reality faster, laying the foundation
for fuel-cell cars when they're ready for the mass
market, added Slangerup. "We call it the bridge to the
future of fuel cell."

For example, the Ford Focus fuel-cell car being
showcased across North America cost more than $1
million to build. Modifying the fuel injectors and
fuel-management system of an internal combustion
vehicle that uses natural gas so it can run on
clean-burning hydrogen costs less than $1,000.

"The fuel-cell guys love the idea of internal
combustion engines because it gets hydrogen out there,
it gets the infrastructure in place, and when the fuel
cells come along, you're not dealing with any big
disruption."


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All-Energy News and Discussion
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/All-Energy

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- posted by Daniel @ 3:30 PM

 
From ENN, an article on how tobacco farmers are "kicking" the habit without sacrificing their financial security, and all while benefitting sustainable farming concerns and the environment. I know there was a large tobaco growing area in and around Edgerton, Wisconsin, just north of my home town. Maybe this will give some of the farmers up that way some ideas.

Leading in...

"From the outside, this looks like any other barn tucked into a sleepy mountain hollow of Stickleyville, Virginia in the Appalachians. Rows of tobacco plants skewered on wooden poles hang like dry-cleaning from the rafters while all around the hillsides explode with autumn colors, which mirror the tints of lemon, orange and mahogany in the cured tobacco.

But inside this barn a revolution is brewing. Among the unlikely pioneers is Sam Askins, a 54-year-old farmer, whose family has been raising tobacco in nearby Russell County since 1786. “Growing ’bacco is a bad habit,” Askins says with a chuckle as he adjusts his bright orange hunting cap. “So I quit.”"

Read more in: Ex-tobacco farmers kick the habit and go organic


- posted by Daniel @ 3:24 PM

 
From ENS, The United States is pursuing fossil fuel imports from Russia. Good for Russian finances, but my personal opinion is, bad for the environment. Read more in: U.S. Works Toward Securing Russian Oil Resources.
- posted by Daniel @ 1:15 AM

 
Also from Alt Power Digest:

Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 15:09:40 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Company Turning Garbage Into Oil?

Company Seeks Fortune Turning Garbage Into Oil
Sun Jul 20, 4:20 PM ET

By Francesca Segre

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Finally, a possible use for
old tires and turkey bones.

A privately held company run by a former candy
salesman is working on turning everyday garbage into
oil that can be used to heat homes and turned into
fuel to power car engines.

Changing World Technologies has built a pilot plant in
a Philadelphia Navy Yard warehouse that uses a process
called thermal depolymerization to mimic and speed up
the natural process for making oil.

The West Hempstead, New York-based company has already
turned personal computers, old tires and even turkey
bones and feathers into oil, Chief Executive Brian
Appel said.

"We are supercharging that process and doing in
minutes what the earth would naturally do over
hundreds of thousands of years," Appel said.

Changing World Technologies said the advantages of
making oil from garbage is that it controls waste
while also reducing dependence on foreign oil and
slowing global warming (news - web sites).

But not everyone is convinced.

"(The process) sounds like an interesting chemical
innovation but unless you can prove who can use the
oil and how, its market value is not clear," said
Sarah Emerson, managing director of Energy Security
Analysis Inc., an independent energy research firm.

Instead of waiting for nature to take its course --
that is for decomposing plants and animals to be
mashed, pressured and heated by sliding tectonic
plates -- Changing World Technologies uses a shredding
and grinding machine.

GRINDING OUT OIL

The machine loudly grinds the waste into a slurry
mixture, which is then fed through an intense heating
and pressuring process that separates out oil. The oil
is then refined.

Proof the process works on a larger scale will come
when the company opens its first plant later this
year, Appel said.

Changing World Technologies has created a joint
venture with ConAgra Foods Inc., the second largest
U.S. food maker, to build a plant in Missouri near
ConAgra's ButterBall turkey factory.

The plant is designed to process 200 tons of turkey
bones and feathers daily into various products
including more than 500 barrels of oil, Changing World
Technologies said.

But critics question the technology's ability to move
from small scale production to a large facility.

"It might work in the lab, but when you put it on a
larger scale it becomes a daunting task," said Fadel
Gheit, an oil analyst at Fahnestock & Co. and a former
engineer.

"It is uneconomic and it's not feasible," he said.



Predicting critics will be proven wrong, Appel, who
was once a sales representative for Russell Stover
Candies and worked in business development for
Ticketmaster, estimates Changing World Technologies
will be able to produce oil at a cost of $15 a barrel.

That's about half the wholesale price for a barrel of
oil. In a few years, the cost will drop to $10 --
which is about what Appel said mid-sized exploration
and production companies spend -- and then down to $6
to $8 per barrel.

Changing World Technologies said it is not the first
to convert organic and other products into oil. But
others have failed because the process was too
expensive to operate or consumed too much energy.

The government and private industry are betting that
the garbage-into-oil process could revolutionize the
energy industry. The U.S. Department of Energy (news -
web sites) and the Environmental Protection Agency
(news - web sites) have given Changing World
Technologies $21 million in grants.

The company raised another $50 million from investors
including Howard Buffet, the son of Warren Buffet, and
James Woolsey, former director of the Central
Intelligence Agency (news - web sites).

But Fahnestock's Gheit remains unconvinced. "Having
this technology next to a slaughterhouse this is
something else, this is a garbage disposal business it
has nothing to do with energy."
- posted by Daniel @ 7:12 AM

 
From the Yahoo group Alt Power Digest:


Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 15:06:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: Green Bean
Subject: Grad student measures wind power

Newsmaker / Grad student measures wind power as source
of energy for SRU campus

Wednesday, July 16, 2003

By Alisha Hipwell

Heath Gamache has come to understand better than most
the troubling effects of electrical power production,
from acid rain to greenhouse gas emissions

So the Prospect man, who's pursuing a master's degree
in sustainable systems at Slippery Rock University of
Pennsylvania spends a lot of time asking how humans
can have a comfortable life with less environmental impact.

The answer, my friend -- as Bob Dylan would put it --
might be blowing in the wind.

Gamache, 31, is gathering data on the feasibility of
using wind, a clean power source, to generate
electricity for parts of the Slippery Rock campus. He
recently installed a 100-feet meteorological tower
near the university's football stadium to measure wind
velocity for a year.

"For me one of the crux issues for the United States
right now is energy -- energy security, energy
independence and all the environmental damage and
pollution that comes from getting energy the way we do
right now," said Gamache.

If he finds average wind speeds of at least 10 mph
over the 12-month period, a wind turbine could be installed to produce electricity for Harmony House,
located at the university's Robert A. McCoskey Center
for Sustainable Systems Education and Research.

Wind speeds in the 15 to 25 mph range would be
sufficient for a wind farm that could supply power for
the whole region.

Gamache said the university campus is one of the
highest points in Butler County, so he expects to get
good results on wind readings.

"My guess is we could make a fairly large dent in
power usage," he said.

The tower has two anemometers to measure wind speed
and a vane to track its direction. The data is logged
onto microchips and is downloaded onto a laptop
computer for analysis.

Gamache grew up in Northfield, Mass., in the Berkshire
mountains region. His parents introduced him to
hiking, camping and other outdoor activities, and
those early experiences made a lasting impression.

"I am like many other people in the field in that, as
a child, I had the opportunity to be in a place where
the wonder and beauty of nature was shared with me by
someone I cared about -- in my case my parents," he
said.

As he grew older, Gamache's love of the outdoors,
coupled with his Christian faith, grew into a deep
desire to understand and protect the natural world.

"For me, personally, it went beyond just wanting to be
in nature and enjoy the outdoors for recreation to
wanting to understand it more from a scientific
perspective but even more so, in my case, from a
stewardship perspective," he said.

Still, it took Gamache time to find his niche. He
earned a degree in corporate communications from
Ithaca College in New York and briefly worked in the
advertising and graphic design field.

"I didn't like the atmosphere. I'd rather be outdoors
communicating one on one," he said.

So Gamache got out of the field and worked as a
program director for a camp in Iowa, but that job
didn't get to the heart of what he loved: teaching
others about the environment.

So when he saw a posting for the position of assistant
director of environmental education for Camp
Lutherlyn, he jumped at the opportunity. He took the
position in 1997 and moved into the Connoquenessing
Township camp's self-sustaining straw bale house,
Terra Dei Homestead. The name is Latin for "God's
earth."

Gamache is at ease at Terra Dei, where modern
convenience and environmental sensitivity have made a
happy marriage.

Freshly harvested mint leaves hang drying from a
picnic pavilion roof at the homestead. A laptop
computer sits on the kitchen table, near a brand new
refrigerator full of vegetables grown in the organic garden.

"It's a modern lifestyle that makes more sense,"
Gamache said.

Gamache would like to see his research -- the
homestead has a wind tower much like the one at the
university -- help Slippery Rock and other
Pennsylvania universities move to the forefront of
wind energy education.

"When planning for the future, you have to plan big,"
he said. "It would be fantastic if five to 10 years
down the road we could see a wind farm that would
power SRU, the whole town."

That might not be so far-fetched. According to the
American Wind Energy Association in Washington, D.C.,
wind energy is the world's fastest-growing energy
source.

Pennsylvania is well down the list of windiest states,
but "we've still got plenty of wind energy to tap
into," Gamache said.

The windmills in Somerset County, visible from the
Pennsylvania Turnpike, produce 2.4 million
kilowatt-hours of electricity a year. That's enough to
power about 240 average homes.

Steven Doherty, an assistant professor and coordinator
in the university's sustainable systems program, said
the cost of electricity generated by wind is dropping
faster than electricity produced by conventional means.

Figure in the cost of environmental damage such as
acid rain caused by conventional generation and,
Doherty said, "it's clear wind is already pretty
competitive." But it's hard for consumers to see that,
because the costs of environmental damage don't show
up on their electric bills.

The wind study isn't Gamache's only environmental
project. At Camp Lutherlyn, Gamache is overseeing work
on a passive treatment system that will revitalize
Semiconon Run, a creek at the camp that is
contaminated with mine drainage.

The camp's director of environmental education, Todd
Garcia-Bish, credited Gamache with writing the grant
that secured funding for the project.

After Gamache finishes his graduate program in 2004,
he would like to take his knowledge of alternative
power sources to other areas of the country

"I'd like to take these ideas and technologies to
developing areas of the United States or abroad to
places desperately in need of energy sources where
they haven't already made disastrous energy choices," he said.
- posted by Daniel @ 7:07 AM