Robert C. Reed | Hickory Daily Record--These daylillies on Interstate 40 aren’t biofuel flowers, but they show the type of roadway planting the DOT is testing.
RALEIGH — The state Department of Transportation has a project that demonstrates the potential for multiple sources of biofuel.
The DOT recently harvested a small field of bright yellow flowers planted along Interstate 40 for conversion to biodiesel.
The flowers look attractive, but they're canola plants, the source of canola oil.
Instead of using the oil for cooking, the state wants to refine it to use in vehicles.
The project with N.C. State University is researching the feasibility of growing biofuel crops along highway rights of way.
Utah has such a program, called Freeways to Fuel.
This is a brilliant use of land otherwise gone to waste, and a way to add to the fuel supply for state vehicles. Biodiesel is a local fuel, and they understand that in the state of NC.
HOUSTON (ICIS news)--A bill containing the US biodiesel blending tax credit failed to clear a key procedural vote in the Senate on Thursday, leaving the industry as unclear as ever on price ideas.
The Senate voted 57-41 against ending debate on the bill, which included changes to unemployment benefits and contained the reinstatement of the $1/gal biodiesel blending tax credit that expired at the end of 2009.
The vote sends the bill back for reworking despite weeks of lawmakers debating the overall cost of the package.
Biodiesel brokers said the move would result in more gridlock in a biodiesel market already frozen by confusion over price ideas. The industry is currently running at 10% or less of capacity.
“It never seems quite dead,” one biofuels broker said. “Everyone still assumes there is life to this bill, and we'll be frozen until the next time around.”
The bill’s cost was estimated at $33bn (€26.7bn), sources said, down from $190bn when first introduced. That still was not low enough for conservative lawmakers trying to avoid adding to the US budget deficit, sources said.
Close, just missed it, going to take a bit longer—but I still think the USA stands behind the general concept of biodiesel. Notice how few politicians seem to understand and support biodiesel? Most people still do not know about biodiesel, much education yet required.
The EPA could rule on the E-15 waver as early as this fall.
The EPA announced this week that is "on track" to reach a decision on whether or not to grant a wavier requested by ethanol interests to allow E-15 to be mixed into the U.S. gasoline supplies. It said that the Department of Energy would complete its testing of the effects of E-15 on different types of engines by the end of September. The National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA) has opposed increasing the ethanol content in marine fuel to 15% contending that it can cause engine damage, and that its full effects on older engines is unknown. Ethanol interests have expressed their frustration over the EPA's delay.
Tim Haig, president of BIOX. Michael Vaughan for The Globe and Mail
To get to the Green Highway, auto makers are making the most amazing and fuel-efficient petroleum-burning engines ever. What doesn’t get nearly as much attention are the huge opportunities to achieve a cleaner world by burning something other than petroleum. A couple of weeks ago, I tried to dispel many of the “ethanol is a scam” myths. This week it’s biodiesel’s turn.
What I knew about biodiesel until recently was that Willie Nelson was probably making homebrew biodiesel in his kitchen somewhere to fuel a rainbow-coloured school bus. It’s true that the back-to-the-land crowd had long ago figured out that a fairly easy way to save the world and beat the taxman was to collect all the French fry grease they could and perform some simple chemistry. Biodiesel is that easy to make and it’s a wonderful fuel.
Biodiesel is a non-toxic and biodegradable fuel that is made from vegetable oils, waste cooking oil, animal fats or basically anything with a lot of fat in it. More on that later. Biodiesel combusts better than petroleum-based diesel, has a higher cetane (like octane) rating and produces fewer life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. Ethanol is for gasoline-powered engines and there are a lot more of them on the roads than diesels and, as a result, the ethanol industry is much more established. But diesel engines are more efficient than gasoline engines and biodiesel fuel has come a long way from Willie’s kitchen.
BIOX, a Canadian company with some interesting patented technology first developed in the 1990s at the University of Toronto, has built a 67-million-litre annual capacity biodiesel production facility in Hamilton, Ont. This plant is one of the largest continuous flow biodiesel production facilities in the world. Animal fats and recycled vegetable oils are trucked in and 45 minutes later high-quality biodiesel is ready to be trucked out. “The technology is going great,” says BIOX CEO Tim Haig.
Once again, we see a biodiesel product made of waste that cannot be used for food gets no argument, it makes perfect sense. I hope you will read the entire article, very informative.