Newsweek Article: Biodiesel - GreenHybrid

Delta Flyer · #1 (**permalink**) 06-03-2005, 08:48 AM

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8017665/site/newsweek/

Quote:

In 1900, when Rudolf Diesel rolled out his namesake engine, he said, "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become, in course of time, as important as petroleum." That time hasn't arrived yet. But high gas prices and fears about dwindling oil reserves are garnering mainstream attention for vegetable-oil auto fuel (or biodiesel).

Stevo12886 · #2 (**permalink**) 06-03-2005, 09:27 AM

Interesting article, but i wish they had explored it in more depth. I myself am a big supporter of biodiesel (and ethanol) as the stepping stone between petrolium and hydrogen. The current gas infastructure can handle it, and many cars can run it without an modification.

RichC · #3 (**permalink**) 06-03-2005, 10:44 AM

I like the way you politely stated that Stevo ... "stepping stone." I personally think that we are probably on the road toward some sort of hydrogen fuel source but also see it a long way away. I recall the ol' World Fairs predicting we would all be driving flying cars we moved into the next century but most experts do not see us even close to that today. I've kind of got this feeling that we are not jumping to Hydrogen all that quickly.

Biodiesel (or any biologically derived renewable fuel) is something that is so unbelievably do-able that it screams to be part of our energy solution for at least this century. Trucks, trains, ships and heavy equipment will not be quickly converted to a hydrogen fuel cell (or whatever) and certainly the infrastructure that supports hydrogen is nowhere close to being built. The beauty of most bio-fuels is that they can be blended with petroleum and at the same time provide cleaner emissions. This alone is a great matchup as it doesn't totally displace the petroleum industry, yet offers opportunity to slowly develop the proper oilseed crops (perhaps algae) and productions facilities needed to supply our thirst for portable energy.

Its easy to 'think' about switching to the future energy sources ... but probably more appropriate to 'grow' (pun intended) slowly into cleaner renewable alternatives; biodiesel and ethanol are two of them. (personally biodiesel makes the most sense to me as it is more efficient and can be used in heavy equipment which will most likely be the last to convert to hydrogen fuel cells)

davaguco · #4 (**permalink**) 06-06-2005, 01:30 AM

Published on June 3rd:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-gdn052505.php

This is quite an achievement, IMHO.

RichC · #5 (**permalink**) 06-06-2005, 07:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davaguco

Published on June 3rd:

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releas...-gdn052505.php

This is quite an achievement, IMHO.

Great to see advancements ... there are some interesting ones in the way biodiesel is made too. (which energy extracted per gallon is pretty effiecient in comparison to gasoline/ethanol)

Quote:

ARS SCIENTISTS SIMPLIFY BIODIESEL PRODUCTION

Michael Haas, a biochemist with the Eastern Regional Research Center’s Fats, Oils and Animal Coproducts Research Unit, USDA-ARS (Agricultural Research Service), and colleagues developed a new approach in biodiesel production. The new method eliminates a step and an air polluting chemical from the process thus simplifying fuel synthesis. The process, however, is still costly at $1.02 per gallon compared to P0.38 per gallon in the conventional process. The researchers, however, are refining the economic model to account for income from selling the lipid-free, protein-rich flake left after the biodiesel reaction for use as animal feeds.

Conventional process of biodiesel production in the U.S. uses soybean oil as starting material. The oil extraction processes traditionally use hexane which is an air pollutant, and its release is regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The use of hexane was eliminated in the new process by skipping the oil-extraction step. The new method uses soybean flakes that have been dried as starting material which are incubated in alkaline methanol, eliminating the need to isolate and purify the oil before transesterification, a reaction between fats and alcohol that forms the simple fatty acid esters that are biodiesel. The lipids do not need to be isolated first because transesterification occurs in the raw soy flakes containing oil. Drying the flakes was necessary to reduce methanol usage.

MikeT · #6 (**permalink**) 06-09-2005, 10:24 PM

Interesting....

There are some commercial BD producers looking at local production here on Vancouver Island.

Now I run on normal low sulphur Diesel (about 28 ppm locally).

I'd like Mercedes-Benz Canada to sanction the use of BD in the smart before I dive in head first. We shall see.