As entrepreneurs turn their attention to second generation, non-food biocrops, a new potential issue arises. Many of these plants, like Jatropha, are basically weeds that can grow anywhere. Will these weeds escape from biofuel harvesting areas and become invasive species, like kudzu?
The New York Times examines the issue in today’s paper.
“Some of the most commonly recommended species for biofuels production are also major invasive alien species,” the paper says, adding that these crops should be studied more thoroughly before being cultivated in new areas.
Controlling the spread of such plants could prove difficult, the experts said, producing “greater financial losses than gains.” The International Union for Conservation of Nature encapsulated the message like this: “Don’t let invasive biofuel crops attack your country.”
To reach their conclusions, the scientists compared the list of the most popular second-generation biofuels with the list of invasive species and found an alarming degree of overlap. They said little evaluation of risk had occurred before planting.
“With biofuels, there’s always a hurry,” said Geoffrey Howard, an invasive species expert with the International Union for Conservation of Nature. “Plantations are started by investors, often from the U.S. or Europe, so they are eager to generate biofuels within a couple of years and also, as you might guess, they don’t want a negative assessment.”
The biofuels industry said the risk of those crops morphing into weed problems is overstated, noting that proposed biofuel crops, while they have some potential to become weeds, are not plants that inevitably turn invasive.
“There are very few plants that are ‘weeds,’ full stop,” said Willy De Greef, incoming secretary general of EuropaBio, an industry group. “You have to look at the biology of the plant and the environment where you’re introducing it and ask, are there worry points here?” He said that biofuel farmers would inevitably introduce new crops carefully because they would not want growth they could not control.
Popularity: 10% [?]
School Buses are nearly a perfect fit for biodiesel. They travel local, well planed short routes so they can always be refueled from a biodiesel facility so that the driver doesn’t have to settle for fossil fuels in a crunch.
A couple of years back Gloucester Co. started a trial in which 20 of its school buses would be run off of biodiesel. Now, according to this article at WVEC every single school bus is run off of bio fuels made locally.
Roger Kelly, head of transportation for the district says that even the drivers are noticing a difference, although the accountants are not. Fuel cost is nearly the same for both biodiesel and regular but money is not always the most important thing.
“It’s hard to put a price on cleanness,” he said. “We’re definitely saving on better health for kids growing up,” said Kelly. “Buses going up and down the road that are putting out less emissions. So, there’s a dollar amount there.”
The drivers are noticing that the buses run better on biodiesel (something I have noticed in my own car) and because biodiesel lubricates better and cleans out fuel lines and tanks that buses will last longer possibly providing a financial benefit in that area.
Other area school districts are consulting with Gloucester about making the switch to biodiesel as well.
Popularity: 10% [?]
Previously we talked about Jatropha as a new biodiesel source here, here, and here. Now The Naples Daily News reports that My Dream Fuel LLC is has been cultivating a Jatropha SW Florida. Jatropha produces four times the fuel per acre than soy and ten times more than corn. Paul Dalton, a former attorney owns the company and says demand is great:
“There are about 100 buyers for every gallon you produce,” he said.
Dalton already has close to a million plants in the ground and hopes to plant another million before June and is in the process of opening a 15,000 square foot seed crushing and plant cloning center in Ft Myers. The seeds of the of the plant are crushed in order to make biodiesel.
My Dream Fuel is one of the first companies to bring large scale planting to the US of Jatropha, a plant native to Mexico and South America. The company expects to be able to turn out plants at the rate of one million per month
“We studied our mother trees that we use to clone for over six years, and we have over 500 of them. So we have the largest bank of mother trees in the world, of any company,”
“We know of a couple of groups from New York and from Spain that want to plant in Texas and Brazil. So in the next couple of weeks, we may exhaust our current supply,” Dalton said.
Dave Wolfley, the owner of Sunshine Biofuels is working towards establishing a fuel plant. He has been campaigning to convince local farmers to take a chance on the new fuel crop and has a few ready to try it.
Jatropha evangelist are targeting citrus groves in Florida with diseased trees and cattle ranchers looking to branch out. With the reported ability of this plant to grow in nearly any environment that is a lot of land in a lot of the country that these plants could be grown on.
Popularity: 11% [?]
I’m not detail minded enough to make my own Biodiesel for my old Mercedes Diesel. I occasionally have dreams about driving for free and going around siphoning WVO (Waste Vegetable Oil) from the waste tanks at the local fast food restaurants. But then I remember how I had to buy three little screws for the oil pan on my Benz and how those three little screws costs over 10 dollars and I extrapolate that out to how much a new injection pump would cost when I make a mistake and I head on over to DFW Biodiesel and feel confident that my 300D will live another day.
But if you are more competent than me and are planning on gathering up used fryer grease to run your diesel off of make sure that you get permission before you harvest the sludge.
The Mercury News writes about a man in Morgan Hill California who is was arrested for stealing 300 gallons of grease from a Burger King. My first reaction to this is that we had another case of a big corporation bullying some poor environmentally friendly citizen who was just trying to get some WVO for personal use…I mean, sure they should have asked but arrest is a bit harsh. But as it turns out the man worked for a Las Vegas company, Restaurant Oils of America, and was not even licensed to operate in the state. The driver was harvesting the WVO to resell to a company in Atascadero for $1.35 a gallon.
It’s interesting to note that most restaurants, including the “victim” here pay someone to haul off their waste grease; so if you are just polite enough to ask most establishments will allow you to take all you want without being arrested or anything.
Popularity: 8% [?]
17 Mar 08 |
Photo courtesy of mtoreceptive at Flickr.com.
In the developing world, where electric grids are less reliable, many cell phone towers have to generate their own electricity. With diesel generators, that means that energy costs can add up to 2/3 of the total maintenance costs. Theft and vandalism are also a big problem with these systems.
As a result of these high energy costs, many cellular providers in the Third World have adopted green power supplies. In addition to wind and solar power, some of these cell phone systems incorporate biodiesel.
Photo courtesy of Tirau Dan at Flickr.com.
Designers are also rethinking the traditional cell phone tower. In 2007, Ericsson introduced the Tower Tube - a self contained concrete tower that has less visual impact and a smaller carbon footprint. Since they use concrete instead of a steel structure, and have no need for a perimeter fence, these towers release approximately 20% less CO2 than conventional towers. Other companies are getting rid of cell towers entirely by using trees!
If you look closely, the cell towers near your house may already be using solar or wind backup power supplies. Here’s an example of a solar panel that powers weather monitoring equipment on a cell tower.
Popularity: 8% [?]
6 Mar 08 |
Photo courtesy of Uxbridging at Flickr.com.
Virgin Atlantic has made a first step in replacing aviation gas with renewable fuel. On February 24th, 2008, the first commercial flight took to the air using a partial mix of plant oils for fuel. This could be a milestone in the use of renewable aviation fuels. The blend they burned was far from pure biodiesel - in fact, it only contained 20% of what Virgin is calling “first generation biofuel” - it’s…
derived from coconuts grown in the Philippines and babassu palm oil. Babassu palms grow wild in Brazil, so this type of palm oil is seen as eco-friendlier than most.
Hopefully, future flights will use greater concentrations of biofuel and create a viable alternative to kerosene. In the long run, Richard Branson (Virgin’s CEO) hopes to develop “second generation” biofuel sources. These may include cellulosic ethanol and even diesel made from pond scum.
Photo courtesy of keithng at Flickr.com.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Flickr photo courtesy of Robbi Baba.
In just a few years, biodiesel in the U.S. has gone from an incognito fringe fuel to a mainstream media darling, and has recently been under fire as just another excuse for people to clear cut rainforest.
If this first biodiesel wave has somehow missed you, and you have no idea what it is, there are many great resources to catch up, including articles on this site, which also address the commonly confused difference between straight vegetable oil and biodiesel.
The purpose of this article is to push beyond the basics and evaluate the current state of biodiesel and take a look at the road ahead. Will it be filled with efficient diesel vehicles and smell like the local Wok Town restaurant? Will it be any cleaner or more peaceful?
The Promises
A cleaner, greener and more peaceful world — these are the reasons most biodiesel advocates began using and producing this fuel, because it promised to solve some of the problems created by the petroleum industry. These are certainly the reasons I chose to embrace biodiesel by creating an organization called bioTrekker, traveling the country in a biodiesel-powered motorhome to investigate and advocate this alternative fuel. I know I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm and I know I’m not alone in saying that, if biodiesel can’t live up to these promises, I will no longer embrace it.
Not many individuals seem to be happy about our extremely heavy dependence on Middle Eastern petroleum, and if Americans can once again produce the majority of their vehicle fuel domestically, the biodiesel theory goes, they would no longer need to entangle themselves in places like Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran.
In addition, as a cleaner burning fuel, biodiesel could have a global warming benefit. Pure biodiesel is biodegradable and non-toxic, and when combusted, it emits as much as 78% less carbon dioxide than petroleum, 100% less sulfur dioxide, 55% less particulates (soot), 45% less carbon monoxide and a reduction in all cancer causing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.
Depending on engine type and age, it can increase or decrease nitrogen oxide emissions by five to 10%. Supporters also point to the fact that biodiesel closes the carbon loop. When petroleum is burned, it releases carbon dioxide that was removed from the atmosphere by now fossilized plant matter. When biodiesel is burned, it releases carbon dioxide that was harnessed from the atmosphere we’re breathing now, thus closing the loop.
THE BIODIESEL REPORT CARD
These are the biodiesel promises, and after a few years of growth in the American biodiesel industry, we now have a record of reality that we can evaluate. In 2008, the biodiesel industry report card looks something like this:
Energy Independence? F +
To be honest, when it comes to using biodiesel to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and the handful of companies that control the production of that oil, we’re not doing so hot. In 2006, the U.S. produced roughly 250 million gallons of biodiesel, and the total estimated tally for 2007 could reach as high as 400 million gallons.* Still, we consumed more than 60 billion gallons of petroleum diesel and 150 billion gallons of gasoline.* What’s more, roughly 75 percent of the biodiesel produced in the United States was exported to Europe and used there.* Europeans pay higher prices for fuel, and no good capitalist is going to ignore that. In addition, a loophole in the fuel tax laws of Europe and the U.S. allow U.S. biodiesel producers to “splash and dash” and claim a tax credit in both the U.S. and Europe, letting them subsidize their production with tax payer dollars on two different continents. Even with this miserable performance, there is still hope, which is why I’ll go with an F+.
*Information comes from the National Biodiesel Board
Community-based Energy Production? C+
The biodiesel industry has been driven by a combination of consumer demand and a strong Midwestern farm lobby, however, most insiders know that it wouldn’t exist without the consent of the petroleum industry, especially on the distribution side. But most production at this time does seem to be outside of the hands of the oil company majors. As of January 2008, there were 170 U.S. biodiesel plants in existence.* Most use soybean oil as a feedstock.
While some of the larger facilities have ties to big petroleum, such as Chevron-backed BioSelect Fuels in Galveston, Texas, many of these plants are financed by groups with farm ties and most have a capacity smaller than 30 million gallons a year. Even most of the largest in the country — such as Washington state’s Imperium (100 million gallons a year), Texas-based GreenEarth Fuels (90 million), and Indiana’s Loius Dreyfus Agricultural Industries (80 million) — still seem to be independent of big petroleum ties. The production and distribution system may not be ideal, but it’s still decentralized.
Reduced Greenhouse Gases? D+
It’s true that the actual combustion of biodiesel produces fewer GHGs (greenhouse gasses) and toxic gases than petroleum, and general lifecycle studies showed that biodiesel could lower GHG levels worldwide. However, these studies didn’t foresee that a biofuels boom could create tremendous land-use changes in developing countries.
For example, the huge corn-based ethanol push in the U.S. has created a soybean vacuum, which has Brazilian farmers slash and burning their Amazon rainforest to plant more soy. Malaysian palm growers are also slash and burning their rainforest to meet European and U.S. demand for palm oil based biodiesel. Needless to say, if you want to lower greenhouse gases, slash and burning the rainforest trees is the exact opposite of what you should do. Recent studies have demonstrated that biofuel-production could actually contribute to global warming if these land use changes are factored in.
So why the plus on that D? Well, it’s not exactly fair to blame a non-toxic, less polluting substance for the stupidity of those producing it. Chocolate is a wondrous, plant-based product that brings people pleasure, but I wouldn’t blame chocolate if people got rid of all the other trees and plants in the world to mono-crop cocoa beans.
A balanced, GHG lowering approach to biodiesel is possible, and it is happening, although on a smaller scale. For example, there are several biodiesel producers around the country who have made a commitment to produce biodiesel in a sustainable way. Most of them are using waste grease recycled from restaurants and/or source their biodiesel from locally grown feedstock oil such as canola, mustard or soybeans, grown on pre-existing farmland. The U.S. has an advantage here, because we’ve already clear-cut most of our forests.
The Solutions, or Why I Still Carry the Bio-Flag
It’s easy to project two very different futures for biodiesel, and reality will likely fall somewhere in between. On one side of the spectrum, a biodiesel gold rush could very well cause more problems than it solves. Most have already been mentioned, but biodiesel-caused problems include food shortages in developing countries, increased food prices in developed countries, the clear cutting of virgin forest to plant biodiesel feedstock crops, and I’m pretty sure they’re responsible for the recent writer’s strike in Hollywood.
In addition, if the biodiesel industry becomes controlled by mega corporations that profit by centralizing the production of energy and exploiting resources and cheap labor in other countries, then it will probably create or aggravate the same political, military and economic problems that petroleum has.
So what’s the point in supporting biodiesel if it’s already getting D’s and F’s and if this is the future? Well, it doesn’t have to be the future. There are solutions to the current challenges, and if we embrace these solutions, the future will look much different. Here are just a few examples:
1.Help create communities that embrace mass-transit and make it easy to walk and ride a bike, developing in ways that will reduce the need for long commutes. Rather than simply ramping up supply to meet an astronomical demand, we can bring the demand down by using our energy wisely. A specific example would be getting involved with an office of sustainability like we have here in Portland, OR. If your town doesn’t have one, why not start it yourself?
2. Clamor for better energy efficiency, such as diesel-electric hybrid engines. This is another way to bring down astronomical demand. People are good at clamoring and seem to enjoy it, so here’s something to clamor for. Support manufacturers that sell high efficiency products and perhaps suggest the idea to those who aren’t.
In this way you can help create a bigger market in the U.S. for biodiesel, which will help curb foreign exports of the fuel. They’re already getting the hint, but here’s one place to start clamoring: www.autoalliance.org.
3. Support sustainable biodiesel production. It’s clear that not all biodiesel is created with the same intentions and priorities. As a consumer, ask questions of your local fuel distributors and try to get to know your local producers. Is the fuel coming from local fryer grease or local farmer coops? Is it being shipped in from overseas? Are they committed to sustainable practices? If you’re producing biodiesel, do the best you can to minimize waste and pollution in the process by researching best practices. Consumers and producers can also join the Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance, (www.fuelresponsibly.org) a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting sustainable biodiesel practices.
4. Incentivize biodiesel produced from waste products and crops on existing agricultural land or fallow land. Currently, biodiesel producers who use waste grease as a feedstock don’t receive as much of a tax credit as those who use virgin oil: this should be changed. And in addition to asking legislators to close the tax loophole that allows “splash and dash” producers to exploit domestic and foreign subsidies, we can ask them to reward producers that source their feedstocks from waste grease, existing agricultural land or land that was previously fallow. And, of course, we can incentivize it ourselves by patronizing companies that engage in these practices.
5. Rapidly develop non-food biodiesel feedstocks by investing in research and development. Of course, even if we drastically reduce our consumption, we still can’t make enough biodiesel from cropland or waste oil to reach fuel self-sufficiency. Fortunately, there is promise in one of the fastest growing organisms on the planet: algae. Algae can have extremely high oil content — oil that can be turned into biodiesel once extracted. What’s more, algae can grow in wastewater and brackish water so it’s feasible that algae production would not create the same land use issues as soybean, canola or other cropland biodiesel.
There are several companies currently working to commercialize algae production worldwide, including LiveFuels Inc., Solazyme, Solix Biofuels, GreenFuels Technologies, GreenShift CleanTech, and AquaFlow Bionomic.
Initial studies of algal oil yields indicate that it may be possible to produce enough algal oil biodiesel to offset upwards of 50 to 100 percent of the petrodiesel that Americans consume, however, there are significant obstacles. The big one is how to produce algal oil as cheaply as petroleum. The other obstacles revolve around this, but a few include the challenge of extracting algae from vast amounts of water, the challenge of extracting oil from algae, and the challenge of creating a system that is energy efficient and resistant to other contaminant strains of algae.
Still, biodiesel produced from algae is happening now, and could become available on a small commercial scale in the next two to five years. Algae experts, such as John Sheehan VP of Strategy and Sustainable Development for LiveFuels, say that large-scale commercial algae production probably won’t happen until sometime between 2012 and 2018.
As individuals, we can speed this process by spreading awareness of this technology, investing in it ourselves if we are able, and by urging our local, state and national lawmakers to guide public investments in this direction.
How We’ll Use Our Tools
If the future of biodiesel is to be one that creates a cleaner, greener and more peaceful world, the solutions above will likely play a huge role. If they do, biodiesel will truly move beyond a fringe fuel and become one of the most important fuels in the next 20 to 50 years as we begin to transition to renewable energy, especially if coupled with the jump in fuel efficiency that would come with a major influx of diesel, diesel hybrids and electric passenger vehicles.
The cleanest future is probably one where we run all vehicles on electricity produced from a renewable energy powered grid, but it looks like that transition could take at least a few decades. In the meantime, if we do it right, biodiesel could be a very beneficial in that transition.
The beauty is, we can choose to have a say over how it’s done, especially in our own communities.
And this is the reason that I have not lost my enthusiasm for biodiesel as a very useful tool – one of many tools that we can use to shape a better world for our children and grandchildren. But like any other tools, from ropes to knives to gunpowder, I have learned that biodiesel can only be as beneficial or destructive as the people who use it.
Seen in this light, the important thing becomes the philosophy behind the tools. We can live in a society that achieves self-sufficiency by making it a priority to lower its energy needs and producing most of its energy on a community, state and regional level. We can live in a society where we mimic nature by creating systems where everything is used and “waste” becomes a forgotten concept. This is the society I choose to embrace and this is the peaceful, affordable and comfortable future that sustainable biodiesel can help create. We’ve just got to get our grades up.
Ty Adams is a freelance writer and editor who takes on way too many pet projects in Portland, Oregon. In 2006, he left his desk job, sold his house and traveled the country for a year in a biodiesel-powered motorhome as part of a project called bioTrekker. The project continues to evolve and now has Ty living and breathing all things renewable and sustainable. It is available online at www.biotrekker.com.
Popularity: 8% [?]
12 Feb 08 |
It’s a complicated issue to be sure and there and the one thing that you can be certain about here in the 21st century is that anyone who shows up on your doorstep with a simple solution to any of the complex problems we face today need the door slammed in their face.
Take this article on NPR about Ethanol and Global Warming; If you look at biofuels in the light of the study done by Tim searchinger at Princton we need to go back and rethink our biofuels strategy.
“The simplest explanation is that when we divert our corn or soybeans to fuel, if people around the world are going to continue to eat the same amount that they’re already eating, you have to replace that food somewhere else,” Searchinger says.
What the study actually shows, rather than a clean cut this is bad, that is worse; if we keep going at the rate we are going, using the same technologies we are using for the next 30 years we are going to wind up with the net effect of doubling the overall CO2.
But it’s not that simple. We aren’t at full capacity yet; not all the farmland we have available is being used to plant anything. Since the fall of the USSR we haven’t been planting as much land as we could. Tobacco lands are being used for growing Canola oil (Rapeseed oil, in other words) for use as fuel and few would argue that that’s a bad thing; certainly it isn’t producing more C02. The shortage we have been experiencing and the reactions to it are more growing pains than long term effects.
What is vital to keep in mind is that ethanol and biodiesel are stopgap measures at best. If we are still using huge amounts of ethanol or biodiesel in 30 years, or even in 15 years something is terribly wrong. Biofuels are a way for us to wean ourselves off of the internal combustion engine while finalize solar and wind and perhaps safer nuclear plants and cars that can be effectively powered by them. The much smaller number of remaining internal combustion powered cars will not put a huge dent in the farmland production especially when you factor in garbage to biodiesel, air to biodiesel, and plants that will grow in places crops won’t.
While I agree with some of their conclusions, such as how we should be looking towards other than crop sources sooner than later, I can’t agree with the level of urgency that they deliver that message with.
Popularity: 5% [?]
A couple of years back a bunch of us stood in the street and watched the book store of the local university burn to the ground in the middle of the night. The next day the only things left were the once familiar walls of a former Safeway grocery store filled to the brim with charred rubble. Try as they might the distinctive look of the exterior walls that every Safeway in the area always had could not be hidden.
I grew up thinking that Safeway was a synonym for grocery store; I can’t honestly remember going to any other until Safeway pulled up stakes and left Texas. The familiar buildings still stand all across my home town. So I was glad to hear that the company I grew up with is one of the most environmentally conscious out there; even though they abandoned us.
Recently Safeway switched to using B20 Biodiesel for all of the 600+ trucks in its California and Arizona Fleet. The fuel is produced from domestically grown Virgin soybean oil. By switching in these two states alone almost 70 percent of their diesel consumption is biodiesel; Co2 output is reduced by 23 metric tons per year.
In addition, Safeway opened their first solar powered grocery store in September; the first of 23 such stores. The companies 295 fuel stations have been powered by wind energy since 2005; making Safeway the largest purchaser of green energy in California.
And if that wasn’t enough, Safeway stores recycle much of their waste diverting over 85 percent of their solid waste away from landfills. That’s over half a million tons of recyclables in 2006 alone. It would be interesting to see how other grocery stores stack up.
Popularity: 7% [?]
According to this article in the Martinsville Bulletin, a local convenience store chain owner has taken on some rather serious problems head on. He is contracting with local farmers who formerly grew tobacco to instead plant canola that he will then process himself into biodiesel to sell at the diesel pumps at his stores. By doing so he is providing a profitable use for empty fields, improving the environment and reducing our dependence on foreign fuels.
Price and his partners started Red Birch Energy to produce biodiesel about a year ago. He said several factors got him interested in the project, not the least of which is America’s dependence on foreign oil.
With foreign oil, 70 cents of every dollar goes to countries the United States is in conflict with, Price said. In fact, the American consumer pays for such conflicts twice, both in military spending and in the higher fuel prices they cause.
But for every dollar spent on local biodiesel, he said, 90 cents will stay in the area, and the rest will go to taxes.
Price also said biodiesel is better for the environment, which is attractive to him because he has children, and “we want to leave this place better than we found it.”
Price will also get a federal tax credit of $1.00 a gallon on the B20 (20% bio) he will produce off of the locally grown canola plants. Production is expected to be 1,000 gallons a day to start with. In the early stages, until the canola crop comes in, the biodiesel will be produced from waste oil from local restaurants.
Canola is a plant created through plant breeding from rapeseed, which had been used as a fuel source in lamps and as a cooking oil for hundreds of years. During World War II it was used as a lubricant on ships causing Canada to expand its production. After the war Canadian’s worked toward making the plant healthier and more useful. The result of selective breeding was called Canola, from CANadian Low Acid.
In an age where every company seems to be in a rush to subcontract, import and offshore everything until nobody knows where anything was made or who by, it is refreshing to see someone take the initiative and not wait around for someone else to do it.
Popularity: 5% [?]