w o r d s

For quite a while the biodieselers in our area have been wondering what will happen to our cosy little niche when diesel and biodiesel hit price parity at $3.50. Well, here we are - for well over a week now the price of diesel has been well over $3.50 per gallon and since last weekend over $4 per gallon at many gas stations - that’s $1 per litre for you metric people. Sure, that’s nowhere near the $2 per liter many Europeans are paying these days, but the percent increase last year in the US has been much higher than in Europe.

With biodiesel being the cheap fuel in town, the coop can not keep those tanks on the b100 trail full. At the same time feedstock prices have shot through the roof. So, despite the fact that they were determined to keep the biodiesel prices stable, they now face having to up the price to adjust to the higher feedstock prices.

Personally, I feel divided over this issue. On the one hand this should teach people not to freaking waste fuel any more by leaving their SUVs idling while gossiping in the Kroger parking lot. Yet I also know that this hit the people hardest who least can afford it. Our lives are so car-centric here - you just can hardly get anything done without a car, especially when you have children. I mean, I bike to work whenever I can, but when I have to run errands, I need a car. When I pick up the kids after school I need a car. When I have meetings on campus I need a car.

The impact of the 4-dollar diesel prices (and close to 4-dollar gasoline prices) on my life are actually minimal at this point. I have access to good quality used fryer oil and methanol prices are still below $4/gallon, so I can still brew a batch of nice biodiesel for well under a dollar a gallon. And by replacing 4-dollar diesel, I actually save well over $10 per work hour by brewing the juice myself.

(more…)

The Beluga Skysails, a container ship powered in part by a 500sqm towing kite, has “set sail” from the German North Sea port Bremerhaven across the Atlantic. This is reportedly the first commercial trip of a Skysail powered ship. Spiegel Online has a video (in German).

As I have said previously, this is a brilliant reinvention of sailing technology that has potential to reduce CO2 emissions  by hundreds of thousands of tons yearly. And reduce operational cost of the ships that use it.

Green Flight Int’l last month completed what they claim was the first-ever jet flight using pure biodiesel:

RENO, NV. (October 5)… Aviation history was made earlier this week in the high desert at the Reno-Stead Airport when an L-29 military aircraft piloted by Carol Sugars and Douglas Rodante succeeded in completing the world’s first jet flight powered solely by 100% biodiesel fuel. The Czechoslovakian-made aircraft is rated to fly on a variety of fuels including heating oil, making it the preferred platform for testing biodiesel in jet engines.

Renewable jet fuel is also the focus of a collaboration announced by Boeing, Rolls Royce and Air New Zealand. I guess they’re beginning to smell the humus - with the fuel cost being a major component of airline operations cost, tapping into renewables is becoming a serious business proposition. And a marketing bonus.

The demonstration flight is planned for the second half of 2008 using an Air New Zealand Boeing 747-400 equipped with Rolls-Royce engines. Boeing is in discussions with fuel-source providers around the globe to identify potential biofuels that are available in suitable quantities for laboratory and jet-engine performance testing and in compliance with stringent aviation requirements.

Boeing, Air New Zealand and Rolls-Royce Announce Biofuel Flight Demo, The Green Car Congress, 28 September 2007

My understanding is that one of the challenges of using biodiesel as jet fuel is cold-flow at high altitudes. The fuel tanks are not heated, and so the fuel, when exposed to the low temperatures at high altitudes has to have decent cold-flow properties. That’s why kerosene is used in aviation and not cheaper diesel. Biodiesel has generally poor cold-flow properties - depending on the feedstock, it can gel as high as 40 Deg. F/ 5° C. Other than cold flow, Biodiesel, petro-diesel and kerosene/jet fuel are pretty much interchangeable. In addition to the better emissions and renewable qualities of biodiesel, there is also a safety dimension to using biodiesel. The higher flashpoint should reduce the risk of fire for emergency landings and crashes.

When we moved closer Durham in June, I started seriously considering the idea of riding my bike to work. Several guys I work with already do that. It’s a great way to stay in shape and reduce your environmental footprint. So, now that the weather is cooler (less than 90F/32°C) I really ran out of excuses not to try it. Heck, one of my coworkers ran to work the other day, and he lives just down the road, maybe a mile or two closer. So, yesterday I put road tires on my bike and cleaned it a bit, so that I could take it into town.

This morning, I got up at 8:00 and did a test run. At least Sunday morning there would be less traffic. It took me 30 Minutes to get to the office, where I took a 30-Min break, and then I turned around and biked back. The ride back is uphill, and so it took me 45 Minutes to get back home. I think I can do this maybe twice a week. The most direct way to go is not a particularly nice ride, mostly along a busy, four-lane road. At least there are decent sidewalks for a good part of the ride, which makes it much safer. Probably I’ll try to take the North/South Greenway part of the American Tobacco Trail, although that’s not so direct, but it might be a more pleasant ride.

My new ride - a black 1991 Mercedes Benz 300D. She’s at 244,000 miles, and going strong. Well, right now she’s actually short a turbo, but that’ll get fixed next week. Even without the turbo she’s a mighty nice ride, especially now that she’s no longer on that stinky diesel, and running on homemade juice.

Today, Governor Mike Easley signed bill S1272 into law. That bill exempts homebrew biodiesel from the NC road tax. The 30-cents-a-gallon cost reduction is certainly welcome. But, as Lyle recently commented, the bigger picture is really huge, because it allows the homebrewers and SVO-ers to get out of the “closet” as the State DOR does not care anymore that they don’t (usually) pay taxes on their fuel. So I need to get another bumper sticker:

THIS CAR IS POWERED BY HOMEBREW

Praise the lard!

On this day in 1893 Rudolf Diesel’s engine ran for the first time, and it ran on peanut oil. So today we celebrate “Internationals Biodiesel Day” and raise our glasses to the genius of using fuel that grows back!

Praise the Lard!

In the summer, I like to collect the fryer oil in the morning, especially on a day with more triple-digits in the forecast. So I did my round this morning and “liberated” about 50 gallons - 20 from Alivia’s, 20 from Piazza Italia and 10 from El Rodeo. My new system at Piazza Italia works great - they now have a 30-gallon drum in the kitchen (they have no space outdoors). Every Friday, I just drop off a clean, empty one and haul the full one home on the trailer. It think I’ll do the same with El Rodeo.

After my grease run I was already hot and sweaty - it was “only” 87 F / 31 C at almost 70 percent humidity!

The BIG list was abuzz today with interpretations of the new biodiesel tax situation in North Carolina. There were some questions about how these recent changes, like how the tax exemption for homebrew biodiesel will be applied to SVO use. Matt Rudolph, the ED of Piedmont Biofuels explained that under NC law, veggie oil as fuel falls under the definition of biodiesel in Chapter 105/Article 36C of the NC General Statutes. So both the removal of the bond requirement (S540), as well as the tax exemption for personal use (S1272) apply to SVO.

So SVOers can also cheer, as their efforts to use renewable fuels in their vehicles have now become much simplified in NC. Of course none of this is perfect. I think there need to be broader tax exemptions for renewable fuels, a stronger focus on encouraging local, community-based fuel (and other energy) production and an attempt at setting sustainability standards for energy production. This is not easy, as the story of the Senate Bill S1272 illustrates: apparently this was originally a bill intended to clarify the definition of biodiesel. But somehow it morphed into a homebrewer tax exemption. Of course, from our perspective this was a great step in the right direction.

The North Carolina General Assembly has adjourned for this session, and last Thursday the legislators passed S1272: Motor Fuels Tax Exemption for Biodiesel, which removes the requirement to pay road tax on homebrew biodiesel. That’s awesome - a great incentive for homebrewers. Also, legislators changed the tax law to remove the $2000 bond for fuel providers who don’t have more than $2000 in fuel tax liabilities. That’s another step to boost small-scale, local fuel production in NC. I find it a bit puzzling that S1272 does not mention waste veg. oil fuel, though. Especially as this activity, to some degree, was kicked off by reports of an SVO user getting fined $1000 by the state for using un-taxed fuel. But at least the SVOers got the bond requirement removed. That bond was a huge obstacle.

A big thank-you from the biodiesel homebrewers goes to Senator John Snow who represents North Carolina’s 50th Senate District. Sen. Snow sponsored several biodiesel related bills in this session, including S1272. That bill also establishes a study commission to examine the tax implications of alternative fuels and how they should be addressed. The state does need to take a close look at the impact of exempting certain fuels from road tax, and how to deal with non-IC powered vehicles. With the emergence of “fuel diversity” on public highways, it might be a good idea to begin re-thinking the idea of tying road taxes to fuel consumption. It will get increasingly difficult to define “fuel” (think about solar- or flywheel-powered vehicles). Also, I think that we’ll see multi-fuel engines in vehicles in the next 10 years. While the tax-exemption is certainly the right thing to do, and should be expanded to encourage the use of other made-in-NC fuels, the state has a duty, and an interest, to stay on top of these issues.

If this story about these three guys from Wales is true, and their “greenbox” is real, and if it works … then it might well be the holy grail in the struggle to prevent a climate catastrophe. They claim that their invention can capture emissions from IC engines and store it. The waste from the engine can then be discharged at the fuel station, while we fill up with more fuel, instead of being discharged into the atmosphere. The CO2 could even be used to grow algae to make more fuel. They also claim that their technology can be scaled up to factory-scale, and adapted to all kinds of applications.

This technology might be as significant a step forward for public health as closed sewers and indoor plumbing. And the concept of carbon recycling to prevent further climate change is brilliant! If this greenbox device really works …

(No, I have no interests in their company, Maes Anturio Limited. But if had a bunch of dollares burning holes in my pocket, I’d take a very close look at these guys.)

There is so much interesting and important stuff going on:

• A new film documents the ongoing genocide perpetrated on the Acholi people in Uganda (HT to Vicky), perpetuated by, among other things, US military aid (war-on-terror-dollars)
• The US Congress is debating about subsidies for a road fuel that releases twice as much pollution as gasoline: liquefied coal
• The dictator son-of-the-dead-dictator Faure Ganssingbé has re-nationalized a key industry in Togo. Could it be that this has anything to do with the ongoing rivalry with Faure’s powerful brother Kpatcha?
• NSPD 51: in a “catastrophic emergency” in the US, the Shrubman will become essentially a dictator. Proclaims the Shrubman. Worried?
• The German police used military reconnaissance jets to spy on German G8 protestors. Is that constitutional? Is it smart?
• The Swedes come up with a more ecological way to bury their dead: freeze dried

And so on …

Yet - I am completely preoccupied with my own life. Next week we’re planning to buy a new house and we’re busy boxing up our possessions for the move and fixing up our old shack to sell it.

Oh yeah - and I am finishing the last growler from the last keg of Gruffmeister 8 in Durham …

Yesterday was the Durham Earth Day Celebration and it was a gorgeous, sunny and very busy day. We had a Piedmont Biofiuels/BullCity Biodiesel booth at the event and Chris brought his brand-new, jet-black 2006 Jetta TDI over for show-and-tell. Interest in biodiesel and alternative fuels in general was really strong, and our volunteers Jeff, Gary, and Chris were busy most of the day. We had a wide range of discussions and conversations, from the basics like “what’s the difference between diesel and gasoline engines?” to advanced topics like how Blutec will impact biodiesel.

Local media were also interested in our message. Kimberley Pierce of WNCU did a 3-Minute, live interview with Jeff and I. WNCU is a community-funded radio station based at North Carolina Central University. The folks from the Duke University Center for Documentary Studies interviewed us, too. It was also a great day for networking, and in several conversations I brought up the idea of using pure biodiesel in the Durham School buses to reduce the exposure of our school kids to toxic exhaust fumes.

There was some debate among the biodieselers about showing off a stock, off-the-shelf car. Some argued that showing off a cool veggie car would attract more attention I thought it was an important point to demonstrate that a nice-looking, affordable car with no modifications whatsoever, can also be an alternative fuel vehicle, that burns a locally produced, mostly carbon neutral, relatively clean fuel.

An SVO-converted veggie car does attract more attention, and it’s very cool from a geek perspective. But I think the media already focus too much on this tiny minority of biofuel die hards, and that makes it look to the general public like they have to invest in expensive, complicated conversion kits in order to use biofuels. When you talk to folks, every other question is “how do you convert the engine?” when, of course, there is no conversion required at all for using biodiesel. And the focus on SVO conversions also tends to associate biofuels with funky-looking, 1970s Mercedes’ or VWs. Most people prefer a more modern ride. So showing off a comfortable, nice looking state-of-the art automobile really made a difference, I think.

Between the news of the horrible tragedy at Virginia Tech (we’re all Hokies this week!), a slightly hectic, double trip to the beach and another offer on a new house, we’ve had a busy, weird time lately.

Last week the kids were off from school, so on Thursday we drove to Atlantic Beach, to join a friend and her daughter at her beach house. Friday, I drove back to Durham, where Laura and I made an offer on a house and had a nice night out on the town. Saturday, I drove to Raleigh, where Piedmont Biofuels had its annual membership meeting at the McKimmon Center (nice digs!). I had promised to present the Durham update to the members, which I did. After that, I hopped back in the car and cruised back to the beach, for another walk in the sand and a couple of margaritas.  Sunday, we cleaned up, I packed the kids into the car and we took off, in the midst of huge downpours from this nasty cold front that was sweeping into the area. This front had brought tornadoes to the Midwest and I think some funnel clouds were spotted in North Carolina as well. I find it a bit nerve-wracking to drive on those coastal highways in such downpours, because the roads have these huge ditches on the side, and in the rain they fill with water - up to 8 feet in some places. If the car slides off the road, you’re likely to end up in the water and drown! Anyway - we made it home with no problem.

Coming up for air a bit … we have some big projects going on, like getting our house ready to put on the market (to sell it) and looking for a new place to live. We’re planning to stay here in Durham, we just need a third bedroom, and a change in scenery.

Anyway - one of the projects I am working on is my biodiesel road tax. Figuring out how to “be legal” when using homebrew is turning out to be more complicated than actually making the stuff. And I am not even necessarily the trailblazer here. A lot of the groundwork seems to have been done by Piedmont Biofuels and other homebrewers. At this point, my biggest hurdle appears to be to convince a bonding company to post a $2000 bond with the state.

To be very clear: please do not take any of this information as legal advice. I am just documenting my experience for the benefit of a public discussion. I AM NOT A LAWYER.

In North Carolina, when one operates a licensed vehicle on public highways, one is required to pay road tax. (NC General Statute, Chapter 105, Article 36C) That tax is collected as part of the cost of the fuel for that vehicle, and all commercial retailers of fuel are required to collect that tax. But what happens if you don’t buy fuel from a retailer, and make your own instead? Do you still have to pay the road tax?

Well, the law is based on your use of North Carolina highways, not on the source of the fuel. If you use the highways, you have to pay taxes. If you don’t use the highways, you don’t have to pay taxes. That’s why you can get dyed, off-road fuel, which is not taxed, and which is only for use in off-road equipment, like farm vehicles, construction vehicles, recreational vehicles, etc. So if you make fuel yourself and use it in a vehicle on the highway, you have to pay road tax.

To be able to pay that tax to the NC Dept. of Revenue (NCDOR), you have to become a licensed and bonded “Biodiesel Provider.” So I emailed the NCDOR and today I received in the mail my very own form GAS-1262 - the NC Motor Fuels Tax License Application. Many of the NC DOR forms can be downloaded from the DOR website, but currently this one is not available online. So that’s about 20 pages of “light reading” and some trivia questions, like “Are you a shipper of record on one of the commercial pipelines serving North Carolina?”

No problem.

The other piece of this equation is the bond. Article 36C requires that Biodiesel Providers post a $2000 bond with the state. One of the most common ways to do this is to pay a bonding agency. So I contacted a friend of mine who is an insurance broker and also an agent for CNA Surety. Boy, those bonding folks are not easy to please. They wanted to know exactly what statute of NC law requires me to get a bond, and they said something about wanting an “official financial statement” from me. Can’t they just run a credit check? Well, we’ll see how that turns out.

So if I can get the bonding guys to do their thing (to the tune of $100/year!), I’ll just have to fill out the application, and I should be legal, and able to pay road tax to the state.

The other day Marc posted a message to the BIG list with a link to an article that is quite critical of the biofuels industry, and a good example of some of the one-sided thinking of the critics of biofuels.

THE REAL SCOOP ON BIOFUELS
“Green Energy” Panacea or Just the Latest Hype?

by Brian Tokar, WW4 REPORT

You can hardly open up a major newspaper or national magazine these days without encountering the latest hype about biofuels, and how they’re going to save oil, reduce pollution and prevent climate change. Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems’ Vinod Khosla, and other major venture capitalists are investing millions in new biofuel production, whether in the form of ethanol, mainly derived from corn in the US today; or biodiesel, mainly from soybeans and canola seed. It’s virtually a “modern day gold rush,” as described by the New York Times, paraphrasing the chief executive of Cargill, one of the main benefactors of increased subsidies to agribusiness and tax credits to refiners for the purpose of encouraging biofuel production. (MORE)

For the most part, this article trots out the usual caveats of the biofuels industry and it is hard to argue against the argument that there is not significant hype and profiteering going on in this industry.

However, I find it odd that they choose to so unequivocally slam biofuels, as they tout the site as a resource for information about what they call World War 4 (clearly, the site is a hype-free zone!). A major factor of most major, current conflicts around the globe is access to fossil oil reserves or control of transit routes for oil and oil products (Iraq, Darfur, Chechnya, Afghanistan).

While the issues of competing food/fuel production, land use, agro-pollution and energy balances are real, and quite relevant, the article frames biofuels in the tired hype-or-panacea dichotomy. This is an overly simplistic view and intellectual laziness. No, biofuels are not a panacea. No, soy and corn will not take care of all of the world’s fuel needs. That does not mean biofuels are not worth pursueing! There is a lot of work to be done to make biofuels a a truly viable alternative for fossil fuels, especially in the big picture. But we have to start now, and we can. The power of this technology is that it is simple, and it is easily accessible.

What irks me most, though, is the point at the end of the article, that argues that conservation is the panacea for all the world’s energy needs, and that no one pushes for greater energy efficiency because there is no profit in conservation. First of all, there is a huge overlap between the alt. fuels folks and the conservation community. Most biodieselers I know also drive very fuel-efficient VWs, not Hummers. I find it offensive that the author of the article seems to suggest that the biofuels community just wants to switch to biofuels, and not make adjustments to achieve greater efficiency.

Second, I think as energy cost rises, thee are excellent commercial opportunities in conservation. The Toyota Prius is a great example. And gasoline-electric hybrid cars are certainly not a panacea to the world’s energy needs, but that does not mean conservation does not work, does it?

Lots of stuff is brewing. I started a Mr Brew keg - 2 gallons of Märzen - I am very curious how that’s going to turn out. I also have 50 gallons of biodiesel settling in the basement. I am running low on methanol - need to make a run to the Roxboro Dragway for some “racing alky.”

Today, I went to the Piedmont board meeting. Lots going on there, too. Among many other things., we’re getting ready for the annual membership meeting in April. We’re planning to move the Bull City Biodiesel tank - the juicebox - to a new location on Angier Ave.

The Africa trip we had planned for June won’t happen. The person who was coordinating the Ghana stuff for Laura’s store is seriously ill and in the hospital. So Laura had to cancel the trip. So now we’re trying to figure out whether we should go by ourselves in the fall.

Friday, I got a growler of the latest brew from Foothills - the Sexual Chocolate Stout. It’s a seasonal brew, and they don’t even list it on their website. But this is a truly amazing beer. It is malty and thick and pitch-black, and it coats the glass when you pour it. I find the flavor to be more mocha and cocoa, not so much chocolate-sweet (like Youngs Double Chocolate Stout). And boy, is it intense! You can taste the almost 10 percent alcohol a bit, but only enough to serve as a discreet warning. What a brew!

Our local paper, the News & Observer, ran a story today about the status of alternative fuels in the Triangle area and yours truly is mentioned as one of the local “biodiesel nuts” :) … I wish Bull City Biodiesel got a bit more credit for providing 1000 gallons of biodiesel a month to Durham. But at least Piedmont gets good exposure.

Fill-up stations offering a mix of petroleum and high amounts of ethanol, fuel from fermented plant material, can be hard to find. Biodiesels — fuels made from plant and animal fats sometimes, mixed with petroleum — are scattered here and there, known mainly to devotees. One provider of nearly pure biodiesel has a limited number of pump stations accessible only at set hours and only to members of a cooperative.

A few people, including Jurgen Henn, have succeeded in driving off the gasoline grid entirely.

Once a week, Henn walks from his Duke University office in Durham’s Brightleaf District to collect plastic jugs of used cooking oil that three local restaurants save for him.

In his basement at home in Bahama, Henn blends methanol and potash with the discarded grease in a biodiesel reactor built with plumbing parts and a water heater. When his diesel Volkswagen Jetta runs low on fuel, he just pours in his home brew.

“I try to limit the amount of fossil fuel I use. We need to save that stuff as much as we can for our kids and for their kids,” said Henn, a Duke University computer network specialist.

Others buy their biodiesel from a local manufacturer, the Piedmont Biofuels Cooperative. Beth Grabowski, an art professor at UNC-Chapel Hill, is one of 400 members of the co-op. She fills her car with 99.9 percent petroleum-free biodiesel at a pump on Carrboro Public Works property, one of seven co-op pumps in the Triangle. The fuel comes from a reactor the co-op runs in Chatham County that now produces about 1 million gallons of biodiesel a year.

Triangle’s fuel choices are few, News & Observer, Feb 22, 2007

Last night it was freeeezing - the low was 10.9 °F / -11.7 °C. Big OOOPS! I did not add more petro diesel to the blend in the fuel tank in my car and the dam juice gelled up. I was worried about it, but when the car started I thought I was good … well, a couple of miles down the road the engine stalled and died.

So I had to call AAA and they sent a tow truck. I had it towed to my trusted mechanic in town, where they parked the car in the heated garage. Then I walked to work from there. Later, they bled the fuel lines and got the air out, and it cranked up just fine. I also added some petro, but tonight it’s not going to be as cold as last night. Just below freezing. The mechanic actually had two other stranded biodieselers in the shop today … oh boy.

Heat mining apparently has much greater potential in the US as previously thought. The idea of exploiting geothermal energy by drilling deep holes into hot rocks deep underground is not confined to Iceland and Yellowstone. According to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this awesome, abundant source of energy (the hot core of the Earth) is accessible even is much less geologically active areas, like the East Coast. You just have to drill a bit deeper. A lot deeper. But it can be done.

According to panel member M. Nafi Toksöz, professor of geophysics at MIT, “geothermal energy could play an important role in our national energy picture as a non-carbon-based energy source. It’s a very large resource and has the potential to be a significant contributor to the energy needs of this country.”

Toksöz added that the electricity produced annually by geothermal energy systems now in use in the United States at sites in California, Hawaii, Utah and Nevada is comparable to that produced by solar and wind power combined. And the potential is far greater still, since hot rocks below the surface are available in most parts of the United States.

Even in the most promising areas, however, drilling must reach depths of 5,000 feet or more in the west, and much deeper in the eastern United States. Still, “the possibility of drilling into these rocks, fracturing them and pumping water in to produce steam has already been shown to be feasible,” Toksöz said.

MIT-led panel backs ‘heat mining’ as key U.S. energy source - January 22, 2007

I think this is really exciting news. Let’s go drill some holes.