South Africa looks to promote biodiesel

GREEN REVOLUTION : The Greenhouse Project is transforming an urban park into a seedbed for sustainable living by integrating green building and design, efficient and renewable energy, recycling and organic farming.

SOUTH African motorists could in the near future drive vehicles that run on cooking oil and peculiarly “smell of fried chips”.

This will be made possible by the use of biofuel, particularly biodiesel, say enthusiasts.

Biofuel is a form of fuel derived from “recently living” organisms, replacing fossil fuels such as those derived from coal.

It is usually produced using crops such as mielies, sugar beet and sunflower seeds, though the recycling of used cooking oil is the favoured option.

I enjoy reading articles like this one which view biodiesel as a totally new concept, as though we never heard of it. That’s OK. Everyone has to start somewhere, and just think how much biodiesel S.Africa can grow.

Northwest biodiesel troubles based on misinformation, according to John Plaza

John Plaza, CEO of Imperium Renewables

The president of Seattle-based refiner Imperium Renewables John Plaza despairs at what he calls rampant “misinformation.”

John Plaza: “There can be issues on both sides whether it's good, whether it's bad. But the facts prove that biofuel significantly reduces greenhouse gases. The facts prove that it is a tremendous economic engine for the state, the region, and the nation.”

Imperium owns the biggest biodiesel refinery in the region.

Small article reminds us once again that the NW area of the U.S. is not part of the rainforest, and here, biodiesel can work without starving anyone or destroying the wonders of nature. Just the opposite.

General Biodiesel buys Seattle Imperium plant

Image from: http://www.generalbiodiesel.com/ 

On June 24, General Biodiesel Seattle, LLC, announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Seattle biodiesel facility from Imperium Renewables. Imperial Renewables is a Seattle-based commercial biodiesel refinery operating a 100mm gallon per year facility in Grays Harbor.

General Biodiesel is converting the facility to produce biodiesel from waste oils such as recycled cooking oil and animal fat.

CEO and founder Yale Wong is primarily focused on making biodiesel oil from waste oils instead of the traditional virgin materials, such as soy or canola oil. Wong advocates using recyclable goods, such as animal fat, instead of using soy or canola, which can be domestically consumed in other ways

That is one great thing about biodiesel—you can switch to many different sources for the basic veggie oil, including, as in this case, a switch to waste oils and fats, something we already need to get rid of.

Florida has a new oil baroness and she is banking on Jatropha

Teri Gevinson, the new oil baroness of Delray Beach, FL

Teri Gevinson thinks money grows on trees.
That's why she's planted 9,500 jatropha trees in Delay Beach, on land where pepper and tomato farmers had long since packed up their hoes and gone home in disgust. The jatropha is the next big thing in agrofuel (switchgrass is so last year), another save-the-planet strategy to help us wean ourselves from fossil fuels. The tree, whose leaves look like a cross between pot and poison ivy, produces an oil-rich seed, and that oil has been used as gas for planes, trains, and automobiles -- some trains in India run just fine on the stuff, even when loaded down with extra passengers and live chickens.

This is the human interest angle of the same story we covered earlier, biodiesel is all about believing in a dream of independence and freedom from the OTHER oil barons.

New biodiesel pipeline is the first of its kind in U.S.

Plantation Pipe Line Company

The first commercial shipment of biodiesel coursed through pipelines operated by the Plantation Pipe Line Company, a joint venture of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners and Exxon Mobil. Plantation’s system of pipelines is shown above.

A commercial shipment of biodiesel has moved through a pipeline in the United States for the first time, according to Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, a pipeline company.

A 5 percent biodiesel blend moved from Mississippi to Georgia, and also from Mississippi to Virginia, via the Plantation Pipe Line Company, which is owned jointly by Kinder Morgan with a 51 percent stake, and Exxon Mobil with 49 percent. Last December, Kinder Morgan announced that the nation’s first ethanol pipeline had begun service.

Interesting story about the first biodiesel pipe line, and the various problems posed by such a concept. Now we’re talking, let’s ship biodiesel via pipe line all over the country. It is a valuable product and growing more valuable by the day.

Biodiesel researchers nominated for 2009 World Technology Award

Two Arizona State University researchers working on biodiesel projects have been nominated for the 2009 World Technology Award, which recognizes individuals and corporations from 20 technology-related sectors.

They’ll be headed to New York for the World Technology Awards gala ceremony on July 16, 2009 at the conclusion of the two-day World Technology Summit:

Scientists Qiang Hu and Milton Sommerfeld in the College of Technology and Innovation at ASU’s Polytechnic campus, have been selected as nominees for the award for their work with algal feedstocks and biodiesel fuel. In November 2008, TIME magazine selected the researchers’ work as one of the top 10 best innovations for 2008.

You can find more information at www.wtn.net.

Who are the stars of biodiesel science? Here are two of them, nominated for this prestigious award. Don’t forget that we are in the infancy of biodiesel science and engineering, and we don’t exactly know where all this will go, just that it will be part of the future of fuel.

Biodiesel Board launches new web site to fight RFS-2

Joe Jobe photo from: http://www.biodiesel.org/aboutnbb/whoarewe/staff%20photos/Joe%20Jobe%20300.jpg

In a move to fight a proposed change that would basically shut out soy-based biodiesel… the bulk of the nation’s biodiesel production… from the Renewable Fuels Standard, the National Biodiesel Board has launched a Web site to give people the tools to make comments on the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal.

The RFS2 Action Center gives those who want to stop the change examples of comments, where and how to send the comments, and this letter from NBB CEO Joe Jobe himself:

Please do read the letter from Mr. Jobe, as he speaks for the entire biodiesel industry in the U.S.A., the main idea being that we are not part of wrecking the rain forests—we have plenty of land here.

Georgia: Dalton Utilities biodiesel facility will be the first of its kind in the U.S.

A UGA scientist operates a photobioreactor. Dalton Utilities is partnering with the university on a pilot project to produce biodiesel from wastewater on DU's land application system along the Conasauga River.
Contributed photo / Dalton Daily Citizen

Dalton Utilities hasn’t struck oil, but the company may have about the next best thing. This fall the utility plans to start a pilot project to produce biodiesel from wastewater on its land application system along the Conasauga River.

“We are working on the design now,” said Mark Marlowe, Dalton Utilities’ vice president of water and wastewater engineering. “We hope to start construction in the fall or winter of this year, and complete construction in fall or winter. The startup will take several months. But it should be fully operational by the spring of 2010.”

Get this, biodiesel from waste water via algae. If this works, and we will know soon, this could change the way we look at waste water and biodiesel, a production method no one can argue with.

Making biodiesel from coffee beans—don’t laugh, it works

Actually, the concept of making biodiesel from coffee is not new. For several years, Brazilians have been extracting oil from defective and surplus coffee beans to produce biodiesel. At the University of Nevada, the researchers are focusing on spent coffee grounds, collected from the local Starbucks. The Starbucks outlets in Reno participate in the company’s Grounds for Your Garden program, where customers are encouraged to recycle waste coffee grounds for their gardens, Strull says. The students recycled the grounds into their research project instead.

Who knew? There is enough oil in coffee beans to extract for biodiesel production. There seem to be so many different sources for biodiesel, I don’t see how it can fail to grow and grow.

Delray Beach, FL biodiesel plant planned at $20 million cost

Photo of jatropha field: http://www.mydreamfuel.com/ 

DELRAY BEACH - Ag-Oil, a Delray Beach-based biofuel start-up, plans to build a $20 million pilot-scale biodiesel production facility in the Agricultural Reserve west of Delray Beach with the potential to produce 15 million gallons a year.

Teri Gevinson, CEO of Ag-Oil, said the company has planted 20 acres of jatropha, a fast-growing plant with seeds that contain oil, to make biodiesel. The biorefinery will use a patented technology to convert jatropha seeds, algae and related by-products into fuel.

Good biodiesel plant idea because it uses land which other farmers have given up on, and it looks for feedstock oil in algae and other plant sources. I wish AgOil well in this new startup company.

State of Mass. builds biodiesel into the law of the land

Green energy is set to take another big leap in Massachusetts as the state begins requiring blends of "bio fuels" into home heating oil and diesel fuel sold in the state. And that's giving new life to an old industrial site here that's being turned into part of New England's cleaner-energy future.

If you're a New Englander who heats your home with oil, probably you've seen or gotten a pitch to try something called bio heat, typically regular oil with some crop- or plant-derived fuel mixed in. Buying a blended fuel like that will actually become the law for everyone next year in Massachusetts, with a steadily growing requirement for how much green biofuel has to get mixed into the fuel supply.

Mass. is a pretty advanced state, and they are heating their homes with a biodiesel mix—by law. Why can’t all the states look at this program and use as much biodiesel as they possibly can? Here’s another story all about the new Mass. law: http://www.newburyportnews.com/puopinion/local_story_181233250.html

Jury orders Baldwin County, Ala. company to pay $10.4 million in biofuel fraud case

Baldwin County businessmen Jack and Allen Boykin show off their operation in Bay Minette. A jury ordered their company on Monday, June 29, 2009, to pay more than $10.4 million in a fraud case.

MOBILE, Ala -- A federal jury today ordered a Baldwin County company to pay more than $10.4 million to a New York-based paper company that invested $2.5 million in an effort to turn vegetable matter into biofuel.
Parsons & Whittemore Enterprises sued after concluding that Montrose chemist Jack Boykin had lied about his claims.

I hate to see lawsuits in the early stages of biofuel industries, because they drag down the entire mood the the industry, but it happens in software and hardware also. Interesting, although disappointing story.

New Mexico: Congressman Harry Teague visits UNM to discuss biofuels training programs

New Mexico’s Second Congressional District Congressman Harry Teague visited the UNM campus to announce legislation intended to set aside funds for training and fellowships in accredited biofuels engineering programs. Teague says his bill will allow for a one time grant to study appropriate standards for the accreditation of undergraduate and graduate biofuels engineering programs.

Photo: Congressman Harry Teague visits with Vice President for Research Julia Fulghum.

It will also provide funding for biofuels engineering programs and biofuels engineering training centers. In addition, the bill will provide fellowships to undergrads and graduate students studying biofuels engineering and provide access to scientific research facilities.

UNM’s School of Engineering is involved in a variety of biofuels related research efforts including the National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center, a partnership with other universities, and the Partnership for International Research which allows students to study both at UNM and at universities in Europe.

Yes by all means teach biofuels in school, just like the future needs are building up, so should the knowledge of how to get by with mainly a diet of biofuel, biodiesel being the most efficient type.

Test Plant: Using algae to get rid if CO2 and produce ethanol

Algenol A Florida company is partnering with Dow Chemical to install commercial photobioreactors at a Dow site in Texas. The planned design for the installation is shown above.

Algenol grows algae in troughs filled with saltwater that becomes saturated with carbon dioxide. Above photo from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/business/energy-environment/29biofuel.html

The algae would be exposed to sunlight, in water mixed with carbon dioxide, and would give off ethanol and oxygen. Dow wants the ethanol as a feedstock for plastic, replacing natural gas. In that sense, the ethanol-producing algae would become another processing unit in a chemical factory.

But if the process works well, Algenol thinks it could be profitably married to a different kind of plant: a coal-burning power plant, with the oxygen going into the combustion chamber.

Read this article for the details, but this is a way of making coal a cleaner fuel by adding oxygen to the fire and getting rid of CO2 when you grow the algae. We’ll see how it works out.

New generation of biomass biofuels may not be seen until 2010

Biomass, the unused portions of logged trees such a branches and the tree tops, sit at the Old Town Fuel and Fiber mill to be burned to generate electricity in Old Town, Maine, June 2, 2009.

REUTERS/Brian Snyder

Germany is among the first European countries building test plants to produce commercial volumes of second generation biofuels from a wide range of biomass materials ranging from wood chips and other forest products to straw, hay, vegetable waste and low grade crops.

The oldest lure in the world, something for nothing, does offer a lucrative fuel business from basically garbage. Will these methods also generate biodiesels? Perhaps so.

Photos of a truck that can run on coffee grounds

Credit: deborah sherman photography: http://www.deborahsherman.com/, (studiodeb on Flickr).

A commenter on Ben’s wood-powered truck post pointed us to a similar car hack. The truck above is also powered by a wood gas generator, except this one runs on coffee grounds. The Cafe Racer is a 1975 GMC pickup that essentially burns up used coffee to create a combustible gas. The gas is filtered on its way to the engine and, Viola, a caffeine-powered truck.

This is a truck that runs on just about anything, makes biodiesel seem like a super-refined luxury fuel, doesn’t it? Interesting site which may interest our many do-it-yourselfers.

Colorado: Biodiesel described as "silver buckshot" instead of a silver bullet

Logo from: http://www.cubiodiesel.org/

BOULDER, Colo. — About a dozen people in a basement chemistry lab at the University of Colorado donned goggles and gloves on Sunday before turning used cooking oil into fuel.

The idea behind the free "Biodiesel 101 Workshop" was to show that anyone can make the alternative fuel -- though a chemistry background is a definite advantage.

"It seems complicated the first time you try it, but it's really not hard," said workshop teacher Josh Maynard, who's the research and development director at CU Biodiesel.

As with many people, this introduction to biodiesel covers the conversion of waste cooking oil into biodiesel, a conversion the wisdom of which no one can deny.

Salem, OR: Biodiesel-powered RV to stop at Lowe's

Photo from: http://cleanairgreentour.com/2009_Clean_Air_Green_Tour_May_22_024.JPG

A green biodiesel-powered recreational vehicle that aims to educate consumers about the benefits of protecting trees and being environmentally responsible is making a stop in Salem on July 13.

The RV, sponsored by Lowe's Home Improvement and Bayer Advanced garden products, will visit Lowe's at 1930 Turner Road SE from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. The event is free.

People will receive multiple coupons, free samples of products like paper towels, and on-site answers to various home and garden questions.

For information, go to http://cleanairgreentour.com.

As you can see, some large companies are using this biodiesel-powered van to call attention to the need to think about greener fuels such as powers this huge RV.

From Lancaster, PA: Moving biodiesel from the Midwest to the East by rail

Strasburg Rail Road's diesel locomotive will be hauling biofuel. (Blaine T. Shahan/Sunday News)

"This is our test case," said Thomas, who added that a mandate to gradually increase biodiesel fuel blends in Pennsylvania will likely stimulate the market.
He said he anticipates future shipments over the Strasburg spur, particularly in the warmer months when the fuel does not have to be heated.
One tank car equals about four tractor-trailer loads, Thomas explained. "This keeps a few trucks off the road."
He added that the arrangement is convenient because the railroad is near the 904 Strasburg Pike headquarters of Rineer Transport Services, an Amerigreen fuel hauler.

Hauling biodiesel by rail, but not yet burning it in the engine, hopefully that will be coming soon. So how does biodiesel run in a railroad locomotive, anyone here know?

Jatropha is a buzzword of biodiesel, but some see problems

Alan Diaz / AP

Jatropha trees cost $6 to $7 each, can be grown 400 to an acre, and produce more than two gallons of oil apiece each season at maturity.

Still, it would take a farm about the size of Rhode Island to produce a billion gallons — and the U.S. economy uses more than 50 billion gallons of diesel annually.

My Dream Fuel said it is in negotiations to sell trees to growers in the Big Cypress National Preserve, and environmentalist efforts to reduce cargo ship emissions could open up Florida's maritime market through the Port of Miami. Wolfley even runs his truck on jatropha.

Very good article on Jatropha from a major source, a must read for the biodiesel set. Did you know that a single tree yields 2 gallons of oil every season? Wow, that is one oily plant.

New biodiesel and E85 station opens in Solano County, CA

The station was made possible with a $3.5 million California Air Resources Board grant, administered by the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District.

Air Resources Board chairwoman Mary Nichols described E85 as a transitional fuel that will help get Californians used to the idea of trying alternative fuels as the state moves forward in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Here again, we see a CARB grant make biodiesel and E85 available to consumers who are willing to buy it, but in many areas, are not able to buy biofuels simply because the retail sales are not available.

Opinion piece: The case against biodiesel mandates in Washington State

THE city of Seattle and King County have abandoned their crop-based biofuels programs. So must Washington state.

The state must rescind its myriad laws requiring public and private use of biofuels. These laws force use of crop-based biofuels — the only biofuels available for mass consumption. Hoping and waiting for so-called "second generation" biofuels is denying the global devastation biofuels are wreaking now.

This opinion punishes the USA for what South American countries are doing to destroy the rain forests. Every biofuel crop takes water and land and work that could grow food, no way around that.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES: Coconut industry group sees potential of biodiesel

Illustration from: http://www.ciif.ph/products.htm 

Eleven companies, including listed Chemrez Technologies, Inc., are registered as biodiesel producers, and can produce some 380 million liters of biodiesel per year, almost double the 150-million liter requirement for the 2% blend, data from the Energy department show.

Mr. Arranza will replace Danilo M. Coronacion as the president and chief executive of the CIIF Oil Mills Group.

The CIIF Oil Mills Group, which accounts for almost half of crude coconut oil exports, is the biggest and the most integrated group in the local coconut industry.

Philippines may not have many oil wells, but they sure can grow some coconuts, and their government is treating that valuable source of income just like a gold mine.

BioDiesel International (BDI) opens 28th plant located in Norwegian port of Fredrikstad

BDI stock chart from: http://www.corporateinformation.com/Company-Snapshot.aspx?cusip=C04031F00

The customer Uniol AS obtained the Austrian company’s multi-feedstock biodiesel technology with an overall investment volume of EUR 35 million, financed by Raiffeisen Leasing Nordic AB, Stockholm. This process, with which BDI is a global market leader, is used to produce biodiesel very cost-effectively in the plant from various raw materials ranging from fresh vegetable oils to residuals such as used cooking oils and animal fats.

There you go, a huge biodiesel plant built in Norway, a country that does have some oil, and this plant can make biodiesel from a variety of feedstocks, including waste fryer oil. Smart, Norway.

Keeping the biodiesel movement strong in the SF Bay Area

Doing her part: Foster City resident Janet Migliore has worked for more than three decades in her family’s San Mateo auto-repair shop. In early 2006, she started offering biodiesel-conversion services to owners of older-model diesel vehicles. (Mike Koozmin/Special to the Examiner)

“I’m in the car industry — I’m here, so what can I do to impact my carbon footprint?” Migliore said. “This is what I can do. I can fix cars up and have them run on biodiesel. So that’s what I do.”

In early 2006, Migliore began offering biodiesel conversion services to owners of older-model diesel vehicles. For around $350, she installs fuel hoses that are resilient to the
weeping effects seen when biodiesel flows through traditional rubber tubes.

This is another family-based small business person making a biodiesel difference in her world. Please enjoy the story and photo album included in it. This story is local to me.

Imperium sells small Seattle, WA biodiesel plant to start-up General Biodiesel

Photo from: http://www.imperiumrenewables.com/news.php

General Biodiesel, a startup biofuel company in Seattle, announced Wednesday that it bought the former Seattle Biodiesel facility for an undisclosed amount.

The facility is capable of producing 5 million gallons of biodiesel a year.

The refinery served as a pilot plant for Imperium Renewables for two years before the company opened a larger refinery in Grays Harbor, Wash., which is capable of producing 100 million gallons annually.

Nice, this is a sale of a small biodiesel plant, but it comes with a ready-made contract for the product, making an instant success of the start-up General Biodiesel. More opportunity is spread around to small companies.

The Southwestern Biofuels Association (SWBA) says OK to EPA interim biodiesel policies

Photo from www.swbiofuels.org 

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - (Business Wire) The Southwestern Biofuels Association (SWBA) (www.swbiofuels.org) today joined Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM), Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM) in urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to consider an interim rulemaking to help the U.S. biodiesel industry remain viable in the marketplace until EPA issues final Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) rules in 2010.

How are we supposed to progress biodiesel as a new science and fuel resource if we are bothered by EPA calculations which take into account biofuel growing practices in South America?

USDA Rural Development loans Soymor Biodiesel $25M to keep Minn. plant open

Photo from: http://www.soymor.com/

WASHINGTON, June 24, 2009 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced today that USDA Rural Development has approved a $25 million loan to enable a Minnesota biodiesel facility to diversify its operations and significantly expand the production of advanced biofuels.
"The investment announced today helps fulfill the Obama Administration's goal of increasing production of biofuels while securing jobs in the alternative fuels industry," Vilsack said. "This is great news for a community that recently saw this company cease production of its operations due to tough economic conditions."

Now we’re talking, biodiesel is deserving of government investment of this sort, don’t you think? Let us invest some government money in biodiesel science and industry, it gives back to the country.

Farmers see the huge potential of biodiesel

TOM WILBER / Staff Photo

Giff Foster pours biodiesel into his tractor, "Big John," at his Chenango County farm. Foster is part of a group of Southern Tier farmers trying to make the fuel commercially to help the economy and foster energy independence.

According to a report in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed journal, biodiesel provides 93 percent more energy per gallon than required for its production, while ethanol generates only 25 percent. Biodiesel, when compared with gasoline, reduces greenhouse emissions by 41 percent, while ethanol yields only a 12 percent reduction.

Great photo and story about the use of waste cooking oil to produce “low conflict” fuel for use on the farm and many other diesel applications, if not all.

FL BioFuels LLC contracts with Lee County, FL to produce biodiesel for county vehicles

Roy L. Benton III of FL BioFuels LLC pictured above, from: http://www.news-press.com/article/20090524/GREEN/905240382/1133

Co-owner Roy Benton III said because of the site’s existing building, the start-up process will be sped up. If there are no permitting hold-ups, Benton estimates the plant could produce its first gallon of biofuel by October, two months earlier than expected.

“By the state accepting us here, it shows not only local government but state government is participating in green initiatives,” Benton said.

Biodiesel is created by removing glycerin from vegetable oil. It is refined and blended in tanks, and, when burned by trucks, creates reduced emissions, compared to tradition fuels.

Lee County agreed in April to give the company $500,000 from a government grant for the plant.

Do I detect a trend of biodiesel producer not only being small companies, but also, family companies? The news seems to point toward such trends in the industry, if I am not mistaken.

Montana’s Gov. Schweitzer learns about camelina-based biodiesel

Scott Johnson, Sustainable Oils Company President & General Manager, said, "One of the values of camelina (is that) it was brought into North America specifically for biofuels. So, we need to develop that and continue that perception on the oil."

Johnson estimates Montana will produce 275 gallons of camelina-based biodiesel this year, which will go toward further development of aviation fuel.

Have you heard of camelina? This article points out that it does not displace food crops and it is aimed directly at the aviation fuel market. We shall hear more about this venture.

Largest iron ore mine, Vale in Brazil, will produce own biodiesel from palm oil

Photo of Vale mine from: http://www.geosoft.com/resources/casestudies/casestudy-vale.asp

SAO PAULO, June 23 (Reuters) - Vale, (VALE.N)(VALE5.SA) the world's largest iron ore producer, said on Tuesday it would begin to produce biodiesel from palm oil from 2014 to fuel its Carajas mine and railway operations in Brazil's north.

Rail and mining, perfect for biodiesel, will be produced by Vale. Never thought about it, but just think how many and how huge the diesel engines are on large mining equipment. Big consumers of diesel.

From Biodiesel Magazine: Biodiesel student essays win scholarships

Emily Johnson of Minnetonka, Minn., a recent graduate of Hopkins High School, has been awarded first place in the 2009 Minnesota Clean Air Choice Scholarship, presented by the Minnesota Soybean Growers Association and the American Lung Association in Minnesota. Johnson received $1,000 for her winning essay, “The Benefits of the Use of Biodiesel.”

All four winning essays can be viewed at www.CleanAirChoice.org.

These students are writing for biodiesel because it will give us cleaner air to breath, not because it might be 50 cents cheaper per gallon. When you grow the plants, you get rid of CO2.

Rome, GA wins grant to start biodiesel production plant

Photo from: http://www.biodiesellogic.com/Web%20Page/BDL-275-PPS%20Photo%20Gallery.htm

Rome-Floyd County Environmental Director Eric Lindberg is spearheading the program, which would require an estimated $30,000 for the processor and another $12,800 for other equipment and supplies.
Plans are to give one-gallon containers to interested residents to fill with used oil, and establish drop-off racks at four locations where full containers can be traded for empty ones.
The oil would be converted to fuel with a Biodiesel Logic processor, which is designed to be used with minimum training.

Here’s smart city not willing to throw away perfectly good oil, when so many city vehicles can burn biodiesel. If a city does not do this, they are wasting energy, don’t you agree?

From Biofuels International: China adopting B5 standard by next year

The Chinese state is expected to encourage a transition towards biodiesel in larger cities according to a senior academic.
Min Enze, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Engineering has forecast that vehicles in large cities, such as Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai, will be B5 biodiesel compatible by next year.
Next year is expected to see the acceptance of a national standard of B5 biodiesel.

I hope the USA will not fall behind China in the conversion to biodiesel. As we could see from the Olympics, the air in big cities of China is pretty bad, and they know it. B5 by next year? We’ll see.

American company researches jatropha for cooler weather

Jatropha is one of the promising non-food feedstocks for biodiesel. However, the tropical plant is not well-suited for the cooler climes of some parts of the U.S. But Biomass Magazine reports that an American company is working on a variety of jatropha that could grow in colder areas:

Don’t ever forget the power of genetic manipulation and hybrids, we could be growing biodiesel in some very unlikely places, this is just the start of a new and wonderful biodiesel industry.