Biodiesel Newsletter 3: July 2006
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- Just How “Green” Is Biodiesel, Anyway?
- The Filling Station of the Future
- Kiwi Company Claims Sewage Algae Biodiesel First
- Australia Lags, European Union Leads on Biofuels
- Global Biofuel Drumbeat Grows
Just How “Green” Is Biodiesel, Anyway?
It's no secret biodiesel and ethanol are cleaner fuels than traditional petrol and diesel when it comes to tailpipe emissions. But they’re also cleaner when it comes to refining and production. The Washington-based Worldwatch Institute has ranked various fuels based upon the energy they contain for the amount of fossil fuel inputs they require. Topping the list with the most-energy-per-fossil-fuel-input is cellulosic ethanol followed by palm oil-based biodiesel and sugar cane-based ethanol. Next in line comes waste vegetable oil biodiesel followed by soybean and rapeseed-based biodiesel and then wheat and corn-based biodiesel. Crude oil-based petrol and diesel anchor the bottom of the list. The Worldwatch report recommends governments encourage biofuels research and development, work to ensure sustainability in their production, broaden international biofuels trade and encourage greater use of biofuels in private and public transit.
Summaries of the report, to be released in full later this year, can be downloaded from Worldwatch’s website, see Biofuels for Transportation: Global Potential and Implications for Sustainable Agriculture and Energy in the 21st Century.
The Filling Station of the Future
Imagine pulling up to the bowser and instead of choosing between leaded, unleaded and diesel fuels to fill up your vehicle, you could pick between countless shades of green in the form of ethanol, biodiesel and just about everything in between. It’s a reality in California at the San Diego service station Pearson Ford Fuel Depot. The station, in addition to offering old-fashioned fossil fuels, also sells ethanol, propane and BioWillie – the namesake of country singer Willie Nelson. The station also offers recharging electric vehicles and has an environmental sustainability exhibition centre. Co-owner Mike Lewis says all these green fuel products aren’t turning a significant profit yet, but that could change if energy prices stay high. For now, however, just getting renewable and green energy products sold side-by-side with fossil fuels seems achievement enough.
Fuel Station Offers Range of Alternatives, Los Angeles Times, June 12, 2006
Kiwi Company Claims Sewage Algae Biodiesel First
Biodiesel can be made from plants, vegetable oils and tallow. But the most intriguing feedstock may be algae, and the ingenious Kiwis may be the first to get this green fuel method off the ground commercially. A company called Aqua Bionomic claims it’s been the world’s first to create biodiesel from sewage algae under real world conditions. The company plans to expand in the next year into commercial production. Algae is traditionally used to purge sewage of chemicals so the water can be recycled for non-potable uses such as stock-feeding or irrigation. To make biodiesel, the algae is then processed into a pulp before lipid oils are extracted and refined into a fuel.
NZ firm Makes Bio-diesel From Sewage In World First, NZ Herald, 12 May 2006.
Australia Lags, European Union Leads on Biofuels
The European Union is clearly taking the lead in the renewable fuels industry. The EU’s current objective is to have biofuels comprise 5.75% of transport fuels in each member state by 2010, up from around 1% currently. France, Europe’s second largest biodiesel maker after Germany, has gone even further. France wants green fuels to account for 5.75% of all national fuel consumption by 2008, two years earlier than the EU’s target. In addition, France wants to raise its biofuels component to 7% of national consumption by 2011, and 10% by 2016. Australia, by contrast, has set a paltry target of 350 million litres of biofuel use by 2010. On current trends, that would amount to roughly 1.16% of national transport fuels usage that year.
Global Biofuel Drumbeat Grows
The global political drumbeat is getting louder in favour of biofuels.
- The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization says biofuels could satisfy 25% of the world’s energy needs in the next 15-20 years, spurred by high oil prices and the need to reduce greenhouse gases.
- Ireland’s Fine Gael political party outlined a platform calling upon Ireland to satisfy 33% of its energy needs from renewables by 2025, require at least a two percent biodiesel blend in all diesels, eliminate excise duties on renewable biofuels and require public transport fleets and public service vehicles to convert where practicable to biofuels.
- In trend-setting California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has issued an executive order calling for the state to produce 20% of its own biofuels by 2010 and 40% by 2020. California consumes 25% of America’s ethanol, and the order should spur a major rampup of production capacity in the state, lowering costs.
And in Australia, too:
- Federal Opposition leader Kim Beazley says rising petrol prices and Middle Eastern political uncertainty are raising the risks of traditional fuel supplies. “We’ve got to go down the road now (of developing) ethanol, biodiesel and, above all, gas to liquid conversion,” he told the Australian Associated Press. However, Mr. Beazley says his support doesn’t go as far as lowering excise taxes.
- New South Wales Country Labor MP for Bathurst Gerard Martin is calling for the state government to mandate biofuels to make up 10% of all fuel used in the state. He says such a mandate would lower the price of fuel and help farmers.
Oil Price Pressure Driving Global Switch to Biofuels, 25 April 2006
Irish Political Party Plans Major Steps in Biofuels, Renewables, 25 April 2006
Gov. Schwarzenegger Directs State Agencies to Expand ‘Bio-Fuels’ to Fight High Gas Prices, 25 April 2006
Gov’t urged to mandate biofuels use, 12 June 2006
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