Here are some stories I missed:

Al Gore was in Argentina, where he spoke before the biofuel industry there (May 1)
Argentina is looking to jump on the biofuel bandwagon by offsetting 5% of its fuel usage with biodiesel or ethanol within the next 3 years. If not implemented carefully, the diversion of food or cropland to biofuels could drive up commodity prices for the 25% of Argentina’s population who live in poverty, not to mention the already strained middle class. “Every potential solution must be handled carefully and the danger with biofuels is that extremely valuable forests will be destroyed unnecessarily,” said Gore, “Another danger is that, if it is not pursued carefully, it will drive food prices up.”

Just Say ‘No’ to Bad Biofuels (May 9)
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, RSPB and WWF have launched an advertising campaign against ‘the wrong kind of biofuels’. The ‘wrong kind’ being those produced in ecologically destructive or irresponsible ways, like rainforest-eating Malaysian Palm Oil. Campaign posters depict a gas pump handle being held to an orangutan’s head along with the words “Tell the Government to choose the right biofuel or the orang-utan gets it.” The groups are urging the government to avoid misguided biofuel mandates without implementing proper environmental safeguards.

Dairy Builds $400 million algae biodiesel/ethanol refinery (May 13)
Xl Dairy Group Inc. is looking to make a buck off the biofuel boom. Located 100 miles west of Phoenix, their new ‘XL biorefinery’ will produce both fuel and cow feed on-site, first from ethanol and later exclusively from algae. The company developed a proprietary algaculture system in which waste CO2 is bubbled through plastic tubes. By 2009, algae will be grown in the tube array on a 1/3 acre plot next to the dairy farm, all using waste CO2 from a nearby power plant. Algae, which can contain up to 60% oil by weight, will be pressed to extract the oil for biodiesel production. The pressed biomass can then be converted to ethanol or used as animal feed, but before the algae system comes online, the dairy will import 576,000 tons of Midwestern corn each year. Annual biofuel production is expected to be around 20 million gallons of ethanol and 5 million gallons of biodiesel. This is a great example of ‘co-generation,’ where waste from one process becomes fuel for another. I always thought dairy waste-water might be a good place to grow algae.

Cleaning up Emissions: CleanAIR systems announces PERMIT Filter/Silencer (May 15)
Everyone knows diesel engines can be dirty, often spewing black plumes of smoke out the exhaust pipe. But don’t forget about diesel generators, which provide backup power to schools, hospitals, power plants, government offices, and other buildings. Estimated to number 100,000, standby generators are ubiquitous if unnoticeable, and they contribute to local air pollution. Enter CleanAIR Systems and their new particulate filters/silencers designed to plug into existing generators. The filters, which look like giant metal boxes, are intended to substantially reduce particulate matter “by more than 85% and emissions of carbon monoxide and hydrocarbons by up to 99%.” CleanAIR Systems also makes particulate filters for older diesel vehicles (like schoolbuses). Good filters are key to the next generation of ‘clean’ diesels, and there’s no reason why existing technology can’t be retrofitted to meet cleaner standards.

Soap Makers/biodiesel producers aren’t happy about Big Oil getting biofuel tax credits (May 21).
In April, a small but very important definitional change was made to the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Under the new definition, ‘renewable diesel’ now means regular diesel with any amount of biomass blended into it, and this so-called renewable diesel qualifies for a $1.00/gallon tax credit. This credit is a windfall to already grossly rich corporations, and will also discourage real development of renewable fuels. As I reported in the April’s biofuel News Roundup, ConocoPhillips and Tyson Foods’ have major plans to develop ‘renewable diesel’ from animal fat. It turns out that ConocoPhillips and Tyson weren’t planning on making biodiesel (as I reported), but instead are going to use thermal depolymerization to boil down animal waste into a diesel (an probably biodiesel)-like fuel, and blend it into regular diesel (thereby getting the tax credit). Not only are biodiesel manufacturer’s irate (Joe Jobe of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB) remarked it was “bad energy policy, bad agricultural policy, and bad fiscal policy.”), but the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) is worried about the future supply of animal tallow, which they say has already been driven up 80% due to biofuel subsidy. They have good reason to be worried if any oil company can now blend a small fraction of animal-fat based fuel into their distribution system and call it “renewable diesel”. A bill back by the NBB, the SDA, and 50 other signatories is now aimed at eliminating the tax credit.

That’s the news for May! Stick around next month for more biofuel news on algae aviation fuel, clean diesel vehicles, and more!

Let me return to the Bay Islands and add a third and final player to the renewable energy triad: biodiesel.

As you know from my biodiesel mythbuster, biodiesel is a liquid, bio-based fuel that can be used in any diesel engine. This has important implications for tropical locales in general, but especially the Bay Islands, where 99.9% of electricity 99.9% of transportation needs are met by diesel engines. Even rapid and widespread implementation of wind and solar won’t change the transportation requirements for diesel. But biodiesel - if available in sufficient quantity on the islands - could offset the lion’s share of dirty-diesel fuel usage.

Yes, that’s a big “if,” supply being biofuels’ endemic problem. On the other hand, tropical environments are well-suited to biodiesel, with warm climates and productive feedstocks. It just so happens that mainland Honduras is already producing biodiesel. With Honduras still shouldering the highest gasoline prices in Central America, it could be time to consider a more ecologically and economically friendly alternative: Palm oil.

The price of diesel in Honduras continues to rise. The national average for March was $2.60, up fifteen percent from last year’s average. . .Of course, with no facilities for processing crude oil internally, all of Honduras’ gasoline is imported - around ten million barrels per year - with prices largely dependent on other countries’ export rates as well as the tax levied by the Honduran government. But there is an alternative. Once converted through a simple process known as transesterification, the oil of the African palm - one of Honduras’ major existing natural resources - can make an efficient biofuel to run diesel engines without the need for any modifications.”

We’re all familiar with the dangers of palm oil plantations, granted, but even without expansion the industry could easily meet the meager fuel needs of the Bay Islands. Biodiesel production would also create an entirely new industry and keep some of that oil money at home. Could palm oil production be sustainable? That’s a great question, and biodiesel production on mainland Honduras and greater Central America certainly warrants further investigation.

Back to the Bay Islands: Every morning, while subdued boats gently tug at the dock and the ‘clink…clink’ of scuba-tanks can be heard in the distance, diesel engines across the harbor sputter to life. Dive boats are the life-blood of the industry. Most shops have groups out in the morning, afternoon, and sometimes evening, with some trips lasting an hour each way. Before departing, boats typically idle at the dock for 20 minutes while they inject diesel exhaust directly into the water, nearly asphyxiating passengers when they finally push off. The smoke trail rising from the stern is just part of the experience - at least it always has been.

If you’ve ever been on any kind of diesel-powered marine vessel, you may fondly remember the noxious aroma of sooty diesel exhaust floating over the water. One thing I failed to mention in my last post was the dramatic difference biodiesel makes in visible smoke emitted by diesel engines. Using even a small blend of biodiesel cuts that considerably, even eliminating it (other factors, like cold weather contribute to smoke). Instead of dirty-diesel exhaust, how about the faint odor of french fries? Anyone?

Crude palm oil, of which around 250 million kilos will be produced in Honduras this year, is thick and dark red. When it is refined the biodiesel produced is pale yellow, has no odor, smells like frying potatoes when it burns and creates very little smoke. And even more importantly for a country crippled by the price of its gasoline, it could prove up to ten percent cheaper than its non-renewable counterpart.. . .Honduras currently imports just over 1.1 million tons of diesel fuel every year. Dinant Corporation statistics show that were all the palm oil from the 70,000 hectares in Honduras used to produce biodiesel, it would satisfy just over twenty percent of this national demand.”

Besides cutting the emission of most combustion products by 50% or more (in higher blends), biodiesel is also better for the environment when spilled. And yes, some amount of diesel fuel is going to end up in the water no matter how hard everyone tries. In an area dependent on the aquatic ecosystem for basic services (fishing) and the economy (tourism), it makes sense to avoid damaging the resource. Biodiesel is particularly suitable for environmentally sensitive areas like parklands and marine environments considering that it’s ‘non-toxic’ (comparable to table salt) and biodegrades as fast as sugar.

For an excellent introduction to biodiesel in marine applications, take a look at The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats.

Biodiesel runs just as well in diesel generators as it does in boat engines, with the same reduction tangible benefits. While wind and solar technology are better long-term options for electricity generation, biodiesel could start offsetting diesel usage today, with no change in infrastructure. In case you aren’t familiar with them, yesterday I stumbled across an excellent description of life with diesel generators:

Chronic power shortages in Myanmar are leaving cities in the former Burma shrouded in almost permanent blackout, driving its citizens to despair and crippling an economy reeling from decades of military misrule…Small businesses such as photo-processing shops or Internet cafes need portable generators to get by and have to hike prices to reflect the high cost of diesel, nearly all of which is imported…But the use of generators comes with hidden costs for the wider population, mainly in the form of noise and air pollution. “With all the blackouts, generator noise, diesel fumes and flash floods in the rainy season due to the choked drains, life here has become horrible,” said Ba Tin, a retired civil servant. “My whole family has developed a sort of migraine. We often get headaches and nausea, especially when the big diesel generators in the restaurants next door are running,” he said. Doctors and psychiatrists say they are having to treat an increased number of respiratory ailments and stress-related conditions, which they attribute to the noise and fumes.”

This problem is clearly non-unique to Honduras, although diesel generators are much less conspicuous in the Bay Islands. Biodiesel can help alleviate these problems wherever it’s used.

To summarize things, over the course of these two posts I’ve learned that eliminating the economic and environmental problems associated with dirty-diesel fuel usage in the Bay Islands is feasible and extremely preferable. The technology is already available, it’s just a matter of connecting the dots…

Myanmar Learns To Live with the Lights Out
Oiling the Wheels of Change
The Technical Handbook for Marine Biodiesel In Recreational Boats

Photo Credits: Clayton B. Cornell

Well, that depends on what you mean by 'better'? A usable alternative fuel must fulfill a few important functions, such as work in existing infrastructure (ie the cars we have now) and contain a reasonable amount of energy (so your tank stays roughly the same size). There's also one highly desirable trait for those of us trying to lesson our carbon footprint: using the fuel emits less carbon dioxide (from source to tailpipe) than burning gasoline or diesel. If we can all agree that global warming is the single greatest environmental challenge we face today, then it's imperative any 'alternative' fuel reduces overall CO2 emissions.

Understandably, many of us (myself included) tend to think of plant-based fuels as a green option. This is true for a lot of biodiesel made in the states, such as the used-cooking-oil biodiesel we have an Oregon. But as I've mentioned in previous posts, this assumption runs into trouble with certain feedstocks. Just like choosing food at the supermarket, the fuel we choose has an impact, and it's important to know something about the source. With that, and adding to last week's post, let me just say: be wary of palm-oil biodiesel.

A four-year study completed late last year reviewed the impacts of Asian biodiesel plantations being seeded on drained peat swamps. Since peat swamps act as a reservoir for stored carbon (in decomposing plants and animals), exposing them emits an enormous amount of CO2. Researchers from Wetlands, Delft Hydraulics and the Alterra Research Center of Wageningen University, all who contributed to the report, put the number at 600 million tons of additional carbon emitted into the atmosphere due to these plantations. Add to that the carbon emissions from burning rainforest for new palm oil plantations, an estimated 1.4 billion tons of CO2, and you have just accounted for 8% of global CO2 emissions.

By the way, we aren't just talking about biofuel either. Palm oil is used in a plethora of everyday products. Just take a look at that food label.

From the International Herald Tribune:

Friends of the Earth called the report "astonishing," and said it shows that harvesting palm oil for fuel is counterproductive. "It undermines the whole project," said a climate specialist for the environment group, Anne van Schaik. Wetlands' figures could not be independently verified by the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat in Bonn, Germany, by the World Resources Institute in Washington, D.C., nor by academic experts. But all said the research appeared credible. Deforestation is the No. 2 cause of greenhouse gas emissions after the burning of fossil fuels, said Jeffrey Dukes, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts, and clearing peat swamps for plantations is "a double whammy." It not only releases carbon trapped over many millennia, Dukes said, but destroys the most efficient ecosystem on the planet for sucking carbon from the atmosphere and storing it underground. "By converting these forests, we are essentially taking that buried sunshine and wasting it," he said. "It's a terrible decision. Whether or not it's consciously made, it's society going in reverse."

But the world is not turning a blind eye to these issues. Many individual companies, countries, and organizations have recognized the negative potential of palm oil biodiesel. For example:

Despite pressure to replace coal, oil and gas with cleaner fuels, major power companies in Britain and the Netherlands have scrapped plans to partially convert electricity generation to palm oil. "We spent more than a year investigating the sustainability issues with palm oil," said Leon Flexman, of RWE npower, Britain's largest electricity supplier. The company decided against palm oil because it could not verify all its supplies would be free of the taint of destroyed rain forest or peat bogs, he said. The Dutch power company Essent also announced in December it had suspended the incineration of palm oil until it can trace and verify the sources. Biox, a Dutch startup, said it plans to go ahead with the construction of three 50 megawatt power stations exclusively burning palm oil — generating enough electricity to light all the homes in Amsterdam. "Until this report came out, peatlands was not an issue because we hadn't heard of it. Nobody had heard," said Biox executive Arjen Brinkmann. "We have to take this on board as a criteria, together with the other sustainability criteria."

Palm-oil biodiesel has been a hotter issue in European Union countries, where mandatory biofuel quotas are the norm. But with the potential for large increases in international biofuel trade (see last week), and since palm-oil is the cheapest feedstock available, sourcing from these plantations can only be expected.

A quick google search can tell you if palm-oil biodiesel is used in your area. Here in the Pacific Northwest, Seattle-based Imperium Renewables sources palm-oil from Malaysia, ostensibly to ensure consistent supply and price competitiveness. Don't be afraid to ask where your fuel is coming from.

Next week: Renewable Energy Needed: A case example. (Honduras, I promise!)

Environmental News Network: Energy Companies Rethink Palm Oil as Biofuel
Celsius: Biofuel Nightmares - Indonesian Palm Plantations
Monbiot.com - Worse than Fossil Fuel
The Seattle Times: Can biodiesel compete on price?

Photo Credit: celdef.org