Home grown fuel:

Biodiesel could become methadone for the U.S. economy
Special to the Vermont Guardian
By: Andrew Wolf
Date: July 1, 2005

America’s energy economy is destined for a revolution. As U.S. energy consumption increases exponentially, many sectors of our current energy system are being called unhealthy and unsustainable. What will happen when oil-based fuels are no longer available in the massive quantities that our economy has grown to require is anyone’s guess.
Enter biodiesel, which Pres. Bush has called “one of the nation’s most promising alternative fuels.” Promising, and developing quickly: As petroleum diesel prices rise, biodiesel is becoming more and more economically viable for producers and consumers alike.

Agricultural investors are excited about the attention it is getting, inspiring chemists and engineers to focus on ways to better extract and use the animal and vegetable oils on which biodiesel is based, and trying to find value-adding production purposes for its byproduct, glycerin. According to the National Biodiesel Board, new large-scale production facilities will be opening soon all over the United States, doubling the size of the industry through 2006.

A U.S. Dept. of Agriculture study predicts biodiesel demand will increase at least 124 million gallons per year, but depending on a number of other factors, including crude oil prices, the demand could be much higher during the next several years. Production statistics reveal the industry to have grown from 500,000 gallons of certified production in 1999 to 30 million gallons in 2004, lagging far behind demand.

At a June 8 conference hosted by members of the Vermont Biodiesel Project at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, producers, distributors and consumers of biodiesel gathered to discuss its role in Vermont’s future. Distributors agreed that fuel prices are up to stay, and that using U.S.-made biodiesel is a good steppingstone on which to begin building a stable and sustainable energy future. They are becoming more interested in stocking it due to the ongoing implications of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which created environmentally beneficial organizations like Clean Cities to help fledgling movements like biodiesel to raise awareness and demand for renewable fuel resources. Distributors also are well aware of a special two-year tax break that began Jan. 1, which allows distributors to pass along to consumers a one cent saving for every percent of biodiesel contained in a fuel mix. For a 20 percent biodiesel blend (B20), that’s a 20 cent saving per gallon.

Currently, biodiesel costs about $1 more per gallon to produce than petroleum diesel. This tax break brings current (non-producing) consumer biodiesel costs to levels competitive with petroleum diesel for the first time in history.

Emergence of an alternative

At the grass-roots level, people have been “harvesting” used frying oil from restaurants to use as fuel for years. “Grease cars” have been around since the 1970s, and the idea is nothing new. According to Greg Pahl’s book Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, (Chelsea Green 2005) Rudolf Diesel’s engine was designed to be rugged and able to run on any fuel. In fact, Diesel recognized petroleum as an exhaustible resource, and endorsed the use of vegetable and animal oils as fuels for his engine.

During a speech in St. Louis in 1912, Diesel said, “The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today, but such oils may become, in the course of time, as important as the petroleum and coal-tar products of the present time. … Motive power can still be produced from the heat of the sun, always available, even when the natural stores of solid and liquid fuels are completely exhausted.”

Many farmers have been hip to the benefits of producing their own methyl esters (fatty acids produced by oxidation) for years, and are very excited about the recent boom in the industry. Grease car owners can relate: Burning homemade fuel can bring with it the freeing power of self-sufficiency. Fleet operators, on the other hand, cannot so freely accept fuel from just any laboratory. They need to carefully maintain their vehicles, and adhere to the warranty guidelines issued by the engine manufacturers. In 2001, the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) approved pure biodiesel (B100) for blending with petroleum diesel in ratios of up to 20 percent (B20), precipitating engine manufacturers’ warranties covering the use of biodiesel in blends of up to B20 and making it a reasonable choice for fleet and transit operators.

B20 and B100 are available at two BQ9000 certified retail pump locations in Vermont: Boise Citgo at the junction of routes 22A and 125 in Bridport, and Fleming Food Mart Shell Station on Canal Street in Brattleboro. BQ9000 is a biodiesel quality assurance program for all mass-produced fuel, guaranteeing the fuel meets ASTM standards from seed to tailpipe. Most of this mass-produced fuel comes from Midwestern soy-growing states.

Assessing the benefits

In Vermont, biodiesel is generally produced in small batches from used fryer oil. John Hurly, who produces biodiesel at Dog River Alternative Fuels Company LLC in Berlin, estimates 1.5 million gallons of used fryer oil is available annually to Vermonters. Although most of it gets shipped out of state to be processed in animal feed, more and more Vermonters are gathering this resource to be converted for personal interests.

Green Technologies, a Winooski-based conversion facility that is slated to begin production in July, hopes to produce close to 100 gallons per day from used fryer oil for off-road use. As a zero-waste facility, Green Tech will use the glycerin generated as a byproduct during production to make snowboard wax and paint.

The usual ingredients used to form the combustible methyl esters are vegetable or animal oil, methanol, and lye. Because of its relatively non-caustic makeup and high flash point, the mixture is the safest of all liquid fuels to handle and store. Despite its gentle demure, B100 is renowned as a solvent of industrial quality with the ability to erode rubber gaskets in engines made before 1994. Its solvent qualities have also been known to free up the sludge built up on the bottom of the fuel tanks and gas lines of older vehicles that may clog their filters.

According to John Van De Vaarst, who is responsible for field and facility management at the USDA Agricultural Experiment Station and resource center in Beltsville, MD, after a few filter changes and possibly some new gaskets, new users will swear by biodiesel’s supreme lubricity while enjoying longer engine life, fewer oil and fuel filter changes overall, less noxious odor, and even less engine noise.

Van De Vaarst has been using B20 in the entire fleet of 150 diesel on-and off-road vehicles under his charge, as well as the station’s heating system, since 1999. During a workshop at the Vermont Biodiesel Project conference, Van De Vaarst cited benefits of pollution reduction and support for the U.S. domestic economy as top reasons for choosing the fuel.

“Trust me, I work for the government,” he said. “[Biodiesel] is not a proven alternative fuel, it’s a proven American fuel. … Every gallon of biodiesel we use here takes away one gallon of foreign oil. It relates to homeland security, it relates to our national defense, and it works to help the economy of the American farmer.”

Using a 20 percent biodiesel blend causes diesel engines to emit 20 percent less total unburned hydrocarbons and sulfates, as well as 12-18 percent reductions in CO, CO2 and particulate matter. Using B20 increases emissions of nitrous oxides by 2 percent.

School busses are especially good candidates for biodiesel because of the decrease in harmful emissions, and because of the decrease in maintenance costs due to its lubricious composition.

An additional perk is a short half life, meaning that accidental spills take only four weeks to decompose completely (four times faster than petrodiesel). In fact, the School of Ocean Science in Wales showed pure veggie oil “to have considerable capacity to dissolve crude oil.” University of Texas researchers found a commercial biosolvent based on biodiesel to be effective in coagulating and floating crude oils spills for cleanup.

Building capacity, understanding limits

In Europe, where diesel cars are more common and petroleum prices are through the roof, 1.4 billion tons (around 390 billion gallons) of biodiesel are produced annually, accounting for around 10 percent of their total diesel consumption. Since the European Union adopted the Kyoto agreement, reducing greenhouse gas emissions has been high on their priority list.

The EU directive on fuel quality, along with other voluntary agreements, has resulted in advances in diesel engine technology that have improved fuel efficiency and reduced emissions.

One of the ways the EU is finding enough feedstock is through the Common Agricultural Policy of 1992, which established a set-aside program in which 10 percent of all arable land is to be used for non-food crops for industrial purposes. Immediately after that was adopted, the European biodiesel industry began to grow dramatically, and biodiesel plants began to sprout up all over Europe.

Western Europe currently has the capacity to produce 627 million gallons annually. Germany has the most biodiesel plants, boasting a total capacity of 1 million metric tons, and France is second with the capacity to produce 502,000 tons annually.

Developing a base

Many consumers are reluctant to try biodiesel in their homes or cars because of rumors about the liquid gelling in cold weather, which can happen to purer blends if not kept properly heated. B100 has to be shipped in expensive, steam-heated rail cars. But according to BQ9000 standards, blends up to B30 require the same management techniques as petroleum diesel.

Sugarbush Resort in Warren ran all of their trail-groomers and maintenance vehicles on B20 last winter with no gelling problems, and the Vermont Agency of Transportation has been using B20 in all of its diesel engines, including snowplows and construction vehicles, for the past year with no troubles as well.

The necessary infrastructure to store and distribute the fuel is already in place everywhere that currently uses petroleum diesel, and the current two year tax break is bringing investors to the scene quickly.

“There’s no way we’d be moving ahead with biodiesel in this way without the tax break,” said Chris Keyser of Proctor Oil Co., which supplies most of Rutland County’s heating oil. “That’s the only thing making it competitive right now.”

Keyser said he is open to supplying biodiesel, as are most distributors, but finds that the two or five cents per gallon difference is often enough to make up consumers minds in favor of petroleum diesel fuel. The demand for biodiesel is so low in his customers that he doesn’t stock biodiesel at all. But, “I would if the demand was there,” he said.

Getting to know biodiesel

• Chemically defined as mono alkyl esters, biodiesel can be made fairly easily and quickly from the oil of many plants and animals.
• Some of the oil-producing crops (feedstock) that can be used to make biodiesel include: oil palm, jatropha (a tropical, nut-bearing bush), canola, peanuts, sunflowers, safflowers, mustard, soybeans, corn, algae, used cooking oils (non-hydrogenated works best) and animal fats (easily obtained as byproduct from meat-packing facilities).
• The United Soybean Board, investment developers for the American Soybean Association, have been funding biodiesel research since 1991, using money raised from farmers through a program called the Soybean Check-off. The USB has been instrumental in organizing the National Biodiesel Board, which has been largely responsible for the lobbying and research necessary to bring this infant industry from do-it-yourself, small-batch production to national acceptability and availability.
• Soy, which yields about 3.2 units more energy than is used to produce it, is the main feedstock for large-scale biodiesel production in the U.S.
• It takes the oil from about 1.5 bushels of soybeans to make one gallon of pure biodiesel (B100). Using Department of Energy data from 2002, it would take approximately 525 million bushels of soybeans to supply every tractor and truck in the United States with B2 for a year. Compared with the 2002 national soybean crop of more than 2.5 billion bushels, it would take more than 20 percent of the nation’s soybean crop to provide 2 percent of the fuel currently consumed by diesel engines in the United States.

Biodiesel taking off in N.D. ag
By MARVIN BAKER, Staff Writer
Minot Daily News

DEVILS LAKE _ Emil Gregory has always been a big promoter of agriculture. Three years after his business started selling an experimental fuel, he is finding that the demand continues to grow at a rapid pace.
Gregory, manager of Cenex in Devils Lake, has seen phenomenal growth of biodiesel in northeastern North Dakota. Last year Devils Lake Cenex sold and distributed 100,000 gallons of the alternative fuel designed for farmers that has crossed into the trucking industry.

Biodiesel has been sold mostly in bulk, but is now sold to individual motorists on the west side of Devils Lake.
Gregory is hoping to double the sales out of his location this year to 200,000 gallons. That's far ahead of the per capita national pace of biodiesel sales, which has already jumped 15 percent since 2004.

The increased demand for biodiesel will be recognized Friday during National Biodiesel Day. Friday also marks the birthday of inventor Rudolph Diesel.

"The first couple of years it was just for farmers," Gregory said. "This past year I put it in the pumps and was surprised by how many truckers use it."

Locally, Cenex hasn't sold much in 2005. Gregory explained that biodiesel doesn't mix very well when it is cold, but he anticipates robust growth when the weather warms enough for spring planting to get started.

"It stays separated until it gets warm (above 40 degrees)," Gregory said. "We have to look down the road on how to use it in the cold. You can get an additive, but then that adds an expense."

Gregory said farmers in northeastern North Dakota are optimistic about using biodiesel, even though it is currently more expensive than traditional diesel fuel. He would like to see the price come into check like ethanol is with traditional gasoline.

"I think we'll sell a lot of it this year," Gregory said. "We promote agriculture. We're behind the farmers. We want a better price for them."

In addition to biodiesel, Devils Lake Cenex, like all other Cenex stations, sells a 10 percent ethanol blend of gasoline. But unlike most others, Gregory's station is selling E85, a motor fuel made up of 85 percent alcohol and 15 percent gasoline.

He believes E85 has a bright future, too, as consumers become more interested in the environment. He said ethanol sales lessen dependence on foreign oil and increase the use of corn, and biodiesel lessens that dependence by increasing the use of soybean oil.

"Every gallon sold means we don't have to get it someplace else," Gregory said. "Biodiesel is an excellent fuel and it will come into its own when sulfur is phased out of diesel. This is ideal. Your motor runs cooler."

Environmental Protection Agency guidelines call for the reduction and elimination of the use of sulfur in diesel, which is a lubricating agent in the traditional fuel.

In fact, Gregory said the standard biodiesel blend is 5 percent soybean oil with 95 percent fuel. He would ideally like to see a 20-percent target. At that percentage the results become obvious and he added with a laugh, that your tractor will smell like a french fry going down the field.

According to Gregory, it takes time for customers to accept a new product, especially one that is more expensive. In addition, he was hoping the Legislature would have created some incentives to recognize this rapidly growing industry and promote the alternative fuel to consumers.

"Yes, bio is higher per gallon, but at the rate diesel is going, it might catch up," Gregory said. "We're crossing our fingers with more incentives. North Dakota is a little behind the other states, but we'll keep trying."

The United States is a relative newcomer to the biodiesel industry, contributing only 500 of the 3,000 metric tons produced globally in 2003, according to Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, a book written by Greg Pahl.

"With the price of oil once again topping $50 a barrel, biodiesel offers an increasingly appealing alternative," Pahl writes in the book. "And smart consumers are asking questions."

The book is published by Chelsea Green Publishing in White River Junction, Vt. More information about Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy, may be found on the Internet at (www.chelseagreen.com).

Madagascar to Provide Biodiesel Production Boost
from RenewableEnergyAccess.com
Date: January 25, 2005

Antananarivo, Madagascar While U.S. biodiesel is typically made from soybeans, there are other options, particularly in other countries and climates. D1 Oils plc, the UK based producer of biodiesel, announced it is expanding in Madagascar where it will harvest some of the county's ample Jatropha plantations for biodiesel production.

The company has identified approximately 17,000 hectares of existing Jatropha plantations and has made arrangements to access the output from the plantations. The arrangements have been made in collaboration with business-to-business aid agency BAMEX (Business and Market Expansion) of Madagascar. The trees are currently being used as supports for growing vanilla and are already yielding seeds. The arrangement will also provide additional income for the local vanilla farmers in the area.

The first crop of Jatropha oil bearing seeds is expected to be available from mid 2005 and harvesting is planned to begin at that time. The company directors believe that seed yields will be consistent with the age of the trees being harvested.

The area under cultivation in Madagascar is additional to the 37,000 hectares of plantations in Africa, India and The Philippines as outlined by D1 Oils in its Prospectus at the time of flotation in October 2004. It is also in addition to approximately 6,000,000 hectares of land available to the Company under option to contract.

The expansion further advances the company's objective to become the world's leading low cost producer of biodiesel and feedstock for biodiesel. With this new partnership, the company expects to increase their overall cultivation capacity by nearly 50 percent.

"The number of new opportunities D1 Oils is engaged in reflects our increasing global profile," Philip Wood, Chief Executive of D1 Oils said. "The plantations in Madagascar are already yielding seeds which materially reduce the working capital we would otherwise need to develop this source of supply."

Biodiesel: In-your-face to OPEC
Corvallis Gazette Times
Date: January 24, 2005

Consumers who begrudge paying Middle East oil interests for diesel oil and heating oil have a clean, safe and domestic alternative in biodiesel. It doesn't involve drilling. It's actually better for engines, and it works in any engine that uses diesel fuel. It burns cleanly, and it is produced from crops grown in the fields of our Midwest.

People such as Marc Barnes, who uses biodiesel exclusively in his Philomath business, are concerned that the slowness with which biodiesel is gaining public acceptance might be rooted in the idea that switching to biodiesel would be tantamount to supporting some sort of liberal agenda. However, its supporters include a certain former Texas oilman who recently was sworn into his second term in office.

President Bush signed into law a bill that includes a two-year tax incentive on B20 biodiesel — a mixture that is only one-fifth biodiesel and four-fifths diesel.

It would be even better if more people bought — and at least a few more sold — the B100 form of biodiesel, which is made primarily from soybeans or canola and palm oil. However, to get this stuff now, you have to drive to Portland and Eugene.

Those who sell fuel are concerned that if they dedicate a pump to it, they will lose money on regular diesel sales. Some people may be put off by the name, thinking it is some sort of leftist-supported plot to undermine the economy.
Nothing could be further from the truth. More than its benefit as a "green" product, the best part of biodiesel is that its use instantly makes its user energy independent from OPEC.

True, it is expensive. Prices fluctuate from $2.80 to $3.50 a gallon. But that is partly because it is rare. The price would drop with increased demand and more production. Mileage is comparable to regular diesel, varying by engine type. It actually is better for your engine, as it is cleaner and has more lubrication.

Consumer demand could drastically change the fortunes of what is a very promising alternative energy source that, among its obvious features, has the added benefit of boosting the American economy because it is manufactured in the United States from renewable resources.

Nations that switch to alternatives such as biodiesel before the world finally pumps the last gallon of primordial ooze out of the planet are going to find the transition a lot easier.