Is there anything that can't be turned into biodiesel? A New Zealand company has used pond algae to create biodiesel from sewage. Some groups have been reluctant to embrace biodiesel because of concern over turning vast areas of forest into palm plantations strictly to feed the biodiesel industry, I haven't heard of anyone defending sewage! If this works as early tests indicate, can you imagine the possibilities here for farmers? The water end product can be used for irrigation, as well. How about small or even large towns producing their own fuel. This deserves some attention.
Of course there is the issue of what the diesel exhaust will smell like ...
Link: The New Zealand Herald via Slashdot
by Paul on January 28, 2006
If you want to put biodiesel to work for yourself right now, try this. There's a biodiesel Royal Enfied motorcycle for sale on ebay. MotorEarth imported the bike last year for use as a demo to show the practical side of biodiesel fuel. They have run the motorcycle on both biodiesel and straight vegetable oil so you could run this bike practically free.
If you aren't looking for a high performance motorcycle but you think the idea of motoring around on a biodiesel bike is pretty cool this is a great idea.
by Paul on January 20, 2006
The Departments of Energy and Agriculture are cooperating to decode the DNA of soybeans in order to optimize soybeans for all uses, increasing oil output, disease resistance and enhancing the plants in other ways. The more we know about soybeans the better able we'll be to optimize their use for producing biodiesel.
Environmental News Service via Autoblog
by Paul on January 20, 2006
West Central Cooperative in Ralston, IA and General Atomics of San Diego, CA have received $3.3 million dollars for a pilot research project involving waste plastics and biodiesel. Part of the Defense Appropriations Bill for 2006, the plan is to take the plastic waste products from our front line soldiers and use biodiesel to dissolve the plastic and at the same time create more fuel. This waste to energy process could then be used by our front line soldiers. The research is expected to take about three years.
via Grainnet
by Paul on January 17, 2006
Ethanol Oil Recovery Systems has created an oil recovery process that works in conjunction with ethanol production facilities, enabling them to produce a high grade oil from corn to be used for biodiesel.
Biodiesel currently comes mainly from soybeans as well as other plants and animal fats. Corn has historically not been used because conventional extraction processes were not capable of producing a high enough grade of oil. The new technology extracts crude corn oil from the evaporation area of dry mill ethanol facilities. SunSource BioEnergy plans to finance the construction of a 50 million gallon biodiesel production facility that will refine the crude corn oil and convert it into biodiesel fuels. By extracting the corn oil, ethanol facilities gain a new revenue stream and reduce costs through the improved operating efficiency of certain distilling processes. SunSource BioEnergy additionally plans to offer the technology and oil purchase agreements to other ethanol producers across the industry.
Ethanol Oil Recovery Systems, LLC is part of the GreenShift Corporation.
Ethanol Oil Recovery Systems
GreenShift Corporation