BioDiesel for all

Weekend Project: Making Biodiesel

2010-04-18T00:43:00.000-07:00

makemagazine — Make your own backyard biodiesel. It's easy to make a small batch that will work in any diesel engine. You won't...

This is a very simple DIY (do it yourself) biodiesel instructions...

Biodiesel Production Waste - Everything You Need to Know

2009-06-24T21:11:00.000-07:00

Since fuel has become a part of everybody's lives, there is no way we can do without. Biodiesel is now the in thing when it comes to biofuel or alternative sources of energy. But then, the biodiesel production waste created in the manufacturing of biodiesel is becoming an issue for environment-concerned groups. This biodiesel waste contains mainly glycerol and methanol which are made up of carbons.

Just recently, it was explained that certain bioreactors which are needed for mine water treatment for the sulfate-reducing bacteria they contain. These sulfate-reducing bacteria feed on certain carbons, particularly glycerol. Thus, a theory sprung that it may be possible to utilize the biodiesel glycerol byproduct to feed the sulfate-reducing bacteria in order to reduce the sulfate found in mining waste. If this is possible, not only is the liquid from mining drainages treated but biodiesel waste will also be consumed. Both of these wastes will therefore be reduced and consequently, the environment will have less pollution.

So, a project was carried out to prove the theory. A number of laboratory columns containing sulfate were fed with reagent-grade glycerol while the rest of the laboratory columns were fed with the glycerol from biodiesel waste. The goal was to reduce fifty percent of the sulfate in the columns. The project proved a success since the glycerol from biodiesel waste reduced fifty five percent of the sulfate while the reagent-grade glycerol reduced fifty percent. This proved that the glycerol from biodiesel production waste was more effective. Aside from this, the biodiesel glycerol byproduct is cost-efficient since it is technically waste material and hardly costs anything at all. Other tests show that biodiesel waste is also capable of reducing concentrations of acetic, formic, lactic, and propionic acids and the organic carbon found in the biodiesel waste was even converted to carbon dioxide.

Biodiesel production waste may be rubbish but it serves as a wonderful component of decreasing one of the largest sources of pollution.

For more FREE information on biodiesel production, please visit our blog at http://www.BiodieselCorner.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=May_Stewart

The Chemistry of a Biodiesel Titration With Utah Biodiesel

2009-06-21T21:10:00.000-07:00

We're now going to talk about doing a titration. When you collect waste vegetable oil from a restaurant or from anywhere that they use the oil, the oil is typically going to be well used, it's going to be somewhat acidic, and it'll be important to find out how acidic it is so that we can neutralize that acid with excess lye.

We're going to talk about how we do it here on the board.

First of all we need to make a known amount of base. In theory what we're doing is we have an unknown amount of acid, and we can make a known amount of base. We're then going to take a sample of oil, we're going to add a pH indicator into it, and the one that we choose to use is called phenolphalene. It's very popular and the industry views it as the most scientific one. You can actually use phenol red, or tumeric, or pH strips, but the one I like to use is this phenol phaylene.

So I'm just going to label it phenol because it's a really long word, and if you want to know what it is look up on my site and I'll show you spell it. So, phenol is our pH indicator. Kay so basically what we're going to do is take some oil, we're going to add it to some alcohol, and the alcohol is neutral, so the alcohol is just going to be a solvent to put that we can put it in so that we can dilute it. So we've got an oil, alcohol and we're going to put a few drops of our pH indicator in there, and then we're going to add known amounts of our base solution in there. We're going to do that in milliliters at a time. What we're doing, what we're watching for is this pH indicator to change, or indicate a pH higher than about 8.5.

So what we're going to do is, as we add known amounts of the base, our goal is to figure out how much base solution it's going to take to neutralize that acid. You remember on a pH scale you've got zero to about fifteen, lower is acid higher is base. We're going to add known amounts of base to an acid until our pH indicator indicates that we've neutralized that acid. That known amount that we get is, I don't know, let's say about four milliliters. We're than going to plug into a formula to tell us how much lye we're going to use per liter of oil. If you remember from before, our formula for making biodiesel was O (oil) + 20% (methanol) + 7.5 g C (calalyst) if we're using potassium hydroxide.

If it's sodium hydroxide it was 5.5. Well, for a titration we're going to have something called our base, in other words, our starting amount. That starting is always 7.5 if we're using potassium hydroxide. So I know it's going to use 7.5 grams per liter of potassium hydroxide to react brand new oil with 20% methanol into biodiesel, which is what we do when we make a small batch. For titration, I'm going to add a known amount of this base solution until I get it to neutralize, and I measure that, then I add that amount to this base figure. So let's say that we got 5, so that would equal 12.5 (7.5 + 5 = 12.5) grams per liter. That means that I'm going to add an additional 5 grams of potassium hydroxide to neutralize the acid in that oil, so that I have enough lye left over, or potassium hydroxide to make biodiesel with, and that's all we're doing when we do a titration.

Now, to build our known amount of base we're going to make a .1 percent solution of KOH and distilled water. So we're going to add one gram of KOH to one liter of water, and this makes a .1 percent solution, and it's what we use to titrate with, or to add to our acid. This is our known amount. So with that, let's go ahead and we'll make our solution, and we'll do a titration.

The Bullydog Diesel Products & Diablosport Diesel Performance Parts are both fully compatible with biodiesel- Nathan Young

Homemade Biodiesel Kits Are Used by First Timers to Make Biodiesel Fue

2009-04-18T07:11:00.000-07:00

The cost of fuel has gone up again that people are thinking of alternative ways to save up on other things just so they can still continue to make use of their vehicles. Actually, there is a better way by which we can save up on fuel without having to let go of other necessities or luxuries that we have in our life. Sometimes we need all this to keep us going. When you take away one or two, you may take away your only source of happiness. So think twice before cutting off hobbies or things that you are already accustomed to.

One thing by which we can save gas is if we make it ourselves. It is possible since homemade biodiesel kits are available for consumers to buy them. There are instructions online and there are even step-by-step videos on how to make biodiesel fuel. These are especially useful for people who prefer to see it than reading about it. The great thing about seeing how it is made is you can actually see the equipments that are being used. So you can always pattern your equipment with what is being shown.

Since you will be doing it yourself, there are a couple of things you have to watch out for. You have to watch out for methanol and lye because it is dangerous. Aside from that, since you will be making use of heat and vegetable oils, fire is always a possibility. First time makers of biodiesel fuel should be extra careful when proceeding and like any other endeavor it takes practice to perfect it.

BioDiesel Conversion - Starting a Biodiesel Business

2009-02-05T05:23:00.001-08:00

BioDiesel conversion can be a very profitable business for young entrepreneurs looking to start a new business or for seasoned entrepreneurs looking to add a new resource to their empire. In the U.S., there are over 30,000,000 gallons of waste vegetable oil that restaurants and fast food joints dispose of annually. Most pay to have their oil disposed of!

A few entrepreneurs that I know have made a lot of profit simply by charging the restaurants to collect their waste oil. They in turn, convert the oil to biodiesel after they charge the business to get the oil. Once they successfully convert the oil, they are able to receive both state and federal tax incentives for producing alternate fuel sources. The federal government pays up to $1.50 per gallon and the state incentives vary from one state to the next.

After this is done, they sell their biodiesel to both individuals and businesses generating another $1-$1.85 per gallon profit. They are producing 2.3 million gallons annually so after all of the overhead involved, they are successfully making $4-5 million in profit every year!

How does one get started in the business? The first step is to find a good commercial biodiesel processor. There are many of these on the market, however, you would want one that includes warranties and instructions to make your first batch of biodiesel.

Business startup costs and facts:

You can get a great commercial biodiesel processor that has an annual capacity of 2.3 million gallons for less than $50,000!
If you intend to collect your own oil, you will need a good truck to haul the oil in. You can get one of these for very little as well if you go to an auction or even check ebay.
Your raw materials needed for the conversion can be purchased cheap as well, however, you will need to buy the chemicals in bulk. This is also rather easy, simply contact the manufacturer and if they won't sell the products to you direct, they will refer you to a distributor who will. You will need both methanol and NaOH or KOH.
You will need a building or structure of sorts to setup the equipment in. Keep in mind that the methanol and NaOH mixture (methoxide) releases a very harmful vapor. It is best to have the area well ventilated. A lot of entrepreneurs set their equipment up in a container trailer to start with. This provides a stable shelter without costing a lot of money and gives the owner a lot of flexibility for moving the business in the future. Is this method recommended? For just a little more, you can purchase a metal building that provides more room and durability for your business. It also provides you the extra room if you decide to expand.
What about the tax incentives that biofuel producers get? Though it is commonly known that the government gives large tax incentives to alternative fuel manufacturers, the process to get approved can be strenuous. You must file paperwork with EPA to get approved as a clean producer. It isn't hard to be approved by the EPA if you dry wash the biodiesel. This essentially means that you have no waste water! Whenever you dry wash a batch of biodiesel, you are using a chemical (purolite) to wash the impurities out. This also allows for production of ASTM standard biodiesel.
It is recommended to purchase additional storage tanks. You can purchase a good tank with a 15,000 gallon capacity for your biodiesel for about $15,000. It is probably a good idea to get a storage tank for your fuel.
Who can you sell the biodiesel to? Check with local gas stations to start with. I recently read about this gentleman who started his business in September 2008. He has already exceeded $1,000,000 in sales in less than 4 months, not including the tax incentives! He talked with a few local trucking businesses and was able to offer the fuel to the trucking companies that save the truckers thousands of dollars weekly. The trucking companies were able to offer more competitive rates to their customers which in turn got them more business. The more business they picked up, the more fuel my client was able to sell. He actually just purchased his second commercial processing kit to keep up with his customer's needs!
BioDiesel is the way of the future. It is a natural resource, burns much cleaner than petroleum based fuel, can be produced for much less, and breaks our dependency of the very pricey crude oil.

If you are looking for a commercial biodiesel processor or just home biodiesel conversion kit, visit http://www.greenfuelconversion.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Scott_Daugherty

Why Manufactures are Supporting the Use of Biodiesel in Their Cars

2008-11-23T05:28:00.007-08:00

Bio diesel is a fuel that can be used in diesel engine vehicles. The fuel is extracted from biological sources. Bio diesel is non toxic and so they are safer than diesel and petrol. Pure bio diesel fuel is available in some gas stations in Germany. And some manufactures are supporting the use of bio diesel in their car. Yet there are many manufacturers who do not accept bio diesel as fuel. They encourage mixing 30 % bio diesel to ordinary diesel that can be used to run the car.

Bio diesel can be produced from algae, vegetable oils; animal fats etc and it can be manufactured locally in any country. You can use pure bio diesel or use it along with petrol or diesel to run the vehicles. It is proved that bio diesel reduces engine's wear and tear. It is mostly used in European countries.

We all know about global warming and the nNumber of natural calamities that are said to occur due to global warming, as global warming is increasing due to pollution. Well, bio diesel can control air pollution. The petrol and diesel are the main fuels used all over the world. They produce harmful gases like carbon di oxide, sulphur di oxide and nitrous oxide. All these gases pollute the atmosphere. There is only one alternative to this problem. The bio diesel is a natural and clean burning fuel that does not pollute the air.

Bio diesel is generally prepared with vegetable oils and animal fats. The vegetable oil varies from country to country. USA uses Soya bean oil, France uses sunflower oil and Malaysia uses palm oil to produce bio diesel. In India we use both edible and non edible oils like neem oil, castor oil, rice bran oil etc. they are cheap and effective.

Bio diesel is non toxic and bio degradable. It reduces the serious air pollutants caused by petrol and ordinary diesel. They reduce the risk of cancer and birth defects. Jatropha curcas is an oil plant that can be used to produce bio diesel. Although there are many oil plants that can e used to produce bio diesel Jatropha curcas proved more effective. This is because the plant can grow fast and it survives in draught season. You can use the seed for extracting fuel and the remaining parts like leaf, barks etc for industrial and pharmaceutical purposes.

You can use bio diesel to run your vehicle without modifying the vehicle. Bio diesel is an agriculture oriented fuel. As there is decrease in petroleum product the world can switch over to bio diesel. This will also help in leaving a clean earth to our children. Since bio diesel does not add any carbon it is environment friendly. In UK there are separate bio diesel stations where you can fill bio diesel in two ways. You can either use 5 % bio diesel with ordinary diesel or you can use pure bio diesel. . Normally the cost of bio diesel is less than the petroleum diesel. As it is prepared locally within the country you need not pay additional charges for taxes. If you are more conscious about environmental pollution you can then select bio diesel.

Biodiesel Fuel Helps Young Lady Win a Beauty Pageant!

2008-11-23T05:28:00.005-08:00

Yolanda started modeling at a young age. At first she started slow by modeling clothes for some local stores, and by posing in a couple calendars. But as she grew more beautiful into her late teens, she found herself an agent, and what once was a hobby turned into a career. Yola modeled in lingerie catalogs, was requested for many photo shoots, and even made appearances on television shows, including All My Children. Yola was just eighteen years old, but was making a lot of money and having a great time doing it!

Of course, she was also competing in a lot of beauty pagaents, and winning most of them. She looked stunning in swimsuits and nightgowns, and learned to play the piano for pagaents that required the girls to have a talent to go along with their beauty. There was no stopping her!

Then came Yola's big break - she was invited by Donald Trump to compete in the Miss Teen USA pagaent to be held at the Trump Center in Atlantic City! She would be representing her home state of New Jersey, so she knew she would have a lot of friends and of course her family there to support her. A good showing at this pageant would definitely get her noticed around the country and elevate her career to a new level!

The pageant was still over a month away when Yola received an information packet from Mr. Trump, detailing exactly how everything would take place. She was very exciting about dazzling the crowd and hopefully winning the pageant, when she read something in the packet that turned her excitement into fear. This year, in addition to the beauty and talent portion of the pageant, each contestant would be required to speak to the crowd for five minutes about something they are doing to help protect the environment and impove the planet. Yola had no idea what she could say, and she didn't have much time left to come up with something!

She immediately jumped on the Internet to see what she could find about helping the environment. She stumbled across the following website: http://www.GreenMachineNJ.com. Yolanda was impressed by what she read - it was about a company that invented a fuel made of cooking oil waste that could be used to power diesel engine vehicles, instead of traditional diesel gas. This was just what she needed to impress the judges!

The big day finally arrived. Yola had breezed through the beauty and talent portions of the pageant, drawing nearly perfect scores from the judges. She was selected as one of the final three girls, and then came the big question - "What are each of you doing to help improve the conditions on Earth?"

Yola spoke proudly of how she uses a new type of diesel fuel in her car and in her house that reduces oil storage tank waste and filter oil waste, thus keeping our air clean and free of pollutants. Her answer impressed the judges and won her first place!

Partnership Aims to Produce 1 Million Gallons of Biodiesel

2008-11-23T05:28:00.003-08:00

Following the recently released study by Emerging Markets Online about the major role that biodiesel will play in the future, two companies have formed a partnership to produce a million gallons of biodiesel in Washington State. Imperium Renewables, one of the largest producers of biodiesel has formed a partnership with Natural Selection Farms to produce biodiesel from canola oil which is produced by the agricultural farm. The deal saw the biggest purchase agreement for canola oil produced in the Washington State. The partnership also increased the involvement of the agricultural sector of the state with the increasing market of alternative fuels and biodiesel specifically.

The partnership comes hot on the heels of the release of the case study undertaken by Emerging Markets Online. The study revealed that the US has the fastest growing production and consumption rate of biodiesel. The collaboration between the Natural Selection Farms and the biodiesel producer is one of the reasons why the US market is set to overtake the European Union as the world’s leader in the production of such alternative fuel. As of today, there are seventy major plants that produce biodiesel including those owned by Imperium Renewables. The target 1 million gallons of biodiesel will help increase the number of retail sites which have now tripled from 2005’s numbers.

Imperium Renewables founder and president, John Plaza, stated that the partnership “demonstrates the incredible opportunity for our state’s agricultural industry to benefit from the increasing demand for biodiesel within the state as well as nationally”. He even further adds, “We’ve always said that we’d be the state’s biggest customer for Washington State produced canola oil, and today we are.” The biodiesel producer hopes that the partnership will start the establishment of a new market for the Washington State farmers and the state’s biodiesel consumers. The deal will increase the jobs available and revenues for the state and, at the same time, move the state towards energy independence.

The agricultural sector will greatly benefit from the deal since including canola on the crop base makes perfect sense. Canola can be used as a rotational crop with wheat. The effect of canola on wheat yield is very positive and this is reflected and shown on studies that found out that wheat yields increase when it follows a planting of canola. The plants can be harvested early, meaning that other short-season crops can be planted or the land can be used for livestock grazing which further fertilizes the ground. The plant also requires relatively small amount of water which means that maintaining the crops will not require taking water supply from other crops.

The result of the deal leads to more advances in the development of alternative fuels in the US. The exponential growth of the market for biodiesel is akin to a speeding car equipped with a high-powered diesel engine that will need a lot of stopping power from brake components from EBC Active Brakes Direct. Biodiesel after all has become the fuel of choice for a growing number of diesel engines that are more energy efficient, provides lots of power, and produces lesser emissions and noise. The alternative fuel can be produced from oils derived from farm crops such as canola and can be utilized by a conventional diesel engine. The fuel is clean burning which has a lower emission of carbon dioxide than petroleum-based diesel with a difference of up to 78 percent.

The biodiesel produced by Imperium Renewables can be used either in its pure form or in a blended form where it is mixed with petroleum diesel and meets the ASTM D-6751 specifications.

Biodiesels - Are They The Answer To Our Energy Woes

2008-11-23T05:28:00.001-08:00

Biodiesels may be touted as the answer to all of America's energy problems. But are they? Yes, according to most experts. Biodiesels offer:

-Cleaner air.

-Cheaper fuel.

-A renewable fuel source.

-A homegrown fuel alterative, freeing the United States from an over-dependence on foreign oil.

What Are Biodiesel Fuels?

Biodiesel is a fuel for cars, trucks and busses, made from fatty acid alkylesters found in vegetable and soybean oil, animal fats and even recycled restaurant grease. It is safe to handle, safe to store and safe to transport.

What Are Its Benefits.

Used in its pure form (100%), biodiesel is a cleaner burning fuel that not only emits fewer air pollutants itself, but helps reduce dangerous emissions of hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, sulfates, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, nitrated aromatic hydrocarbons and particulate matter, that enter the atmosphere by limiting the use of petroleum.

Scientists now believe that carbon dioxide alone may be one of the main contributing factors to greenhouse gasses linked to the growing concern over global warming. Using 100% biodiesel fuels could reduce these dangerous greenhouse gasses by a whopping 75%!

It's not just the environment that benefits from the use of biodiesels. Humans do to. Biodiesel fuels are better for our lungs and our hearts, by clearing the air we breathe. It even smells better to burn than diesel smoke. Some have compared it to French fries cooking.

Who Can Use Biodiesel Fuel?

Biodiesels are available in some degree to just about everybody. Today, most gasoline stations offer a mixture of 20% biodiesel and 80% petroleum. But more needs to be done to get 100% biodiesel fuels to the consumer. Contrary to popular myth, most vehicles built after 1994 are already equipped to handle biodiesel fuels with little or no modifications. Special pumps and fueling stations are not needed and it can be made rather quickly and easily.

The soybean industry has been advocating the use of biodiesel fuels for years, touting the importance of its positive effect on the environment as well as the nation's economy. Based on a recent survey conducted by the United States Department of Energy, there is currently enough foodstuffs available in the U.S. (consisting of available soybean oil, vegetable oils, and animal fats), to make 1.9 billion gallons of biodiesel. That's just 5% of all petroleum American's will use to run their cars, trucks, and city busses this year!

Cost too, is negligible. Soybean oil, the most popular and available ingredient for making biodiesel fuel, may be the most expensive. But at just 20 cents per pound, the cost of producing just 1 gallon of fuel with soybean oil would cost less than $1.50 a gallon. Using recycled fats and grease is even cheaper, costing less than $1.00 per gallon to produce.

The Downside of Using Biodiesel Fuel.

There are two downsides to using biodiesel fuels, however. Car manufacturers believe that the fuel may impact a vehicle's engine durability, requiring more maintenance than when using traditional petroleum products. Second, current biodiesels available don't seem to hold up in cold weather climates. More research is needed to make the fuel handle better in extreme low temperatures. But, all-in-all those are only minor setbacks in the quest for a cleaner, cheaper and more available fuel supply.

Air Powered Car: the Car of the Future

2008-11-03T07:21:00.003-08:00

The air powered car is set to arrive at the American soil. This is the latest news confirmed by Zero Pollution Motors, the official dealer of the car. They say that the car is expected to be available by 2010. Air powered cars are special cars that are equipped with a compression-based engine rather than the usual internal combustion engine. An estimated 10,000 units of this car are expected to be manufactured and sold to U.S. consumers every year.

Right now, the Air Car is a two-seater car that runs on a 75 horsepower engine. However, ZPM is looking to create a three-seat to a six seat car for added convenience. This car is expected to run at a top speed of 96 miles per hour with a maximum single journey mileage of 1000 miles.

The special engine that the car has processes the heat from the fuel and transforms it into air that can power up the car. The car is set to use conventional fuel to run. It can operate on regular petrol, biofuel, ethanol, gasoline, or diesel. But unlike regular cars, this one can cover anywhere from 800 to 1000 miles on just a tiny fill-up. The air powered car will hit the market with an estimate fuel capacity of 8 gallons.

Right now, the car is being produced in India. It is making waves in the market today because it consumes lesser fuel than a conventional car. And a lot of Americans are very interested to see the first few models of the car.

ZPM says that the car is set to be sold at only $17,800 a piece. For that small price, you can save big time on fuel and enjoy better mileage at the same time. The only downside of this car is that it looks small and can only carry a few passengers at a time.

Compared to the big sports car, air powered cars are not that fast. Therefore, these cars are only fit for everyday city driving, preferably for travel to and from the office. It is a nice compact car that can fit even in a small space. This is good news for some, who always encounter problems when parking.

The air powered car is expected to rouse the curiosity of the frugal population. With the rising costs of fuel, people are now looking for countless of ways to save. Carpools are starting to be popular again. People are beginning to plan their journeys better so that they don’t have to waste any more gas than they have to.

The entry of the air powered car in the car industry can be considered a technological revolution. This simple invention allows people not to be too dependent on expensive fuel and maximize its use even. It is a welcoming addition to the improving car choices of consumers.

Hopefully, this car would stay around for such a long time. And optimistically, the technology is truly fool-proof, just like what its manufacturers are saying. The anticipation for this car builds every minute. The locals are counting the days that it would become available from their local dealer.

Explaining the Difference between Carbon Offsets and Renewable Energy Credits

2008-11-03T07:21:00.001-08:00

You think you understand renewable energy credits. You're sure you understand Carbon Offsets. You are fuzzy on the details about how they differ and when the purchase of one or the other might be appropriate. Never fear! This article explains the key differences, and similarities, between the two.

The first difference is the way that offsets and Renewable Energy Credits (RECs) are measured. Carbon offsets are measured in metric tons of C02 or C02 Equivalent. Renewable Energy Credits are measured in kilowatt hours, which are a standard electricity measurement metric. A kilowatt hour is the amount of work that can be performed by one kilowatt of energy in one hour.

Picture a lonely, dim lightbulb hanging from the ceiling that turns on for one hour each day by which you feverishly darn socks in a carbon constrained world; that's a watt, and for the privilege of its use, you'll be charged for 1/1000 kwh of electricity each day. These days, you probably use a several kwh per day.

The second difference between carbon offsets and renewable energy credits is that renewable energy credits only come from renewable energy projects (solar, wind geothermal, biofuels, etc.) while carbon offsets can come from all different kinds of projects, including renewable energy generation, that reduce the level of greenhouse gases that are entering the atmosphere.

To put it another way, RECs are primarily concerned with promoting the generation of clean energy, while carbon offsets are primarily concerned with preventing the emissions that enter the atmosphere.

They are both systems that have developed to deal with global warming systematically, but they have different approaches. RECs are forward looking, focused on building a clean energy economy and providing an extra incentive for the creation of renewable energy, while carbon offsets are oriented in the present, dealing with preventing greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere right now.

Because of these different measurement systems and the different foci of the two programs, RECs and carbon offsets have different precision rates when it comes to carbon. Carbon offsets are all about exactitude, and many of the discussions about the efficacy of offsets center around the degree of certainty a buyer has that the exact amount of carbon s/he has paid for is actually being prevented or captured. RECs, on the other hand, are measured in kilowatt hours, and the carbon content of that 'saved' kwh differs depending on the location of the project and the quality of the local electricity.

The dirtier the local electricity, the more carbon an REC 'saves.' Different utilities around the country use different mixes of energy sources, from coal to natural gas to renewables, to create electricity. These sources vary widely in their carbon content. To make matters even more confusing, a utility might even change the mix it uses depending on the time of day- when peak load sets in they might have to rely on dirtier power sources than they would otherwise.

So, it's impossible to say exactly how much carbon a clean kwh of renewable energy 'offsets.' The closest we can get is to use the 'emissions factor' for energy from the local utility, which is the average emissions for the mix of sources that the utility uses to create power, and multiply it by the number of kilowatt hours to produce an estimate of the carbon saved per kilowatt. But it will always be an estimate.

This is not to say that RECs are no good. They are an extremely effective way to promote clean energy because they give the providers and extra incentive to keep creating clean energy and we need all the incentives we can get to move toward a clean energy economy. RECs just aren't the most accurate way to offset carbon. I highly recommend using RECs to offset electricity use, because your electric bills will have a record of the exact number of kwh you used, and you can buy RECs to account for all the dirty emissions your plugged-in Macbook caused. Then, you can buy carbon offsets to cover all your driving and flying.

'But what about renewable carbon offsets?', you say. 'Those seem like the best of both worlds!' I'm getting there. Those are good to, and if you really value the promotion of clean energy despite some of the accuracy issues, you can buy renewable energy offsets. Many times offsets will actually come from the exact same projects as the RECs, but the nice thing about buying the offset version instead of buying RECs and doing the calculations yourself is that someone else, hopefully a third party verifier, is determining how much carbon each kwh of clean energy replaced. So you don't have to! Rest easy, and lay off the carbon guilt.

International Views on Biofuels

2008-11-02T01:14:00.001-07:00

I am just back from spending a week with 250 agricultural journalists from all over the world. The International Federation of Agricultural Journalists congress is an annual event that meets each year in a different country. This year we visited Austria and Slovenia - next year the congress will come to the United States and we will entertain the group in Fort Worth, Texas. It is always interesting to get perspectives on agriculture from other countries. Biofuels production was a big topic of discussion and many people that I talked to were very interested in the progress being made in the US toward cellulosic ethanol. We visited a wood biomass plant in Austria, but their focus is using that for energy production, rather than liquid biofuels. Of course, food versus fuel was a topic of discussion. The organizer and president of this year’s congress was former European Union agriculture commissioner Franz Fischler, who is a native Austrian. He calls the food versus fuel controversy “unfair.” “They don’t differentiate between food price and agriculture price and the agriculture price is usually only a small component of the final food product,” Fischler told me during an interview about biofuels production in Austria. Fischler says that second generation biofuels will be key in meeting long term renewable fuels goals for all countries, but it has to start with first generation ethanol from corn. “That’s why we have to start now,” he added. Austria has ten biodiesel plants but so far only one ethanol plant. “It seems to me that biodiesel is the most difficult concept as far as sustainability is concerned,” Fischler said, mainly because soybeans and other oilseeds are less economical to grow in that region, compared to corn.

Can Bio Diesel Be Used In Conventional Diesel Engine Vehicles?

2008-11-02T01:13:00.003-07:00

Many vehicles run on diesel fuel, but with the growing push toward environmentally safer fuels for vehicles, do diesel vehicle owners have any alternative other than diesel fuel? Yes they do. It is called biodiesel and it is making a big splash in the fuel industry.

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression ignition diesel engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Biodiesel fuel is produced from any fat or oil such as soybean oil as an alternative to petroleum based fuel, through a refinery process called trans esterification. This process is a reaction of the oil with an alcohol to remove the glycerin, which is a by product of biodiesel production.

Fuel grade biodiesel as an alternative fuel must be produced to strict industry specifications in order to insure proper performance. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments.

Biodiesel fuel that meets the industry specifications for an alternative fuel is legally registered with the Environmental Protection Agency as a legal motor fuel for sale and distribution. Raw vegetable oil cannot meet biodiesel fuel specifications, it is not registered with the EPA, and it is not a legal motor fuel.

Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel to have fully completed the health effects testing requirements of the Clean Air Act. The use of biodiesel in a conventional diesel engine results in substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, and particulate matter compared to emissions from diesel fuel. In addition, the exhaust emissions of sulfur oxides and sulfates major components of acid rain from biodiesel are essentially eliminated compared to regular diesel fuel.

Of the major exhaust pollutants, both unburned hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are ozone or smog forming precursors. The use of biodiesel as an alternative fuel results in a substantial reduction of unburned hydrocarbons. Emissions of nitrogen oxides are either slightly reduced or slightly increased depending on the duty cycle of the engine and testing methods used.

The use of biodiesel fuel as an alternative to petroleum based fuel is really a step in the right direction when it comes to both environmental as well as monetary concerns. It is safer, burns cleaner, and easy to make. It is a real breakthrough for those who use diesel fuel and a real alternative to regular diesel fuel.

Environmental Risk Aversion for Waste Derived Biomass

2008-11-02T01:13:00.001-07:00

1.0 Introduction

This 21st century has become an age of recycling where a lots of emphasize is placed on reuse of material to curb current environmental problems and maximize use of depleting natural resources and energy conservation. Modern day sustainable use and management of resource recommend need to incorporate recycling culture in our ways of life including technological process. Biomass is not left behind in this; the use of biomass energy resource derived from the carbonaceous waste of various natural and human activities to produce electricity is becoming popular. Biomass is considered as one of the clean, more- efficient and more-stable means of power generation. And it has become imperative for marine industry to tap this new evolving power generation mode especially the use of micro generation approach considering the mobile nature of ships.

Biofuels exist in solid, liquid or gas form thereby potentially affecting three of our core markets. Solid biofuels or biomass tend to be used in external combustion, however its use in the shipping industry has been limited to liquid biofuel due to lack of appropriate information economics forecasts, Sources of biomass include by-products from the timber industry, agricultural crops, raw material from the forest, major parts of household waste, and demolition wood, all things being equal using pure biomass that do not affect human and ecological chain make it suitable energy source. Biomass has low sulfur content means biomass combustion therefore considered much less acidifying than with coal, for example. Also, the ashes from biomass consumption, which are very low in heavy metals, can be recycled.

One advantage of biomass compared to other renewable-based systems that require costly advanced technology (such as solar photovoltaics) is that biomass can generate electricity with the same type of equipment and power plants that now burn fossil fuels. Many innovations in power generation with other fossil fuels may also be adaptable to the use of biomass fuels. Various factors have hindered the growth of the renewable energy resource, however. Most biomass power plants operating today are characterized by low boiler and thermal-plant efficiencies; both the fuel's characteristics and the small size of most facilities contribute to these efficiencies. In addition, such plants are costly to build.

Biomass remains potential renewable energy contributor to net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by offsetting CO2 from fossil generation. The current method generating biomass power is biomass fired boilers and Rankine steam turbines. Recent research work in developing sustainable, and economic biomass focus on high-pressure supercritical steam cycles , use of feedstock supply system, and conversion of biomass to a low or medium gas that can be fired in combustion turbine cycles, resulting in efficiencies one-and-a-half times that of a simple steam turbine. biofuels has potential to influence marine industry, and it as become importance for designers and ship owners to accept their influence on the world fleet of the future especially the micro generation concept with co generation for cargo and fuel for ships.

The paper discuss conceptual work, trend , sociopolitical driver, economic, development, and future of biomass with hope to bring awareness to local, national and multinational bodies making biofuels policies as well as maritime multidisciplinary expertise in regulation, economics, engineering, and vessel design and operation. The paper also discusses how the shipping industry can take advantage of growing tide to tap benefit promised by waste use power generation system.

2.0 Biomass developmental trend

The concept of use of Biofuels for energy generation has has been existing concept, and in the face of challenges posed by environmental need, its growth is likely to dominate renewable energy market. Following the advent of peanut oil diesel engines developed by Rudolf Diesel in 1911 the production and use of biofuels worldwide has grown significantly in recent years. The current world biofuels market is focused on: Bioethanol blended into fossil motor gasoline (petrol) or used directly and biodiesel or Fatty Acid Methyl Ester diesel blended into fossil diesel. However the use of The Fischer-Tropsch model that involve catalyzed chemical reaction to produce a synthetic petroleum substitute, typically from coal, natural gas or biomass, for use as synthetic lubrication oil or as a synthetic fuel seem promising and negate risk posed by food based biomass. This synthetic fuel runs only in diesel engines and some aircraft engines. Oil, product and chemical tankers being constructed now are likely to benefit much more from use of biomas. However use on gasoline engines ignites the vapors at much higher temperatures, which pose limitation to inland water craft.

Biomass generation and growing trend can be classified into 3 generation types:

first generation’ biofuels relate to biofuels made from sugar or starch, producing bioethanol, and vegetable oil or animal fats producing biodiesel. First generation biofuels provoke increasing criticism through their dependence on food crops and issues over biodiversity, land use and human rights. Hybrid technology for percentage blending is being employed to mitigate food production impact.
Second generation biofuels mitigate problem posed by the first generation biofuels. They do not affect food crops because they are made from waste biomass from agricultural and forestry, fast-growing grasses and trees specially grown as so-called "energy crops". With technology, sustainability and cost issues to overcome, second-generation biofuels are still several years away from commercial viability and many second generation mass produced biofuels are still under development including the biomass to liquid. Fischer-Tropsch production technique.
third generation biofuels are green fuels like algae biofuel made from energy and biomass crops that have been designed in such a way that their structure or properties conform to the requirements of a particular bioconversion process. They are made from such as sewage, and grown on ponds.

Just like tanker revolution influence on ship type, demand for biomass will bring, will bring capacity, bio -material or completed product from source to production area and then to the point of use, will bring technological, environmental change will require ships of different configuration, size and tank coating type. As well as impact on the tonne mile demand will change accordingly.

Effect on shipping is likely to follow shipping large scale growth on exports and seaborne trade from key exporting regions, particularly South America. Brazil has a key role. Brazil has already been branded to be producing en-mass ethanol from sugar cane since the 1970s with a cost per unit reportedly the lowest in the world. And it is currently exploring ethanol

Table 1 - World ethanol consumption 2007

Consumption

World ethanol consumption -

51 million tones, 2007

Us and brazil

68%

EU and China –

17% - surplus of 0.1 million tones

US deficit –

1.7mt

EU deficit -

1.3 mt

World – deficit

1mt

Recent year is also witnessing emerging trade on biofuel product between the US, EU, and Asia and whilst Brazil exports the most ethanol globally at about 2.9 million tonnes per year, the top importers of the US, EU,Japan and Korea have increasing demand that will have to be satisfied by increased shipping capacity. Seaborne vegetable oil supply is increasingly growing

Table 2 - Biofuel growth

Vegetable oil

33 mt in 2000 to 59 mt in 2008

Palm oil

13 mt in 2000 to 32 mt forecast in 2008.

a 7.5% p.a growth rate

Soya bean

7 mt to some 11.5 mt in 2008,

imports - 5.7 mt in 2001 to an expected 10.3 mt for 2008

8.9%.

3.1 mt in 2001 to 5.2 mt forecast for 2008

39%

Production capacity- 1.9 mt in 2002 to 11 mt in 2007, with 2007.

50% of total capacity.

Recently biofuel is driving a new technology, Worldwide; the use of biofuels for cars and public vehicles has grown significantly. With excess capacity waiting for source material it seems inevitable that shipping demand will increase.

3.0 Inter industry Best Practice

3.1 Land based use -

UK pumps mandate at least 2.5% biofuels. This target will rise to 5% by 2010. Also in the UK, the first train to run on biodiesel went into service in June 2007 for a six month trial period. The train uses a blended fuel, which is 20% biodiesel and the operator, Virgin Trains, is confident the mix can be increased to at least a 50% mix with the further possibility to run trains on fuels entirely from non-carbon sources.
On January 15, 2006- Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA lunch a program to test a 20% blend of biodiesel (B20) in its buses. In two months they used approximately 45,000 gallons of B20. As a result of the test, in April 2006 they began using biodiesel fleet-wide. In addition to using B20 in the winter months, COTA has committed to using 50-90% biodiesel blends (B50 - B90) during the summer months. This is projected to decrease regular diesel fuel consumption by over one million gallons per year.
26th of October 2007. buses in the UK running on B100 was launched on In a pilot project. Argent Energy (UK) Limited is working together with Stagecoach to supply biodiesel made by recycling and processing animal fat and used cooking oil.
For power stations, B&W have orders in the EU for 45 MW of two-stroke biofuel engines with a thermal efficiency of 51-52%. Specifically, these operate on palm oil of varying quality, and in the future, it is expected that more engines, whether stationary or marine, will be developed to run on biofuels.

· US DOE has funded five new advanced biomass gasification research and development projects beginning in 2001(Vermont project)

· 2008 - Ford announced a £1 billion research project to convert more of its vehicles to new biofuel sources. The first trial oft, Last year. BP Australia has now sold over 100 million liters of 10% ethanol content fuel to Australian motorists, and Brazil sells both 22% ethanol petrol nationwide and 100% ethanol to over 4 million cars, It is a trend that is gathering momentum.

In a program initiated by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development in Stockholm, several Swedish universities, companies, and utilities are collaborating to accelerate the demonstration of the advanced EVGT for natural-gas firing, especially in small-scale units. A natural-gas-fired EVGT pilot plant (0.6 megawatts of power output for a simple gas-turbine cycle) should start operation in Lund, Sweden, in 1998.

· AES Corporation is a leading company in biomass conversion internationally. At AES Kilroot in Northern Ireland, the team recently completed a successful trial to convert the plant to burn a mixture of coal and biomass. With further investment in the technology, nearly half of Northern Ireland’s 2012 renewable target could be met from AES Kilroot alone.

3.2 Aero industry–

Virgin Atlantic - Air transport is receiving increasing attention because of environmental concerns linked to CO2 emissions, air quality and noise. Virgin Atlantic in collaboration with Boeing and General Electric aircraft alternative fuels project for aircraft. A successful test flight from London to Amsterdam flight took place on 24th February of this year, running one of the four jumbo jet engines on a mixture of 20% coconut oil and babassu nut oil, with 80% conventional jet fuel. This fuel was specifically chosen due to its performance at low operating temperatures. The test was successful, with no noticeable difference in performance. Except that; imitation that biofuel mix used was in no way sustainable in the quantities required by the demands of the aviation industry. In a way to mitigate this Virgin is looking to us use of Algae based fuels as it is predicted that they may be suitable for use at low temperature.

3.3 Maritime industry

The use of land based transportation, is growing, however the use for sea based transportation need to be explored. Biofuels for ship will be advantageous. In recent UK pilot project where Buses are run on B100 Argent Energy (UK) Limited is working together with Stagecoach to supply biodiesel made by recycling and processing animal fat and used cooking oil. Marine engines with their inherent lower speed and more tolerant to burning alternative fuels than smaller, higher speed engines tolerance will allow them to run on lower grade and cheaper biofuels.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) unveiled a palm oil-based biodiesel since 2005.Optimistic outcome of the trial made RCCL confident enough to sign a contract in August 2007 for delivery of a minimum 15 million gallons and for the four years after, a minimum of 18 millions gallons of biodiesel for its cruise ships fleet. The contract marked the single largest long-term biodiesel sales contract in the United States.
In early 2007, United States Coast Guard indicated that their fleet will augment increase use of biofuels by 15% over the next four years.
In the marine industry, beside energy substitute advantage, biolubricants and biodegradable oil are particularly advantageous from an environmental and pollution perspective. Bio lubrication also offer higher viscosity, flash point and better technical properties such as increased sealing and lower machine operating temperature advantageous use in ship operation.

Time has gone when maritime industry could afford nitty gritty in adopting technology, other industry are already on a fast track preparing themselves technically for evitable changes driven by environmental problem, Global energy demands and political debate add further pressures to find alternative energy especially bio energy because of hybridization of old and new system advantage it offer. The implication is that shipping could be caught ill prepared for any rapid change in demand or supply of biofuel. Thus this technology is in the early stages of development but the shipping industry need top be prepared for the impacts of its breakthrough because Shipping will eventually required be at the centre of this supply and demand logistics chain again. Table 3 shows the projection for the main present players.

Table3 – projection

Region

Growth (1990-1994)

Projection (2020)

United states

15%

Europe

15%

4.0 Sources of biomass

North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) region. Supply has classified biofuel into the following four type’s vizs: agricultural residues, energy crops, forestry residues, and urban wood waste/mill residues. A brief description of each type of biomass is provided below:

Agricultural residues from the remaining stalks and biomass material left on the ground can be collected and used for energy generation purposes this include residues of wheat straw and corn stover.
Energy crops are produced solely or primarily for use as feedstocks in energy generation processes. Energy crops includes hybrid poplar, and switchgrass, grown on idled, or in pasture, and in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
Forestry residues are composed of logging residues, rough rotten salvageable dead wood, and excess small pole trees.
Urban wood waste/mill residues are waste woods from manufacturing operations that would otherwise be landfilled. The urban wood waste/mill residue category includes primary mill residues and urban wood such as pallets, construction waste, and demolition debris, which are not otherwise used.

The most important agricultural commodity crops being planted in the United States are listed in Table 4. Corn, wheat, and soybeans represent about 70 percent of total cropland harvested.

Table 6 shows representative characteristics for different subcategories of urban wood waste and mill residues.

5.0 Risk and Uncertainties

Although a significant amount of effort has gone into estimating the available quantities of biomass supply, the following risk and uncertainties that need to be incorporated into design and decision work on biodiesel use are:

Risk to land use - Our planet only have 295 land, for example Brazil has some 200 million acres of farmland available, more than the 46 million acres of land, required to grow the sugarcane needed to satisfy the projected 2022
Evolving competing uses of biomass materials, the large market consumption, pricing and growing need.
In agricultural waste, the impact of biomass removal on soil quality pose treat to agricultural residues that need to be left on the soil to maintain soil quality could result in significant losses of biomass for electric power generation purposes.
Impact of changes in forest fire prevention policies on biomass availability could cause vegetation in forests to minimize the potential for forest fires could significantly increase the quantity of forestry residues available.
Potential attempt to recycle more of the municipal solid waste stream might translate into less available biomass for electricity generation. \
Impact on the food production industry as witness in recent food scarcity crisis

5.1 Regulatory impact

The EU has stated that by 2020 a target of 20% of community wide energy will be renewable. Further to this, all member states are to achieve a mandatory 10% minimum target for the share of biofuels in transport petrol and diesel consumption by 2020.. The legislation provides a phase-in for biofuel blends, including availability of high percentage biofuel blends at filling stations. The United States Congress passed the Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS) in February 2008, which will require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2022. In parallel to this, work is continuing to reduce emissions further in vehicles. Political drivers in Asia vary according to region. In Southeast Asia, the centre of world production for palm oil, coconut oil, and other tropical oils, political support for farming is the key driver.

The issue affecting shipping is whether to refine and use biodiesel locally, or export the unrefined oil for product production elsewhere. In the short term the economics have favored the exports of unrefined oil - which is good news for us. Over the next ten years, with the cost of oil rising, and strict emission reductions in place, the need for increased biofuel production is likely to increase. as well as creating a net positive balance fuel. According to the IEA, world biofuels demand for transport could increase to about 3% of overall world oil demand in 2015 and double by 2030 over the 2008 figure. This does not sound so significant but as we show later it has a significant impact on the specialist fleet capacity demand. As we said before, predicting the trade pattern of biofuels adds a layer of complexity to the overall nergy supply picture and our oil distribution system.

We also believe that this forecast will be the minimum seen as the political pressures will cause the level to rise beyond 3%. To put the scale in context, the current oil tanker fleet of vessels 10,000 dwt or larger comprises of some 4,600 vessels amounting to 386 million dwt. These include about 2,560 Handysize tankers. Additionally, there are some 4,400 more small tankers from 1,000 to 10,000 dwt accounting for 16 million dwt. Our projections show a significant role for seaborne transport, even using conservative bases with high proportions of locally supplied biofuels. This is a significant fleet segment that poses technical and regulatory challenges. As we have discussed, the requirements cannot be fully defined because many market factors remain uncertain, but ship owners who are building new vessels or operating existing vessels should consider this future trade through flexible design options that we will introduce later.

5.3 Potential Impacts to Shipping

The key political drivers for biofuels are environmental concerns, energy security and agricultural policy. The tonne mile demand for future tankers will be greatly affected by national, regional or global policy and political decision making in these areas. There is a greater flexibility in the sourcing of biofuels than there is in hydrocarbon energy sources and this may be attractive to particular governments. Once the regulatory framework is clear, economics will determine how the regulations will best be met and seaborne trade will be at the centre of the outcome. In many parts of the world, environmental concerns are the leading political driver for biofuels. Reflecting these concerns, the global Kyoto Protocol, was negotiated in 1997, and this further provides a driver for the use of biofuels.

5.4 Shipping Routes and Economics Impacts

The above trend analysis discussed indicate potential capacity requirement from shipping, so far North America, Europe and South East Asia are the key importing regions where this growth is concentrated. This includes the Latin American counties of Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay and Southeast Asia's Indonesia and Malaysia will remain key suppliers for the palm oil, Philippines and Papua New Guinea have potentials for vegetable oil and agricultural while Thailand has potential for sugarcane. This trade potential will determine future trade route from Malacca Straits to Europe, ballast to Argentina, to load soybean oil to China, and then make a short ballast voyage to the Malacca Straits, where the pattern begins again, a typical complicated fronthaul / backhaul combinations that can initiate, economies of scale need top reduce freight costs and subsequent push for bigger ship production and short sea services like recent experience of today’s tankers. According to plateau case study the following regional impact can be deduced for shipping.

Biofuel

Demand

North America

ethanol

33 million tons

Europe

ethanol and biodiesel.: 50:50

30 million tons

Asia

ethanol and biodiesel.: 50:50

18 million tons

North America demand – policy work support biofuel use in the us and 32 Handysize equivalent tankers will be needed to meet US demand in 2015. with technological breakthrough there will be need for 125 vessel 2030.

European demand - Due to environmental requirement and energy security believed to be politically acceptable in the EU but economics may drive a different outcome.80 Handysizes with some due to the growth in trade and longer voyage distance. With technological breakthrough for 2nd and 3rd generation biofuel growth will need growing to 145 in 2030 Aframax vessels if the technical issues can be overcome.

Asia demand - In plateau case 50 Handysize equivalents are required in 2015 and 2030 with forecast vessel sizes being Handysizes with some Panamax vessels 162 vessels total in the three regions.

By adding up all the regions, with biofuels as only 3% of world transport demand, we are looking at a fleet of about 400 Handysize vessels to accommodate the demand and supply drivers by 2030 and 162 by 2015. The total vessel forecast for 2030 could means 2,560 vessels of 81 million deadweight tons.

As regions identify these growth markets and recognize the economies of $/tonne scale that can be achieved, as shown here, with bigger tonnage, we are seeing natural investment occurring. New port developments in concerned trade rout will be required to accommodate large Panamax vessel and parcel size for palm oil exports. on the long haul routes.

5.5 Biomass Ship Technologies Impacts

Generation

A variety of methods could turn an age-old natural resource into a new and efficient means of generating electricity. biomass in large amounts is available in many areas, and is being considered as a fuel source for future generation of electricity. Biomass is by its nature both bulky and widely distributed and electricity from conventional, centralized power plants requires an extensive distribution network. Traditionally power is generated through centralized, conventional power plant, where biomass is transported to the central plant, typically a steam or gas turbine power plant, and the electricity is then distributed through the grid to the end users. Costs include fuel and transportation, power plant construction, maintenance, and operation, and distribution of the electric power, including losses in transmission.

Electrical efficiency

capacity

biomass

thermal efficiency -40 %

$2,000 per kilowat

coal

45 %

$1,500 per kilowatt,

However, micro-biomass power generators located at the site of end-use seem to offer a path for new solution for energy. Recent development in towards use of micro biomass will equally offer best practice adaptation for marine power. Biomass is used at or near the site of end-use, with heat from external combustion converted directly to electricity by a biomass fired free-piston genset . Costs include fuel and acquisition and maintenance of the genset and burner. Since the electricity is used on site, both transmission losses and distribution costs are minimal. Thus, in areas without existing infrastructure to transmit power, there are no additional costs. In this case it is also possible to cogenerate using the rejected heat for space or hot water heating, or absorption cooling. Previously, option two has not been feasible, since there have been no small (less than ~50 kW) devices for directly and efficiently converting biomass energy to electricity. Micro-biomass power generation is a more cost-effective means of providing power than central biomass power generation. In particular, areas where there is a need for both power and heat - domestic hot water and space heat and absorption chilling - are attractive for cogeneration configurations of this machine. Biomass can be generated using single or ganged free-piston Stirling engines gensets. These micro-biomass generators offer a number of advantages over centralized biomass fueled power plants. They can be placed at the end-user location taking advantage of local fuel prices and do not require a distribution grid. They can directly provide electrical output with integral linear alternators, or where power requirements are larger they can be ganged and drive a conventional rotary turbine. They are hermetically sealed and offer long lives through their non-contact operation.

Biomass for electricity generation is treated in four ways in NEMS: (1) new dedicated biomass or biomass gasification, (2) existing and new plants that co-fire biomass with coal, (3) existing plants that combust biomass directly in an open-loop process,18 and (4) biomass use in industrial cogeneration applications. Existing biomass plants are accounted for using information such as on-line years, efficiencies, heat rates, and retirement dates, obtained through EIA surveys of the electricity generation sector.

Emissions offsets and waste reduction could help enhance the appeal of biomass to utilities An important consideration for the future use of biomass-fired power plants is the treatment of biomass flue gases. Biomass-combustion flue gases have high moisture content. When the flue gas is cooled to a temperature below the dew point, water vapor starts to condense. By using flue-gas condensation, sensible and latent heat can be recovered for district heating or other heat-consuming processes; this increases the heat generation from a cogeneration plant by more than 30 percent. Flue-gas condensation not only recovers heat but also captures dust and hazardous pollutants from flue gases at the same time. Most dioxins, chlorine, mercury, and dust are removed, and sulfur oxides are separated out to some extent. Another feature of flue gas condensation is water recovery, which helps solve the problem of water consumption in evaporative gas turbines.

Biomass open door for another way rather than competing with fossil fuel plants a substantial opportunity exists to generate micro-biomass electric power, at power levels from fractions of a kilowatts through to tens or hundreds of kilowatts, at the point of en d use. At these power levels neither small internal combustion engines, which cannot use biomass directly, nor reciprocating steam engines, with low efficiency and limited life, can offer the end user economic electric power. Free-piston Stirling micro biomass engine engines are an economic alternative. Stirling offers the following advantages over significantly larger systems:

Stirling machines have reasonable overall efficiencies at moderate heater head temperatures (~600ƒC)
cogeneration is simple
large amounts of capital do not have to be raised to build a single evaluation plant with its associated technical and economic risks
A large fraction of the value of the engine alternator can be reused at the end of its life
Stirling systems can be ganged with multiple units operating in parallel.

United States: 1996, P1-R96-STAB-00-NTH (Washington, DC, November 1996). l.

How To Improve Air Quality With Alternative Fuels!

2008-11-02T01:12:00.001-07:00

The market of alternative fuel sources is larger today than it has ever been before. Alternative fuels are materials that are rich in energy and that can be used instead of traditional gasoline. Biodiesel, ethanol, hydrogen, methanol and propane can be used as alternative fuels as they contain much less harmful substances.

Using various types of alternative fuels can also help to reduce dependence on imported gasoline and improve air quality.

Alternative Fuel Conversion and Fuel Economy

Alternative fuel conversion system means both fuel economy and environmental benefits. Exceptional technical characteristics of alternative fuel converter AutoFFV allow your car to operate using ethanol fuel, gasoline or a mix of a both (E85 fuel).

The Benefits of Using Alternative Fuel Conversion System:

Savings on fuel costs.

Reduced engine corruption and servicing costs.

Vehicle originality is kept.

Most of gasoline cars can be converted to alternative fuels with no need for a new or replacement engine. Other benefits include total elimination of smoke. It also contributes to a quieter and smoother running engine. Besides the environmental benefits, combines high performance with economy, making it the best current alternative to gasoline fuels.

Alternative fuel converter will suit most of vehicles with digital multipoint electronic injection, including imported ones. It can also be removed anytime.

Make your car more valuable and powerful using alternative converter system.

What is E85?

E85 is the term for motor fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and just 15 percent gasoline. E85 is an alternative fuel as defined by the U.S. Department of Energy. Besides its superior performance characteristics, ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline; it is a completely renewable, domestic, environmentally friendly fuel that enhances the nation's economy and energy independence.

Today, the U. S. imports more than half of its oil and overall consumption continues to increase. By supporting ethanol production and use, U.S. drivers can help reverse that trend. 85% ethanol can reduce pollution. Government tests have shown that E85 vehicles reduce harmful hydrocarbon and benzene emissions when compared to vehicles running on gasoline. E85 can also reduce carbon dioxide (CO2), a harmful greenhouse gas and a major contributor to global warming.

Although CO2 is released during ethanol production and combustion, it is recaptured as a nutrient to the crops that are used in its production. Unlike fossil fuel combustion, which unlocks carbon that has been stored for millions of years, use of ethanol results in low increases to the carbon cycle.

Ethanol also degrades quickly in water and, therefore, poses much less risk to the environment than an oil or gasoline spill.

Chicken Manure Could Some Day Power Your Car!

2008-10-15T09:06:00.007-07:00

These days, everyone is looking for ways to curb energy usage by dimming the lights in their homes, letting heated pools cool down, and by combining errands when out driving. Collectively, the US has seen energy usage plummet to where we're using billions of gallons less fuel every month.

Alternative energy is gaining steam as windmill power grows in importance, solar energy is ramping up, and geothermal sources are being considered. Add in nuclear power, clean coal, ethanol, and a host of other methods for generating power and America's new found zeal for energy efficiency is likely to take hold.

Some uncommon ways to save or make fuel are also big in the news including the following:

Hypermiling – This practice involves extending your car's fuel range through a host of controversial tactics including shutting down the engine and coasting when traveling down a hill, following in the wake of a truck to reduce wind drag, and removing unnecessary objects from the car, including rear seats, door paneling, or anything else that adds to the weight of the car.

Running on Water – I'm not sure how many people have ruined their engines this way, but kits promising to make it possible to help your car run on water are now being sold. Clearly, this technology isn't doing what it has promised to do, gumming up engines and wrecking cylinder heads in the process.

Biodiesel – Making your own fuel is possible if you don't mind messing around with restaurant grease. Provided your car already runs on diesel, this method does work, though the amount of work needed to convert grease into fuel is amazing. Is that French fries coming from that Volkswagen Jetta diesel whizzing down the street?

Chicken Poop – No joke, animal waste is now being used to produce energy. Chicken manure is currently being used in the Netherlands to fuel as many as 90,000 homes. Will a savvy entrepreneur think of a way to take farm excrement and produce fuel for your Volkswagen? That day cannot be far away!

While the various ways of producing alternative fuel sources or realizing fuel gains is intriguing, go with the proven methods only. Likely we'll begin to hear complaints from unsuspecting consumers who tried a controversial scheme and it failed, rendering their vehicle warranty null and void.

Don't put you and your car in a compromising position; think each project through and save on fuel now by limiting your driving and combining trips.

Daimlerchrysler’s Commitment to Alternative Fuels Outlined

2008-10-15T09:06:00.005-07:00

Joining the throng of car makers dedicated to help ease the world’s dependence on fossil fuels is DaimlerChrysler, the largest truck manufacturer in the world. At the National Biodiesel Board Annual Conference, Deb Morrissett, the Vice President of Regulatory Affairs for the said company, persuades the growing biodiesel industry to carry on their commitment to develop a natural standard for B20 as car makers are focusing their attention on developing and producing vehicles that will use run on alternative fuels.

The challenge to create a national specification for biodiesel is issued by Morrissett while stating that doing so would speed up the adoption of biodiesel. He further added that doing so would also help in the harnessing and directing the diverse research and investment efforts put into the development of such alternative fuel. He said that biodiesel should have a national fuel specification just like other fuels. “I’m looking forward to the time when anyone can fuel up with B20, but we’re not there yet,” he also added.

Morrissett also encouraged the industry to stay tuned for the company is intending to build on their diesel engine leadership for the coming future. They would do this with help from their partners like Cummins. As a sign of the company’s dedication to produce vehicles that will run on more environment friendly fuel, they have unveiled their Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 vehicles which come equipped with a 6.7-liter Cummins turbodiesel engine. This engine can run on B5 and B20 biodiesel. The said vehicles will become available in the market in March this year. The two trucks already meet emission standards that will be implemented in 2010 and this simply shows the company’s dedication to make their trucks not only to be high performance vehicles but are also safe just like EBC brake pads.

The company’s dedication to lessen the dependence on fossil fuel does not end in their use of efficient and clean diesel engines but they are also one of the car manufacturers which are developing the use of alternative fuels on their vehicles. A concrete example of this is the usage of B5 fuel of their Jeep Liberty and Jeep Grand Cherokee models. Both vehicles are approved for regular use of the B5 biodiesel fuel. Furthermore, their 2007 Dodge Ram can run on B20 biodiesel fuel and can be used for commercial, government, and military fleets.

Their support for the alternative fuel industry does not end there either. The company is planning to develop and produce cars that would be equipped with efficient gasoline engines, hybrid cars, flex-fuel vehicles which can run on gasoline as well as alternative fuel like bio-ethanol, electric vehicles and a test fleet of more than 100 fuel cell powered vehicles.

Their commitment to produce flexi-fuel vehicles will see them producing 250,000 units of the said vehicle which can run on E85 fuel - a fuel that is a mixture of gasoline and bio-ethanol. The 85 in the E85 stands for the percentage of bio-ethanol in the fuel which means that the E85 is 85 percent bio-ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. The flexi-fuel vehicles that DaimlerChrysler will produce can also run on conventional gasoline efficiently. The company aims to double the production of their FFV fleet to 500,000 units in 2008.

During the conference, Loren Beard, manager of Fuel Legislation, Regulation and Policy, along with Scott Schramm, Manager of Regulatory and Technical Affairs, also tackled engine warranty issues, OEM experience with alternative fuels and how to deal with new regulations. The National Biodiesel Board Conference was held last February 5 in San Antonio, Texas.

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2008-10-15T09:06:00.003-07:00

How To Improve Air Quality With Alternative Fuels!

2008-10-15T09:06:00.001-07:00

Using various types of alternative fuels can also help to reduce dependence on imported gasoline and improve air quality.

Alternative Fuel Conversion and Fuel Economy

The Benefits of Using Alternative Fuel Conversion System:

Savings on fuel costs.

Reduced engine corruption and servicing costs.

Vehicle originality is kept.

Alternative fuel converter will suit most of vehicles with digital multipoint electronic injection, including imported ones. It can also be removed anytime.

Make your car more valuable and powerful using alternative converter system.

What is E85?

Ethanol also degrades quickly in water and, therefore, poses much less risk to the environment than an oil or gasoline spill.

Biodiesel From Old Motor Oil

2008-10-14T02:08:00.003-07:00

These days the state of our environment is forcing people and manufacturing companies to do what they can to protect it. There are many ways to protect the environment such as recycling, using less energy, creating less pollution and whatever else you can think of.

There is a Japanese environmental equipment manufacturer and supplier called Fuji Energy Co. who have created a compact processing device used to transform used engine oil or other waste oils into fuel oil.

What this device does is it mixes already used engine oil and Type A fuel in a 40 to 60 ratio, heats it up to 60 degrees Celsius and then it takes away the solids using a centrifuge. After this process, the oil goes through a precision filter roughly six or seven times, which breaks it down to micron-sized units. When these units are emulsified, you then get an alternative fuel for boilers with basically the same composition as Type A fuel oil.

There has already been a model of this processing device built by the company Fuji Energy and they are testing it at a hot bath facility in Ehime Prefecture. The company states that the device gets rid of exhaust gas regulations. This machine can process around 100 liters of oil a day and costs around US $8.70 a month to operate.

The compact version which is priced at $48 000 is 80 x 80 x 130cm and can be installed beside and connected to a Type A fuel oil boiler. Fuji Energy is trying to ship fifty of these a year to transportation companies and food factories, using the selling point that this device has the ability to reduce fuel expenses by 30%.

Companies keep creating new unimaginable ways to help the environment hopefully soon all companies will take part and use these devices to help save the environment and make our planet a better place.

How To Improve Air Quality With Alternative Fuels!

2008-10-14T02:08:00.001-07:00

Using various types of alternative fuels can also help to reduce dependence on imported gasoline and improve air quality.

Alternative Fuel Conversion and Fuel Economy

The Benefits of Using Alternative Fuel Conversion System:

Savings on fuel costs.

Reduced engine corruption and servicing costs.

Vehicle originality is kept.

Alternative fuel converter will suit most of vehicles with digital multipoint electronic injection, including imported ones. It can also be removed anytime.

Make your car more valuable and powerful using alternative converter system.

What is E85?

Ethanol also degrades quickly in water and, therefore, poses much less risk to the environment than an oil or gasoline spill.

Environmental Risk Aversion for Waste Derived Biomass

2008-10-14T02:07:00.003-07:00

1.0 Introduction

2.0 Biomass developmental trend

Biomass generation and growing trend can be classified into 3 generation types:

first generation’ biofuels relate to biofuels made from sugar or starch, producing bioethanol, and vegetable oil or animal fats producing biodiesel. First generation biofuels provoke increasing criticism through their dependence on food crops and issues over biodiversity, land use and human rights. Hybrid technology for percentage blending is being employed to mitigate food production impact.
Second generation biofuels mitigate problem posed by the first generation biofuels. They do not affect food crops because they are made from waste biomass from agricultural and forestry, fast-growing grasses and trees specially grown as so-called "energy crops". With technology, sustainability and cost issues to overcome, second-generation biofuels are still several years away from commercial viability and many second generation mass produced biofuels are still under development including the biomass to liquid. Fischer-Tropsch production technique.
third generation biofuels are green fuels like algae biofuel made from energy and biomass crops that have been designed in such a way that their structure or properties conform to the requirements of a particular bioconversion process. They are made from such as sewage, and grown on ponds.

Table 1 - World ethanol consumption 2007

Consumption

World ethanol consumption -

51 million tones, 2007

Us and brazil

68%

EU and China –

17% - surplus of 0.1 million tones

US deficit –

1.7mt

EU deficit -

1.3 mt

World – deficit

1mt

Table 2 - Biofuel growth

Vegetable oil

33 mt in 2000 to 59 mt in 2008

Palm oil

13 mt in 2000 to 32 mt forecast in 2008.

a 7.5% p.a growth rate

Soya bean

7 mt to some 11.5 mt in 2008,

imports - 5.7 mt in 2001 to an expected 10.3 mt for 2008

8.9%.

3.1 mt in 2001 to 5.2 mt forecast for 2008

39%

Production capacity- 1.9 mt in 2002 to 11 mt in 2007, with 2007.

50% of total capacity.

3.0 Inter industry Best Practice

3.1 Land based use -

UK pumps mandate at least 2.5% biofuels. This target will rise to 5% by 2010. Also in the UK, the first train to run on biodiesel went into service in June 2007 for a six month trial period. The train uses a blended fuel, which is 20% biodiesel and the operator, Virgin Trains, is confident the mix can be increased to at least a 50% mix with the further possibility to run trains on fuels entirely from non-carbon sources.
On January 15, 2006- Central Ohio Transit Authority (COTA lunch a program to test a 20% blend of biodiesel (B20) in its buses. In two months they used approximately 45,000 gallons of B20. As a result of the test, in April 2006 they began using biodiesel fleet-wide. In addition to using B20 in the winter months, COTA has committed to using 50-90% biodiesel blends (B50 - B90) during the summer months. This is projected to decrease regular diesel fuel consumption by over one million gallons per year.
26th of October 2007. buses in the UK running on B100 was launched on In a pilot project. Argent Energy (UK) Limited is working together with Stagecoach to supply biodiesel made by recycling and processing animal fat and used cooking oil.
For power stations, B&W have orders in the EU for 45 MW of two-stroke biofuel engines with a thermal efficiency of 51-52%. Specifically, these operate on palm oil of varying quality, and in the future, it is expected that more engines, whether stationary or marine, will be developed to run on biofuels.

· US DOE has funded five new advanced biomass gasification research and development projects beginning in 2001(Vermont project)

In a program initiated by the Swedish National Board for Industrial and Technical Development in Stockholm, several Swedish universities, companies, and utilities are collaborating to accelerate the demonstration of the advanced EVGT for natural-gas firing, especially in small-scale units. A natural-gas-fired EVGT pilot plant (0.6 megawatts of power output for a simple gas-turbine cycle) should start operation in Lund, Sweden, in 1998.

3.2 Aero industry–

Virgin Atlantic - Air transport is receiving increasing attention because of environmental concerns linked to CO2 emissions, air quality and noise. Virgin Atlantic in collaboration with Boeing and General Electric aircraft alternative fuels project for aircraft. A successful test flight from London to Amsterdam flight took place on 24th February of this year, running one of the four jumbo jet engines on a mixture of 20% coconut oil and babassu nut oil, with 80% conventional jet fuel. This fuel was specifically chosen due to its performance at low operating temperatures. The test was successful, with no noticeable difference in performance. Except that; imitation that biofuel mix used was in no way sustainable in the quantities required by the demands of the aviation industry. In a way to mitigate this Virgin is looking to us use of Algae based fuels as it is predicted that they may be suitable for use at low temperature.

3.3 Maritime industry

The use of land based transportation, is growing, however the use for sea based transportation need to be explored. Biofuels for ship will be advantageous. In recent UK pilot project where Buses are run on B100 Argent Energy (UK) Limited is working together with Stagecoach to supply biodiesel made by recycling and processing animal fat and used cooking oil. Marine engines with their inherent lower speed and more tolerant to burning alternative fuels than smaller, higher speed engines tolerance will allow them to run on lower grade and cheaper biofuels.
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines (RCCL) unveiled a palm oil-based biodiesel since 2005.Optimistic outcome of the trial made RCCL confident enough to sign a contract in August 2007 for delivery of a minimum 15 million gallons and for the four years after, a minimum of 18 millions gallons of biodiesel for its cruise ships fleet. The contract marked the single largest long-term biodiesel sales contract in the United States.
In early 2007, United States Coast Guard indicated that their fleet will augment increase use of biofuels by 15% over the next four years.
In the marine industry, beside energy substitute advantage, biolubricants and biodegradable oil are particularly advantageous from an environmental and pollution perspective. Bio lubrication also offer higher viscosity, flash point and better technical properties such as increased sealing and lower machine operating temperature advantageous use in ship operation.

Table3 – projection

Region

Growth (1990-1994)

Projection (2020)

United states

15%

Europe

15%

4.0 Sources of biomass

Agricultural residues from the remaining stalks and biomass material left on the ground can be collected and used for energy generation purposes this include residues of wheat straw and corn stover.
Energy crops are produced solely or primarily for use as feedstocks in energy generation processes. Energy crops includes hybrid poplar, and switchgrass, grown on idled, or in pasture, and in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
Forestry residues are composed of logging residues, rough rotten salvageable dead wood, and excess small pole trees.
Urban wood waste/mill residues are waste woods from manufacturing operations that would otherwise be landfilled. The urban wood waste/mill residue category includes primary mill residues and urban wood such as pallets, construction waste, and demolition debris, which are not otherwise used.

The most important agricultural commodity crops being planted in the United States are listed in Table 4. Corn, wheat, and soybeans represent about 70 percent of total cropland harvested.

Table 6 shows representative characteristics for different subcategories of urban wood waste and mill residues.

5.0 Risk and Uncertainties

Risk to land use - Our planet only have 295 land, for example Brazil has some 200 million acres of farmland available, more than the 46 million acres of land, required to grow the sugarcane needed to satisfy the projected 2022
Evolving competing uses of biomass materials, the large market consumption, pricing and growing need.
In agricultural waste, the impact of biomass removal on soil quality pose treat to agricultural residues that need to be left on the soil to maintain soil quality could result in significant losses of biomass for electric power generation purposes.
Impact of changes in forest fire prevention policies on biomass availability could cause vegetation in forests to minimize the potential for forest fires could significantly increase the quantity of forestry residues available.
Potential attempt to recycle more of the municipal solid waste stream might translate into less available biomass for electricity generation. \
Impact on the food production industry as witness in recent food scarcity crisis

5.1 Regulatory impact

5.3 Potential Impacts to Shipping

5.4 Shipping Routes and Economics Impacts

Biofuel

Demand

North America

ethanol

33 million tons

Europe

ethanol and biodiesel.: 50:50

30 million tons

Asia

ethanol and biodiesel.: 50:50

18 million tons

5.5 Biomass Ship Technologies Impacts

Generation

Electrical efficiency

capacity

biomass

thermal efficiency -40 %

$2,000 per kilowat

coal

45 %

$1,500 per kilowatt,

Stirling machines have reasonable overall efficiencies at moderate heater head temperatures (~600ƒC)
cogeneration is simple
large amounts of capital do not have to be raised to build a single evaluation plant with its associated technical and economic risks
A large fraction of the value of the engine alternator can be reused at the end of its life
Stirling systems can be ganged with multiple units operating in parallel.

United States: 1996, P1-R96-STAB-00-NTH (Washington, DC, November 1996). l.

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2008-10-14T02:07:00.001-07:00

Algae Biodiesel the Fuel of the Future

2008-10-14T02:03:00.001-07:00

Most American consumers have been hit hard by soaring gas prices, and many people from individuals to research firms are searching for an alternative fuel source that is renewable, economical, and environmentally friendly.

Biodiesel made from crops such as corn and soybeans is one such alternative that most people are aware of, but another option, algae biodiesel, is one of the newest and most promising fuel sources to date. One thing is for sure, if a solution to the ever increasing gas prices is not found soon millions of people will be unable to afford their daily commute.

Many people have put their hopes in biodiesel made from crops as the solution to oil dependency. However, there are problems with biodiesel made from crops namely the displacement of food and the amount of crops it takes to produce a gallon of oil. Using food crops such as soybeans and corn to produce oil takes away from the amount crops that could have been used for food.

Using food crops to make biodiesel is also not very economical, it takes an acre of soybeans to produce about 50 gallons of biodiesel and an acre of corn to produce only about 20 gallons of biodiesel. Compared to the 5,000 or more gallons of biodieseal produced from one acre of algae, food crops are underperforming.

The fuel consumption for cars, trucks, and other transportation in the US accounts for almost 70% of total oil consumption. While this is a huge chunk of our oil needs, it would take only about 15,000 square miles of algae farms to produce enough biodiesel to meet our transportation needs.

That would be one algae farm that measured 120 miles by 125 miles or 50 algae farms that were only 300 square miles each. With the space requirements feasible, algae bio diesel just may be the fuel of the future as it is economical, renewable, and will not displace food crops.

Making biodiesel from algae is a complicated process, but it is not harder than making it from other sources such as crops or waste oil and it is even possible for consumers to make their own algae biodiesel at home. In fact, making biodiesel from algae is actually easier than from other sources such as waste oil because it does not require the level of filtering or titrating. It is possible that once consumers learn how to make algae bio diesel for themselves that they can in fact become responsible for their own energy needs and stop depending on large energy companies.

This fact has the potential to lower energy prices simply because the big energy companies would not be the only place to get gasoline and heating oil. It is becoming more and more common for individuals to make their own fuel form waste oil but as it become harder to get waste oil form commercial sources many more people will begin to turn to algae as the fuel source of choice.

Although algae biodiesel has been touted as the fuel of the future by many, one thing is for sure, if we do not find alternatives to cut our dependence on gasoline and crude oil, we will continue to struggle as gas prices rise.

Mcdonalds UK Shows Mother-nature Love With Biodiesel for Its Delivery Vans

2008-10-14T02:00:00.003-07:00

In the old days it used to be that you just drove your Nissan Sentra and perhaps its brand new Nissan Sentra parts over to McDonalds to get some of those yummy French fries and Mcburgers.

Now can you imagine getting your car fueled in McDonalds? How about a fuel pump sticking out the drive thru window to gas up your car?

No? Maybe literally these scenarios are far-fetched, but, to get fuel to power your car from the world-famous food chain’s kitchen isn’t as remote a possibility as you think.

In the UK just recently, McDonalds has announced that it will be converting all of its UK delivery vans to run on cooking oil-based biodiesel. This means that aside from getting to enjoy that delicious smell of double cheeseburger ‘n’ fries as a delivery truck drives by our British friends can do so rest assured that the truck may be carrying sinful food but it isn’t at least, making the dreadful environmental transgression we call pollution.

So how does it work?

According to a report by Topgear, once the oil has been used to make your Freedom Fries turn into a tasty state of crispiness, it'll be combined with rapeseed oil to power McDonald's 155 Lorries, saving some 1,650 tonnes of carbon each year. Which is something, if you think about all the folks calling for delivery everyday, right?

Here in our shores, we are also not lacking in environmentally-sound burger-delivering companies. In 2006 it was reported that Burgerville, a Vancouver, WA-based "fast casual" restaurant chain, has begun converting its used cooking oil into biodiesel. Through an agreement with Portland company MRP Services, the used oil is picked up and transported to a processing plant where it is converted to biodiesel.

Before the two companies arranged to do good for Mother Nature, the oil was shipped to Asia and typically used in the creation of cosmetics and soap.

This isn’t the first foray into sustainable business practices for Burgerville though. Last August, the company announced it would pay for its electricity by purchasing wind power, a move that saved a staggering 17.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide from being released to the region annually.

About Biodiesel

Biodiesel is the name of a clean burning alternative fuel, produced from domestic, renewable resources. Biodiesel contains no petroleum, but it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend. It can be used in compression-ignition (diesel) engines with little or no modifications. Biodiesel is simple to use, biodegradable, nontoxic, and essentially free of sulfur and aromatics.

Biodiesel is better for the environment because it is made from renewable resources and has lower emissions compared to petroleum diesel. It is less toxic than table salt and biodegrades as fast as sugar. Since it is made in the USA from renewable resources such as soybeans, its use decreases our dependence on foreign oil and contributes to our own economy. (source: http://www.biodiesel.org/)