Green Options

The Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance (SBA) is a non-profit organization created to promote cradle-to-grave biodiesel practices for verifying that all points in the production and distribution chain are sustainable.

And now they want your input on what those sustainable practices and standards should be — they’ve released the first draft of their “Principles and Baseline Practices for Sustainability” (PDF) to the public under a 45-day comment and review period.

So, if you’ve ever questioned the wisdom of growing our own fuel, or you’ve wondered how biofuels can be considered sustainable at all given other seemingly cleaner options like solar, wind and geothermal, now’s your time to speak up.

Under a new research directive at Ames National Laboratory, scientists are honing in on a way to use a process called gasification to create cheap ethanol from almost any carbon source without fermentation. If they’re successful, crops, agricultural waste, lawn clippings, raked leaves, sewage sludge and garbage could all be turned into ethanol using the same efficient process, in the same facility, under one roof.

The EPA dealt Texas a hard blow on Thursday. It turned down the state’s request for a reduction to our Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS). A decision that some environmentalists are sticking in the plus column for biofuels. I can’t say I agree.

It’s not that I’m not on the biofuel bandwagon. I am. Just don’t run the bandwagon on ethanol.

Watching the news is a dangerous enterprise for those of us trying to maintain a clear picture of this election season’s most important issues. Despite all the chatter, it seems relatively obvious that our most fundamental problem is American energy policy, or more specifically: oil prices and our dependence on cheap energy.

If you buy that premise, which I’m prepared to debate elsewhere, then this election should really only be decided by one evaluation criterion: which candidate has a better plan [...]

According to an article in the Jakarta Post, an official from the Indonesian government has spilled the beans on Samsung’s plans to invest up to $1.63 billion dollars in what’s sure to be a controversial acquisition of land for growing oil palms and construction of a biodiesel plant in Indonesia.

The current rate at which biofuels are falling out of favor is largely founded on biased ideologies, which have been shaped by widespread political and corporate agenda-pushing from all sides of the fence.

But first, a digression.

Part 1: When an egg was just an egg

I remember a time when an egg was just an egg. Nobody argued about that. It was a blissful time. Yet, for all its strengths, it was a fragile time held together by unsupported conclusions and limited knowledge.

CleanTech Biofuels is serious about turning garbage into fuel and sincerely hopes you’ll ignore the fact that your car’s fuel tank could be carrying what’s left of little Timmy’s soiled nappies.

The company has announced that it’s investigating suitable sites for commercial garbage-to-ethanol facilities — leading baby-owners everywhere to rejoice that they may never again have to feel guilty about throwing out enough diapers each day to put the elephant in this commercial to shame (and can I just be the first to say “WTF?” to that commercial).

For anyone who’s interested and in the area, on July 20th the second annual Clean Air Car Show in South Pasadena will be highlighting auto manufacturers with hybrids and low emissions vehicles, along with the next generation of these and other alternative energy vehicles.

Since California is the largest market for hybrids and other low emissions vehicles, the show should be full of new models trying to capture this large Southern California market. For more information, see the press release:

(South Pasadena, CA) - The City of South Pasadena, in association with State Senator Gilbert Cedillo and Assemblymember Anthony Portantino, will once again present its free Clean-Air Car Show and Film Festival on Sunday, July 20, 2008. The success of last year’s inaugural event demonstrated that the public is eager to learn about the new technologies that can lead to cleaner, more healthful air for people and pets, help reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign oil, address growing concerns over global warming, and strengthen our national and economic security. Like last year, the show will be part of an effort to promote cleaner, more efficient alternatives to the gasoline-powered internal combustion engine by showcasing emerging alternatives like Hybrid, Plug-in Hybrid, Electric, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), Ethanol, and Biodiesel vehicles.

Wired magazine put together a slideshow of motorcycles that are pushing the limits of green design and technology. Take the ENV Fuel Cell Bike, pictured above, which will be the first hydrogen-powered motorcycle when it’s released next year.

See 11 more of these green machines at Wired.

Biofuels are increasingly lumped into a single category of environmentally apocalyptic dead-end solutions. As the food vs. fuel debate rages on, it’s no wonder that the general public believes this.

But not all biofuels are created equal, as the chart above illustrates (click the image to see full size). It’s one of the best depictions I’ve seen of how each biofuel feedstock has completely different impacts on overall greenhouse gas emissions, water and pesticide use, and the energy required to produce the fuel. (Click on the chart for the full image)

AutoblogGreen reported today that the cellulosic ethanol company Mascoma has received another $10 million for research and development from Marathon Oil. This comes after GM’s undisclosed equity share in the same company was announced last week, and puts the grand total raised in this round of financing at $100 million.