Forgive the informality, but this article on the BBC, EU rethinks biofuels guidelines , is like so duh! what did you think was going to happen if you started using food for fuel (for something besides eating)? Finally some eyes are opened to the fact that these things are linked and the whole thing needs to stay balanced.
Heirloom Gardening, Food and Other Thoughts
There’s a parallel situation here in the US, everyone is growing corn for ethanol, but there’s few cars that can run on E85. I’ve no idea where all this ethanol is going, but its creating higher feed prices for finishing cattle and meat prices are rising steadily.
As recently as three years ago, I saw ads for furnaces that burned corn for heat. I wonder what the people who retooled their homes with this equipment are using now?
Does this rethinking of the EU policy mean that all the beautiful fields of sunflowers in Southern Europe are going to be tilled under for more conventional agriculture since the dream of biodiesel supplying all of Europe with fuel is a bust?
Patrick, that’s interesting. I think the US situation is similar, with 10% of our fuel consisting of ethanol. I wonder if the government over here will reconsider as well, since we’re seeing many of the same rising food costs and associated problems.
Steven, I saw a billboard for corn burning stoves on the PA Turnpike just a month ago. It was-seriously-right down from a “Coal: Clean green energy” billboard that’s positioned in front of a wind farm. *puke*
It was Steph who made this post, and it was all news to me when I started up my computer this morning!
Actually, the biofuel craze here in Europe has mostly been for alternative diesel fuels. Just like processed foods in the US are mostly based on corn and in Europe mostly based on soy beans, here we have biodiesel instead of E85 (in the UK you can buy E85).
At a guess, I would say 30-40% of all cars run on diesel here.
In most places in Europe the most efficient crop to use for biodiesel is rape seed (called canola in the US). While ethanol currently uses about twice as much fossil fuels in it’s manufacture as is in the equivalent energy value of the resulting product, it’s not as bad with rape seed biodiesel, only needing about half of it’s resulting energy value for production.
There is a long term place for rape seed or similar crops used to produce biofuels in Europe.
The problem came about when Europe announced it’s major commitment to biofuels at the same time the US did. The magnitude of it’s goal of 10% of all road fuels coming from plants was just too ambitious, and this quantity of biofuel could not be produced within Europe.
It put so much pressure on farmers in the developing world, they started to clear rainforest land in order to grow palm oil trees to meet the demand. They also started using land currently used for food crops for palm oil production. The energy that goes into producing and transporting palm oil biodiesel is greater than what’s in the resulting product.
I hope both the US and Europe can put some sanity into their biofuel plans, only produce it when it actually saves energy and ensure it doesn’t displace food crops. It’s also really important to combine the production of biofuels with energy conservation and other alternative forms of energy!
I wish most of the money being spent on production bio-fuels could be spent on hydrogen fuel cells instead. At best bio-fuel is a temporary fix. Hydrogen fuel cells have only water for exhaust. The big problem with hydrogen fuel cells is the infrastructure. There are no hydrogen stations to fill up at. Still there is a very good alternative to corn that we should use here in the US for bio-fuels called switchgrass. It produces more bio-fuel than corn does and won’t take away from the food supply. I’ve read where corn production for bio-fuels actually increases global warming gases in the atmosphere like Nitric Oxide (NO2). Here’s some info on the laughing gas.
Physorg.com
Sorry for the ramble!
Hey Steph, I’m kind of getting to this conversation late, but I wanted to throw a query into the mix non the less. I currently think that all of the hullabaloo around government inspired bio-fuels is bio-bullshit. In most cases the methods for producing their alternative fuels does more harm than good. Quite often I make the mistake of thinking that what I can do in my backyard can be translated globally if only it were designed with the proper incentives. So what I’m wondering is how practical would it be to use solar, wind, or hydro power to convert used vegetable oil and garbage into an eco-friendly fuel?
By the way, I don’t have this system in my backyard, but it is on my to-do list. Cheers.
Hi Kelly,
I’m sure we’ve got a book somewhere in the house explaining how to make bio-diesel from used fryer oil. As I recall, the process is not too difficult, but requires a certain level of measuring and chemistry. The hardest part is apparently sourcing the used vegetable oil. I’d say keep the bio-diesel as one project and getting alternative power systems as another project. No sense setting your sights too high and having a project you can’t finish.
Hi Kelly,
The book we have is From the Fryer to the Fuel Tank:
http://tinyurl.com/3dljrw
Yes, it’s a good enough book. The actual process of making biodiesel is only a few pages, and it’s not that hard. I could even photocopy that part of the book and send it if you want (just don’t tell anyone). I haven’t actually made biodiesel myself by the way.
Because used vegetable oil can be of uncertain quality, you need to test it first before making biodiesel. This is with a process called a titration, and involves using some lab equipment like beakers and a pipette, as well as a few chemicals. If you have ever had a chemisty class, you have probably done this already. It’s not hard or dangerous, and easy to learn, but if this is not up your alley, home made biodiesel may not be for you.
You also need some space to work, a couple of large plastic vats to process the biodiesel in, and space to store the used vegetable oil, a few chemicals and the finished product. There are no toxic chemicals involved, and everything you make can either go into your car or into the compost. You can even make your own soap from the by-products.
It is possible a batch could go wrong, and you could end up with 50 gallons of used vegetable oil slop mixed with chemicals that has to be disposed of somewhere. You might think about what you would do if this happened. I don’t know if you would want to just pour this down the drain, or if you had a way of transporting it to a landfill.
It doesn’t need much energy to make. You just need a motor to stir the mixture for an hour or so. You will need a heating element to briefly heat the oil. Depending on your setup, you might need to use a pump occasionally too. If you really wanted to use renewable energy to make it, I suggest getting a small diesel powered generator and running it on biodiesel.
You also need to find a source of used vegetable oil. You lose about 30% of the volume in processing, so for 70 gallons of biodiesel you need about 100 gallons of used vegetable oil. That’s a lot of used oil for the average car.
I would like to know how to process corn into biodiesel. If you can help me with that I thank you. Chuck
Hi CK,
I don’t know if it’s very efficient, but it is possible. Biodiesel can be made from any vegetable or animal oil, corn oil included.
Here’s a Wikipedia article on corn oil:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corn_oil
And here is how to make biodiesel from oil:
http://biodieselcommunity.org/