The Case for Crop-Based Biodiesel
(Continued from our previous issue)
Almost any organic material or material that contains carbon and hydrogen can be a major component of biofuel. Biomass is found everywhere and mostly not considered valuable. With some feed stock it may be necessary to use enzymes that break down the original composition in order to make biodiesel.
However, if it can be ground, powdered, pulverized or pressed, or if it can be fermented (carbohydrates) or putrefied (protein), it is a potential fuel source. If it can be fermented, it can produce any number of gases, mostly methane, but also fair amounts of propane, butane and ethane.
Some biofuels offer more advantages than others. We'll be making the case here for crop-based biodiesel.
Ethanol and methanol are volatile, and that represents certain extra expense in production facilities. Being volatile means it can explode or burn, and that makes for very expensive permitting, OSHA regulations, and preventive process and handling equipment. A small typical ethanol (produced from fermenting sugar crops, corn, sugar beats, etc.) plant or methanol produced from capturing the gases of fermentation and condensing them can cost 10 times the capital costs and many times the operational costs of a biodiesel plant.
Because of this extra cost of capitalization, fewer local plants can be built and the cost advantages of ethanol/ methanol biofuels are marginally less because of the cost of transporting the fuel to where it is to be used. Producing alcohol-based fuels is important because it cuts petroleum use for autos and allows that same oil percentage to be used for plastics, paints, resins, asphalt and those products where there is no bio-based cost competitive substitute at this time.
ANIMAL-BASED BIODIESEL
Biodiesel made from animal materials (fat) or from restaurant frying oil is more expensive to formulate and is more costly to convert vehicles to use. In Plainview, TX, there are 6 million cows within a 150-mile radius, 3 packing plants (read: slaughter) that process 25,000 cows a day. There is an enormous supply of animal fat and many of these processing plants are actually using some of those resources to heat and operate their processing facilities. Kudos to them.
Meanwhile, Willie Nelson and the Farm Aid gang are promoting vegetable fat from the local McDonald's. Entrepreneurs driving around, doing collections incur extraneous costs, but the effort is still utilizing an otherwise wasted waste product.
Animal and vegetable fats used for biodiesel must have a costlier formulation process, involving antigelling agents and centrifugal filtering, and vehicles must have a warming device to keep the fuel flowing in colder temperatures. There are many local efforts to utilize this valuable resource, which has brought added visibility to the fuel's potential, and had an added positive side effect in appreciating the value of many older diesel-powered vehicles.
Crop-based biodiesel has advantages that help the aforementioned farm communities more directly than McDiesel fat can.
THE CASE FOR CROP-BASED BIODIESEL - A MARKET- BASED SOLUTION
Between Memphis, TN, and Santa Rosa, NM, on I-40, 28,000 truckers run their trucks every day using the fueling stations and eating their hamburgers. Along side I-40 are numerous little towns that grow the crops that feed and potentially fuel the nation, if they decided to make that a priority. BUT production of biodiesel in these small towns is not that simple; hid- den agendas, politics and greed may get in the way of true market transformation. Instead of a town's population doing what's best for the common good, many may want to prosper individually. The one thing constant from one rural farm community to the next is the farmers, and more importantly, the farm bureaus - who support and coordinate the farmers.
Rural America could supply approximately 20 percent of that fuel demand. B-20 is a 20 percent blend of biodiesel and regular (or distillate) diesel. Under the latest energy bill, there are tax incentives for the production and blending of biodiesel.
Next month, vertical integration.
March 2006 Builder Architect Edition Issue
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