Biodiesel growing fast for home heating
November 11th, 2005Everyone was busy watching biodiesel grow as a fuel for diesel powered vehicles and while their attention was diverted, the fuel was growing rapidly as a substitute for home heating oil, too. When we mentioned the new biodiesel injection blending facility in Pennsylvania the other day, it was interesting that the first load of fuel leaving the plant was for BioHeat, home heating fuel.
BioHeat has several advantages over conventional heating oil: The fuel burns cleaner and releases fewer harmful emissions, and it relies on domestic sources of renewable energy — mostly soybeans. That means BioHeat is less harmful to the environment and reduces national dependence on foreign oil. Switching all heating-oil customers to 5-percent biodiesel could reduce oil consumption by more than 330 million gallons a year; changing to 100-percent biodiesel (B100) would decrease it by 6.7 billion gallons a year.
Biofuels - environmentalists don’t like them either
November 11th, 2005Right from the start, I stated that biodiesel is a great technology and my aim at The Biodiesel Report was not to stress any environmental issues involved and this is a perfect example of why I don’t. Environmentalists are quite literally never pleased:
The destruction of the world’s rainforests will be hastened by a Government pledge to ensure that five per cent of fuel should come from “green” sources, conservationists said yesterday …
The new obligation is likely to stimulate imports and some fuels are not very efficient at saving carbon when their life cycle is taken into account. They involve burning crops that some might say should go to relieve famines.
We’ve all met people like this, complain about everything, offer nothing positive, … we tend to avoid them.
Canola - another oil source for biodiesel
November 9th, 2005With biodiesel growing in popularity and demand rising right along with it, producers are looking at more sources for the feedstock oil used to make it. Canola, a member of the rapeseed family, is now being considered for use in biodiesel. Although rapeseed is already used, it is inedible. Canola, on the other hand is used for human consumption and had been thought of in those terms, though rising demand and prices for biodiesel have lead to a rise in research aimed at using Canola as fuel.
Canola has a higher oil yield than soybeans, also used for biodiesel, and the price is lower.
Source: Azom
Pennsylvania opens biodiesel injection blending facility
November 7th, 2005Pennsylvania is stepping up efforts to become one of the leading biodiesel states in the nation with the opening of the biodiesel injection facility, in Highspire, PA. The facility is owned by Independence BioFuels, Inc, a wholesale distributor of biofuels. Injection blending combines biodiesel with regular petroleum diesel or petroleum heating oil into the finished product. The first load of injection blended B5 Bioheat was delivered from the facility to Bernville Quality Fuels of Reading, PA. Read the rest of this entry »
Biodiesel plant moving forward in Pennsylvania
November 4th, 2005We’re located just about 40 miles north of Titusville, PA where the first oil well was drilled by Colonel Drake back in 1859. That well set off quite a boom in the area back then and the town of Oil City was established just down the road. The old refineries located in Oil City have since closed their doors but one of those old refineries, formerly owned by Pennzoil, is going to be the site of a new biodiesel plant. Plans call for an initial annual capacity of 36 million gallons and it will be using soybean oil from the midwestern U.S.
This is one of the best uses for an old refinery property that I can think of and I hope it’s very successful. Once they break ground and get things going, we’ll see about getting some photos and an interview with company representatives.
Diesel prices remain high - biodiesel may help
November 3rd, 2005An article today notes that after the gulf hurricanes, diesel prices jumped and stayed high even as gasoline prices fell. Demand for diesel is less elastic than gasoline since a high proportion of diesel use is for business and agricultural vehicles. This is a high demand season and there is no extra diesel reserve or capacity with some production facilities offline. Prices are expected to remain high throughout the fall.
This is another great reason to consider biodiesel if you have a diesel engine. The cost of producing your own biodiesel fuel can be $1 dollar or less per gallon. Right now, that’s one heckuva deal.
Restaurants team up with biodiesel producers
November 2nd, 2005When you begin to see stories like this in the news, it’s a sign that things are changing. An Oregon donut shop has an arrangement with SeQuential Biofuels, the company picks up the used cooking oil for its biodiesel production and the donut shop no longer has to pay for disposal. It’s a great deal for both parties. I have a hunch you’ll see a lot of this happen very quickly.
There are a number of companies selling biodiesel kits you can set up in your garage or somewhere similar and make all of the biodiesel you want from used cooking oil, just head over to your favorite local diner and haul it away. However, anyone who sees how easy it is to make biodiesel like this will want to quickly nail down his own supply because it won’t be long before someone else beats you to it. There are one helluva lot of little restaurants around but there are a lot of diesel engines out there, too. If someone decides to go into large scale production, the local used veggie oil supply could get locked up fast. Read the rest of this entry »
Biodiesel dragster
October 30th, 2005Just to make sure you know we like to look at biodiesel from all angles, we wanted to show you the Cummins Biodiesel Dragster. It’s probably easier to let them tell you about it:
This dragster is powered by a twin turbo, 24 valve, P7100 mechanical fuel pump, 5.9 liter Cummins Diesel engine. Same basic engine as a Dodge Ram truck. This is a pure stock short block with 35,000 street miles! We are just out there trying to see how fast and quick we can go.
The engine has two stage ATS Diesel Performance turbos providing the boost. It can build over 100 pounds of boost. The pump and injectors we are using now are built by John Russin of Buddha Power.
The transmission is a ATS Diesel Performance custom 47RE Dodge 4 speed overdrive, lock up 5 Star Viskus Converter Drive, with a electronic transmission brake. We have made many full throttle lauches with this with no breakage. The lock up converter is bulletproof.
The fuel that we are running is biodiesel, supplied from BlueSun of Colorado. This fuel is made from virgin agricultural based products, not petroleum. We have found that this fuel has a higher cetane rating, and performs very well. In addition, it is an alternative fuel, a renewable resource.
As luck would have it, and as racing goes, they just had a bit of a blowout on one of the turbos so it’s currently being repaired. But they have already run a 7.98 at 167.43 MPH! So biodiesel isn’t just for your VW Rabbit.
