Butter could provide an eco-friendly raw material for making biodiesel fuel. Credit: USDA, Agricultural Research Service
The search for new raw materials for making biodiesel fuel has led scientists to an unlikely farm product — butter. In a new study in ACS' bi-weekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, they report that butter could be used as an eco-friendly feedstock, or raw material, for making diesel fuel.
Michael Haas and colleagues cite rising global demand for biodiesel, and the desire to expand the feedstock base, as motivating factors for their research. The United States alone has committed to producing 36 billion gallons of biofuel by 2022, a major increase from the current annual production level of about 11 billion gallons. Most of that was ethanol.
Biodiesel production, now approaching 1 billion gallons annually in the U.S., is also slated to increase. As researchers seek additional and affordable feedstocks for biodiesel production, these scientists turned to butter, one billion pounds of which are produced annually. Could surplus, spoiled, or nonfood-grade butter be used to make biodiesel at competitive prices?
In an effort to find out, the scientists recovered the fat from a quarter-ton of butter and converted it into the fatty acid esters that constitute biodiesel. They found that the resulting material met all but one of the official test standards for biodiesel. The study concluded that with further purification or by blending with biodiesel from other feedstocks butter biodiesel could add to the supply of biobased fuel for diesel engines.
Sure it makes sense that butter would make good biodiesel, and as far as a food source, they are talking about spoiled stock not fit to eat, which now probably goes into the landfill.
A crowd gathers at Farmfest to watch a debate between Republican U.S. Senator Norm Coleman and his DFL challenger Al Franken. In addition, various other politicians attended the annual event. (MPR Photo/Mark Zdechlik)—Photo from: http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/08/05/farmfest1/
GILFILLAN, MInn. — Two-thousand dollars of biodiesel will be given away at Farmfest Aug. 3-5. Stop by the Minnesota Soybean booth, No. 618, or the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute booth, No. 612, to enter the drawing. Four prizes will be given away, each worth $500. Drawings will be held daily. Winners will be contacted by phone after the show. Contestants must be at least 18 years old. This contest is made possible by AURI and soybean checkoff funds invested by the Minnesota Soybean Research and Promotion Council. It's been a part of Farmfest for the last three or four years, said Veronica Bruckhoff, Minnesota Soybean field representative. "It's really popular," she said. "We get tons of people who come down and visit us and look for it."
I used to love the farm-oriented stuff at the Minnesota State Fair even though I am a “city boy”, and I would guess the people of Minnesota were among the first to embrace biodiesel—just a hunch.
Photo from: http://www.ec.gc.ca/EnviroZine/english/issues/69/feature1_e.cfm
GULEPH, ONTARIO, CANADA - Rothsay Biodiesel, a division of Maple Leaf Foods Inc., said that its program to fuel its own fleets with biodiesel blends reduced carbon output by approximately 700 metric tons in 2009 -- the equivalent to removing approximately 130 cars from the road.
Three of Rothsay's truck fleets have been fueled with biodiesel blends since 2009, bringing the total number of trucks in the fleet program to 137. In 2009, the fleets consumed more than 600,000 gallons at an average blend rate of 9.2 percent. They traveled a combined 3.3 million miles with no mechanical issues or decrease in mileage, Biodiesel Magazine reported.
Rothsay biodiesel is a renewable fuel made by converting animal fats and recycled cooking oils into an environmentally sustainable alternative fuel that reduces greenhouse gases (GHG). The fuel can be used in all diesel engines today without modification.
Because of the fuel's success, Maple Leaf Foods plans to expand its biodiesel use, Mike Paszti, director of technical services and innovation for Rothsay, told Biodiesel Magazine. Use of the fuel has had no measurable impact on vehicle maintenance programs, reliability or performance.
"Rothsay's on-road fleet experience is proof of the positive benefits of blending biodiesel in Canada," said Canadian Renewable Fuels Association Chair Doug Hooper. "In everyday use and all weather conditions, Rothsay's biodiesel delivered top performance and, importantly, reduced the harmful greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and smog that is associated with fossil diesel use."
If it can work in Canada, it can work anywhere, cold as it sometimes can be there. I have always had much respect for Canada in how they handle their medical system and their biodiesel.
Michael Mercier / The Huntsville TimesDr. Ernest Cebert, research associate professor of plant breeding/genetics at Alabama A&M University, shows off a biodiesel processing unit that was donated by Willbrook Solutions.
HUNTSVILLE, AL -- Two companies in Huntsville are partnering with Alabama A&M University to convert used vegetable oil into biodiesel fuel to help run campus buses.
Under the partnership, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Alabama will donate about 100 gallons of used cooking oil each month from its cafeteria and a small Huntsville business, Willbrook Solutions, has donated a $15,000 prototype biodiesel processing unit to A&M's Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences to produce the fuel.
The biodiesel fuel will be used to operate buses that are part of the university's transportation system.
"Waste vegetable oil is a valuable resource," said Dr. Ernest Cebert, research associate professor of plant breeding/genetics at A&M. "It's not very pretty but, once processed, it can run a diesel engine."
That amount of waste oil will be used to create 80 to 90 gallons of biodiesel fuel, according to Jim Bolte, the president of the Toyota plant in North Huntsville.
The bioenergy effort, Bolte said, "fits right in to what we're doing with our sustainability plan activities."
In 2008, a solar panel was put into service at the Toyota plant to generate enough energy to light parts of the plant. Toyota has planted about 2,500 trees on its property and hundreds more across Huntsville, said Bolte.
"We try to reduce, reuse and recycle everything," he said.
Kendell Phillips, Willbrook Solutions' CEO and president, said the company began four years ago as a Department of Defense contractor, but is moving into the alternative energy field.
"We cannot continue for the rest of our existence" so heavily dependent on petroleum-based oil, said Dr. Robert Taylor, dean of A&M's School of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. This partnership with industry is very important now, he said.
Willbrook Solutions is also sponsoring a scholarship for a work-study program for biofuel development. The A&M student chosen for the scholarship is Dexter Williams of Selma, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering technology.
What a great thing to donate to a school—a biodiesel production unit. I hope students all over the country are being exposed to positive views of biodiesel as we see in this case.