Today NPR News aired a story about a rural Michigan school district that is pursuing green by using wind turbines to power their schools and offices. The Jr. High Principal, Kathy Dickens, took the initiative three years ago by applying for grants to pursue wind harvesting. As a result of her efforts The Lakers School District was awarded a quarter million dollar grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
With that money they purchased three large refurbished wind turbines which now power their elementary school and the superintendent’s office. They have since received another grant and energy smart incentives. The Lakers School District now owns a biodiesel processor in addition to their wind turbines. This spring their high school students will have a “Pressing Party”. They will gather sunflower seeds from the plants growing beneath their wind turbines, combine them with soybeans then press these seeds and beans to obtain oil to make alternative fuel.
You may recognize that quote from the bible as Jesus tells those of little faith they can “Say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there and it will move.’ ”
It’s kind of ironic that officials in California are placing their faith in mustard seed as a home-grown feedstock for biodiesel fuel, to move their busses from “here to there.”
Monterey-Salinas Transit has proposed producing its own sustainable biodiesel fuel for its fleet operations, planting the [...]
High soybean and palm oil prices are sending biodiesel producers looking for a less expensive feedstock for their product. The poster child these days appears to be algae, pond scum with dignity.
Several companies are now researching and beginning to produce oil derived from algae, that would replace food crops as a feedstock for biodiesel production. They claim higher oil yields for less water and acreage needed for food crops.
The National Algae Association informed Green Options it has opened its new headquarters in The Woodlands, TX. An article in Biodiesel Magazine quoted the association founder, Barry Cohen of Biofuel Capital Partners, as saying “We’ve got biodiesel producers that are contacting us every single day because they know they’ve got a problem”, referring to high soybean and vegetable oil biofuel feedstock costs.
All that green pond scum I used to avoid could well produce enough fuel to satisfy all the energy needs in the United States. That’s a pretty far out statement, but Glen Kertz, CEO of Valcent Products made it very clear that a process of growing algae vertically is capable of producing huge amounts of alternative fuels. It’s being proven today in Texas.
This is one fascinating story, with a link below showing the process and an explanation by Mr. Kertz.
Valcent has partnered with Global Green Solutions to develop a production test project in El Paso, TX. After 90 days of continual production, algae was being harvested at an average of one gram per liter from the Vertigro Bio-Reactor System. Based on those results, the joint venture partners believe their system would deliver about 33,000 gallons of algae oil per acre per year. By comparison, soybean oil produces about 49 gallons of oil per acre each year, and palm oil would yield about 630 acres of oil a year.
Dr. Andrew Weil, who has spent a lifetime instructing people on how to heal our bodies as naturally as possible, has taken on a new project. He's making his own biodiesel fuel in his Vail, AZ back yard.
In an Arizona Daily Star interview, written by staff reporter Carla Mc Clain, Dr. Weil has turned his garage into what he calls his "Bio-Depot", turning out 75-cent per gallon
Today NPR News aired a story about a rural Michigan school district that is pursuing green by using wind turbines to power their schools and offices. The Jr. High Principal, Kathy Dickens, took the initiative three years ago by applying for grants to pursue wind harvesting. As a result of her efforts The Lakers School District was awarded a quarter million dollar grant from the Michigan Public Service Commission.
Dr. Andrew Weil
