Breakthrough in Biodiesel Production

MGR writes "National Geographic is reporting that Japanese scientists have discovered a way to convert vegetable oil into biodiesel with a much less expensive catalyst (between 10 and 50 times cheaper) than what is currently used. From the article: 'Any vegetable oil can become fuel, but not until its fatty acids are converted to chemical compounds known as esters. Currently the acids used to convert the fatty acids are prohibitively expensive. Michikazu Hara, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in Yokohama, Japan, and his colleagues have used common, inexpensive sugars to form a recyclable solid acid that does the job on the cheap.'"

Biodiesel more at the pump?

[Darlantan]

Err, this seems backwards to me. Everytime I've seen bio available, it's been below standard diesel prices. Perhaps it's just a regional thing where I'm at, but I've been under the impression that the real problem with biodiesel was A) older fuel lines may be degraded more quickly by biodiesel, and B) producing enough to fuel the world's fuel needs was a big issue.

Of course, I'm no biodiesel guru, but it is of some interest to me -- I drive an older diesel (which I plan on converting to run on SVO, as soon as I get the facilities to make this feasible.)

Cheap Fuel

[Thunderstruck]

I was unable to tell from TFA, though I did not read it closely, whether this will make soy biodiesel as cheap or cheaper than standard diesel is now.

Not that it matters, I just bought a nice, fuel efficient gasoline powered car... It should be wearing out about the time the patent expires on this new process.

Well

[hug_the_penguin]

It isn't going to solve the world's dependence on oil overnight, but it's perhaps a step forward.

The next problem will be a shortage of arable land due to land used to produce the vegetables that are then going to become diesel. This could solve one problem and lead straight into another

why is this a breakthrough

[SlashSquatch]

It's a breakthrough because the new catalyst is a more immediate part of the the carbon cycle than petro chemical catalysts.

I have an SVO Blazer. It's a real pain in the ass getting that grease out of dumpsters. I worry about the health factor. It seemed like I was getting sick more often when I was doing it. My wife made fun of me for a year. I fought a defective system and had lots of problems. Yeah I don't listen to naysayers and neither should you. I got 15k mi. doing it, then I ran out of time for that project. If I did it again I'd start a co-op. Biodiesel looks real nice now. Diesel engines are more efficient than gas and longer lasting. Given the amount of agriculture America is capable of, I find it hard to believe we can't supplement our diesel diet with veggies.

That's not the problem.

[Jaywalk]

The problem with biodiesel isn't that it's too expensive to produce. The problem is that there simply isn't enough oil to replace significant amounts of fossil fuel. And there is the issue of what happens to the price of food oil if too much vegetable oil is converted to fuel usage. According to this study [unh.edu] by the University of New Hampshire, it is possible to make the necessary oil using oily varieties of algae which can be produced on non-arable land.

Making soybean biodiesel cheaper won't solve the problem because the limited supply will only meet so much of the required energy needs. It might even cause more problems by creating economic pressure to convert food oils into fuels.

Not Invented Here

[tacocat]

Since this is an accomplishment not by American Industry and is contrary to the current powerbrokers of Dino-fuels it won't mean shit in America.

2005: law is passed giving a tax credit for bio-diesel mixes. But this eliminates all B-100 biodesiel because it's not a mix. Tax rebates are not made available to the consumer.

2006: law goes into effect which raises the bar on small diesel engine emissions (commercial vehicles excluded) making it impossible to sell a new diesel car in the United States because the fuel used in the Unites States is too dirty to pass the emissions test. It is not the engine, it is the fuel that fails the test. There are no American automotive manufacturers selling a diesel engine in the United States.

2007: law is supposed to go into effect to introduce low sulphur dino-diesel which should permit diesel sales to go into effect. I'm a little suspicious that this law isn't currently under assault. But we won't know for another year.

Go search the internet. The technology for production of bio-diesel and the studies identifying the environmental benefits have been in publication, on the internet of all places, since 1998. And what has been done about it?

Comparable to E85?

[jzarling]

How does this process, and biodesiel, compare to E85 in terms of production costs, energy density, and impact on food supply?

Given that the H2O powered fuel cell is the holygrail of power systems, wasn't there a push awhile back to use Ethanol and its easy to break hydrogen bonds as the "fuel" for the fuel cell?

Re:why is this a breakthrough

[HangingChad]

It's a real pain in the ass getting that grease out of dumpsters...

When I was looking at a grease car kit I discovered recycled vegetable oil at a restaurant supply house for $1.20/gallon. My plan was to buy it in 55 gallon drums, which they'd deliver free.

Just wondered if there was a reason recycled oil wouldn't work? Because dumpster diving in grease barrels for waste oil doesn't really appeal to me either.

I'm happy to pay $1.20/gallon for someone else to handle the collection and filtering.

Re:key word is catalyst

[ChrisGilliard]

While this is interesting as you've pointed out, I still think we ought to focus on Solar power in particular for third world nations. Solar is the real solution to the future energy production issues. I've found quotes for Solar power setups (including batteries for storage) for "large" houses that cost about $25,000. If you roll this into your home mortgage (assuming 5.8%), the extra cost per month is only about $120. This is probably a little bit higher than the electric bill, but it's at least in the ballpark for a large house. With some govt. subsidy and a continued drop in these prices, I really think it will soon be economically viable. This is really the way to go. As it is, it's much cheaper to do a solar setup than to pay for the whole grid infrustructure to be created for remote areas. This is why it's popoular in places like Africa that don't have well built out energy grids. Imagine if it the prices droped by 50% over the next ten years for this setup. Then it would really make sense to setup your own solar panels for energy. This would have dramatic effects on society. We could virtually eliminate most power plants including natural gas plants and nuclear. Their replacement would be an incredibly distributed grid of solar panels that can produce much more power than current forms of electricity generation. Solar power would only become more and more efficient and we'd have such an abundance of electricity for powering our dwellings that we could consider powering vehicles. This would require us to make more efficient cars that are lighter and have better batteries, but it's all possible and our dependance on foreign oil and polution would be gone. On top of that we will have tapped into an almost unlimited supply of energy that will never go away (as long as the Sun is out). We would also be energy self-reliant on an individual basis. The energy companies would have no power. We could trade energy amoungst ourselves. All we'd need is an energy broker, but their role would be limited to maintaining the grid and ensuring fair transactions occur between buyer and seller on the individual energy market.

Re:key word is catalyst

[Wyatt Earp]

No jobs?

Far from it, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas all have very low unemployment rates and with the low cost of living it's much easier to own a home and live comfortably on the Great Plains than in the "successful" parts of the US.

South Dakota's rate right now is 4 percent, with urban areas in the Great Plains seeing unemployment rates as low as 1 percent at times.

I have a friend from High School in Sioux Falls South Dakota making 85K with a 2-year vo-tech degree right now, thats letting him build a 4,000 sq foot house. No income tax, low sales taxes.

2,500 sq feet in Rapid City/Black Hills can go for as little as 125K.

Re:Artificial Photosynthesis?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a really cool insight. Think about this, plants are pretty effective converters, and really don't require lots to produce the oil we want. The hemp plant is a particullarly good producer of plant oil and was what Henry Ford planned to run his vehicles on.

But more to the point. Think about restating the question... how do I keep filling up all these cars and trucks with liquid fuel? Now, if you were a business trying to make the most effecient use of limited resources, as opposed to an oil/car company trying to sell as much dependance as you could. You might come to the conclusion that having all these cars around, and trying to fill them up every couple of days with 20 gallons of fuel may not be the best use of a limited resource... don't even get me started on trucking most food 1500 miles by truck!! Eat something out the backyard for Pete's sake.

Summary: The problem you are trying to fix with biofuels is a lossing proposition. Find another way or reality is going to kick your ass.

Re:MOD PARENT DOWN TO HELL

[yndrd1984]

1000 w/m^2 is still 4047 kw/acre - even at 1% efficiency on 2 dozen acres you're talking a megawatt per car!

With some additional data:

20 horsepower (average use) * 746 watts/hp = 14920 watts for a car to run all the time - so say an average of 1500 if it's used 10% of the time

Even at 1% solar to fuel efficiency and 33% car efficiency, that's 450 kw or 450 m^2 per car

an acre is about 4047 meters => 9 cars/acre

A different way (I know it's only Wikipedia, but if these numbers are right...):

Algae: 10,000 to 20,000 US gal/acre [wikipedia.org]

Let's see: I use about 15 gal/week * 52 weeks = 780 gal/year - let's make it 1000 - so I'd need up to 1/10 of an acre.

Since it takes about an acre of farmland to feed a person, this seems quite reasonable. Even better, algae can be grown in the desert using seawater, so land and water that is useless for most other purposes can be used for biodiesel.

Re:One Problem...

[marx]

Try creating crude oil from scratch and see how much energy it requires. Hint: renewable does not mean digging stuff out of the ground and burning it. The nice thing about these types of fuels isn't that it's not energy intensive to create, it's portability.

Re:Finally!

[_KiTA_]

Not really. The Saudis are more aware than most that their oil domination is rapidly going to run out. They even have a saying on the matter. "My father rode a camel. I ride a car. My son flies a jet. His son will ride a camel."

No, what I would expect more than anything is the Saudis to invest heavily in BioD and other alternative energies once they see a winner and corner that market as it emerges.

necessity of exporting? maybe not...

[zogger]

The development of other fuels will not negate the usefullness or use of traditional petroleum. Nations that are oil rich will continue to use the fuel,especially if it is their primary natural resource, even if their export market diminishes. And especially then, with no imported cash from exported oil, they would be literally forced to directly use the oil themselves to the best of their ability. And it is quite possible that as the islamic world (if we want to limit the discussion to there) matures (most are under the age of 30 right now), they will want their own manufacturing and other islamo-centrist based business, rather than purchasing products from other areas. Necessity *and* desire at that point. You have to remember, petroleum is not only a transporation medium, it is also critical -today at least- for manufacturing.

With that said, I heartily welcome more R and D and deployment of biofuels. But older fuels are still used, I am using "stored solar"-wood-as my primary residential heating source, same as humans have been doing for millenia. We have a "domestic supply" and it is quite significant enough for our needs, hence no need to "export cash" to purchase someone elses developed energy product, nor do we need to "export the raw materials" for anyone else to use. That's a micro scale, macro between nations is just "larger".

Humans will use up the available petroleum, biofuels becoming massively more available or not. The use will only drop when it gets closer to a stasis point, when it takes one "barrel of energy" to produce an identical barrel of energy. Then it will stop.

Re:Or you could just use straight vegetable oil...

[ultima]

Normal diesel engines in their standard configuration can not properly work with vegetable oil. You need modified glow plugs (cheap and easy) and fuel injectors (not cheap and easy) to avoid premature engine failure from improper injection and combustion. Standard fuel filters also won't properly deal with straight vegetable oil (maybe easy, maybe a nightmare), especially at cold temperatures or during extended storage when the oil will crystallize. However, if you're willing to go that route, and install a special tank that preheats (definately not cheap or easy) the vegetable oil before the engine is started, you can run SVO. Even if you don't want to pre-heat, you can mix the oil with a bit of gas or dino diesel to reduce the viscosity, and still get a combustible mixture. Regardless, improper configurations or improper mixtures can permanently damage an engine very quickly (a couple hundred miles).

Here's a nice link:

http://journeytoforever.org/biodiesel_svo.html [journeytoforever.org]

Re:why is this a breakthrough

[HangingChad]

It was a local restaurant supply center, last winter...maybe Jan/Feb time frame. Went in to ask about bulk vegetable oil and when I told them about the project they were the ones suggesting the recycled stuff. They said it was blended and filtered. They didn't call it recycled, they used another term...repacked, reblended...something like that. I didn't ask what other uses the oil had or if it could be used in food preparation again. They had it in rectangular metal 5 gallon cans and said they could get it by the drum and if I bought it 55 gallons at a time they'd waive the delivery charge. Which was a big relief to my wife who had nightmares about me hauling grease barrels around. It was a $1.20/gallon in the five gallon tins.

I still haven't been able to find an old diesel or had time to follow through on the project but I remember the price they quoted because I had them check to make sure it wasn't a mistake.

That was before Katrina so who knows. The commercial vegoil sites are full of companies looking for bulk vegetable oil for biodiesel projects. My short term project has shifted to getting a shell corn stove put in. Just don't have the time or mechanical skill for a car conversion.

no first page mention of HEMP?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hemp is extremely high in cellulose. It grows from the desert to the mountains. Hemp is nature's #1 photosynthesizer producing more per acre, faster than possibly anything.

LOOK IT UP. (USDA Bulletin 404 [digitalhemp.com])

As far as the one poster who mentioned "plastics" --you'll find through study that that is EXACTLY (at least partially) how we got into this mess of dependence on such rude resource as oil.

Hemp stems are 80% hurds (pulp byproduct after the hemp fiber is removed from the plant). Hemp hurds are 77% cellulose - a primary chemical feed stock (industrial raw material) used in the production of chemicals, plastics and fibers. Depending on which U.S. agricultural report is correct, an acre of full grown hemp plants can sustainably provide from four to 50 or even 100 times the cellulose found in cornstalks, kenaf, or sugar cane - the planet's next highest annual cellulose plants.

On plastics: look up what Henry Ford [geocities.com] did for the war effort when the military needed all the steel --Hemp produced automobile panels are lighter and 10x the strength. Search Popular Mechanics magazine archives.

Look up the HempCar [hempcar.org], or better yet read about in full Hemp here [jackherer.com].

Read what Hugh Downs [druglibrary.org] said before America's desert brinksmanship.

So remember the challenge [jackherer.com]:
Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong! Prove us wrong!
We hereby extend our $100,000 challenge to prove us wrong!

If all fossil fuels and their derivatives, as well as trees for paper and construction, were banned in order to save the planet, reverse the greenhouse effect and stop deforestation; then there is only one known annually renewable natural resource that is capable of providing the overall majority of the world's paper and textiles; meet all of the world's transportation, industrial and home energy needs, while simultaneously reducing pollution, rebuilding the soil and cleaning the atmosphere all at the same time... and that substance is the same one that has done it before . . . CANNABIS/HEMP/MARIJUANA!

GO BIO!

(Those laughing are probably the same ones laughing before 9 American states approved medical use.)

   

Nonsense! Veg oil original diesel fuel

[Anonymous Coward]

Diesel engines were designed to run on vegitable oil in the first place, so that farmers could make their own fuel for their tractors, just as they had done for their steam traction engines previously.