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Biodiesel Fueling Vehicles -- and Some Debate

Posted on: Wednesday, 10 August 2005, 21:00 CDT

Aug. 10--With the era of cheap oil coming to an end, petroleum-addicted countries are scouring the edge of technology to come up with new fuels.

One sliver of hope is a homegrown solution invented more than a century ago that's just now taking root on Midwest farms and in cities such as San Antonio and Austin.

Biodiesel is made from vegetable oils or animal fats and usually blended with petroleum diesel for use in diesel engines.

Advocates say it could help the nation shake its thirst for energy as technology races to bridge a gap between supply and demand in the coming decades.

But how significant biodiesel will be is uncertain.

"It'll be a piece of the puzzle," said Peter Bell of Distribution Drive, who recently joined country singer Willie Nelson to create a national brand of biodiesel called BioWillie.

"There'll be a sort of quilt of solutions," Bell said of the looming challenge.

The history of biomass fuels dates to the beginning of the automobile industry.

Rudolph Diesel used peanut oil to run his demonstration diesel engines and predicted that vegetable oils eventually might become as important as petroleum. Henry Ford figured ethanol, an alcohol, was the fuel of the future and designed his Model T to run on it.

But diesel and gasoline were cheaper to make and they pushed aside vegetable oil and ethanol. It was during the 1970s, when U.S. oil production peaked and oil-rich Middle Eastern countries tightened their noose on supplies, that interest in biomass fuels picked up again.

"We really would like to reduce our dependency on foreign oil, especially in the Middle East, and biodiesel will help us do that," said Joe Duffield, a U.S. Agriculture Department economist who has studied the merits of biodiesel. "And it does help farmers."

Biodiesel comes from many sources. Soybeans and rapeseeds are favorites in the United States and Europe, respectively. Mustard seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp, algae, used cooking oil from restaurants and animal fats such as lard and yellow grease also are used.

But biodiesel isn't the same as grease or vegetable oil, which is much thicker than petroleum-based diesel. Either the viscosity must be lowered by a chemical process, producing biodiesel, or engines need to be modified.

Commercial production of biodiesel began in Europe during the early 1990s and in the United States by the end of the decade. Government incentives and subsidies in this country and skyrocketing gas prices finally are making the price competitive with petro-diesel.

"We're in a sweet spot," said Bell, who started selling BioWillie late last year and now provides it at five locations, four in North Texas and one in South Carolina.

Carl's Corner Truck Stop, off Interstate 35 south of Dallas, was the first to sell BioWillie, test marketing it to truckers in October. On Monday, a B20 blend -- 20 percent biodiesel and 80 percent petro-diesel -- was selling for $2.35 a gallon.

That was just 2 cents higher than the average for straight diesel statewide, which over the past year climbed by 44 cents a gallon, according to AAA.

But cost isn't the only consideration, advocates say. Biodiesel is a renewable energy source that supports American farmers, reduces dependence on foreign oil and, studies show, pollutes less than petro-diesel.

In Austin, which lays claim to the first biodiesel station in Texas, fans shell out about $3 a gallon for 100 percent biodiesel or a 99 percent blend. Austin Biofuels opened its pump in January 2004 and soon was followed by others.

Austin filmmaker Jeff Peterson made a New Year's resolution to use only pure biodiesel in his Mercedes-Benz whenever possible. He says he feels better and the car runs better, spewing exhaust that smells like french fries or popcorn.

"The car seems broken when you put petroleum diesel in it, because of all the rattling diesel noise and the smell and the smoke," he said. "It seems like a flat tire to me."

Not everybody, however, agrees biodiesel is so wonderful.

Engine and fuel-injector manufacturers advise against using blends of more than 5 percent, saying there are concerns about clogging, gumming and corroding of engines and fuel systems.

"If blends exceeding B5 are desired, vehicle owners and operators should consult their engine manufacturer regarding the implications," the Engine Manufacturers Association said in a 2003 statement.

But that hasn't stopped Air Force officials at Randolph and Lackland from switching to a 20 percent biodiesel blend in recent months, per an executive order to reduce petroleum use. They also began using gasoline mixed with 85 percent ethanol for the rest of their fleets.

"As part of government, we should be out in front on these things," Randolph spokesman Mike Briggs said.

Biodiesel isn't causing any serious problems, maybe just some additional engine maintenance, officials at the bases said.

The soy-based fuel acts as a solvent, loosening old petroleum deposits, which can clog fuel injectors and filters. But that problem is expected to be overcome.

However, the extra trouble was enough for City Public Service to call off its six-month experiment with biodiesel several years ago. That in turn helped persuade city officials to scuttle talk of a pilot program.

"We didn't want to put the fleet at risk," said Steve Morando, a director of operations and purchasing for the city.

But much more is at stake than gumming up engines, says Cornell University ecologist David Pimentel.

A study he released this year says making biodiesel and ethanol from soybeans and corn uses up a fourth more fossil energy than the combustion returned. And while biodiesel sucks up petro and gobbles food, half the world's population doesn't have enough to eat.

"The United States desperately needs a liquid fuel replacement for oil in the near future, but producing ethanol or biodiesel from plant biomass is going down the wrong road," Pimentel said.

His verdict contradicts a widely quoted 1998 study by the U.S. Agriculture and Energy departments that says biodiesel provides three times the combustion of the fossil energy used to produce the fuel.

Duffield, a co-author of the government report, trashed Pimentel's research, saying the results were skewed by old data, faulty estimates and absurd correlations such as equating human labor to fossil energy.

"To make things worse, the report offers no explanation for many of their unorthodox assumptions," Duffield said.

A much milder debate revolves around power output in engines. Biodiesel has 11 percent less energy per gallon than petro-diesel but burns better, according to the Energy Information Administration. Many biodiesel users swear they get about the same gas mileage.

And then there's a dirty side to biodiesel. While spent fuel has fewer hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide and particulates than petro-diesel, it has more nitrogen oxide, which helps form ozone pollution. Researchers need to dissect the implications and whether any problems can be offset.

Biodiesel isn't about to replace petroleum diesel.

The United States produced enough surplus vegetable oil in 2001 to make 1.7 billion gallons of biodiesel, which if produced would have displaced 5.5 percent of petro-diesel burned on the nation's highways, according to a study last year by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

With government help that could increase to 10 billion gallons a year by 2030, it said.

But the biodiesel industry is a far cry from putting those surpluses to use. The National Biodiesel Board, created by soybean groups, estimates that more than 35 manufacturing plants produced 25 million gallons last year, a modest amount that could double this year.

"As far as the petroleum industry (goes), we're not even a drop in the bucket," said Kurt Lyell, co-founder of Austin Biofuels, which sells biodiesel and may soon start producing it.

Lyell's venture is among maybe a dozen retail outlets in Texas. For now, they're clustered in the Austin, Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth areas.

San Antonio is waiting for a retailer but there are several distributors offering truckloads, including AGE Refining Inc., which began selling a B20 blend in March. AGE might be the only Texas petroleum refinery selling biodiesel.

Things won't stay this way for long, said AGE President Glen Gonzalez. The fledging biodiesel market will only expand.

"It's hard to avoid that reality, nor do we want to," he said. "It's a fascinating time. It's a challenging time."

SMS EnviroFuels of San Antonio jumped into the biodiesel game last year and is now squeezed by good fortune, said manager Brett Kimes.

The company built a plant in Poteet and produced its first batches in September, a process that was a bit of an experiment at first. By March it was cranking out 7,100 gallons a day. Plans are to expand later this year to boost production by another 20,000 to 30,000 gallons.

"We're expecting demand to increase tenfold," Kimes said.

There are several ways to make biodiesel, using procedures simple enough to have spawned backyard operations. But beware. Drivers using public roads must still pay gas taxes on their home brews.

At the EnviroFuels plant, which looks somewhat like a milk dairy with its dozen-plus large tanks enclosed by a fence and barbed wire, soybean oil is mixed with methanol and a catalyst to separate glycerin from the oil. The oil is first heated to speed up the process.

Thirteen hours later, after the glycerin is drained from the bottom of a 6,000-gallon polypropylene tank and impurities are washed out, a clear golden fluid is left. The slick, nontoxic, biodegradable fuel looks, feels and tastes like vegetable oil and has a shelf life of six months.

"We still don't make enough but we're making good fuel every time," said a beaming Brandon Taylor, the plant foreman. "Definitely the business to be in -- real estate and biodiesel is the place to be right now."

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Source: San Antonio Express-News

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