Biodiesel: A Solar Fuel!
By Lyle Rudensey, M.Ed.
When most people hear about solar power, they think about solar panels made of silicon and glass, stretched out on our rooftops absorbing those solar rays. But, what about nature’s solar panels, the leaves of plants that are converting that solar energy via photosynthesis into starch, cellulose, and plant oil? Did you know that Rudolf Diesel demonstrated his first diesel engine operating on pure peanut oil at the World Exposition in Paris over a hundred years ago? (1900). Indeed, Diesel thought of vegetable oil as a fuel that American farmers could “grow” that would allow the US to create its own fuel rather than be dependent on foreign oil supplies. What a novel idea! It’s only taken us a hundred years to get back to this line of thought with the recent popularization of the fuel for diesel engines made from vegetable oil: Biodiesel.
What is Biodiesel?
Technically biodiesel is the common name for chemicals known as fatty acid methylesthers (FAME) which can be made from any fat- animal or vegetable! Fats and plant oils are triglycerides, meaning that in each triglyceride molecule, there are three fatty acid chains attached to a glycerin backbone. Biodiesel is made by mixing the fat or veggie oil with an alcohol and a catalyst, which breaks off the heavy part, the glycerin, which settles out as a waste product. At the same time, a carbon group from the alcohol pops onto the end of each fatty acid chain, forming biodiesel molecules (FAME). Functionally then, biodiesel is essentially a thinner (ie less viscous) form of veggie oil that is similar in viscosity to diesel fuel and will work in any diesel engine. Another way to make the oil thinner is to heat it up, and that’s just what some people do who have what are called “SVO” (straight vegetable oil) kits installed in their cars. But this requires a separate tank to heat up the oil and a kit that allows you to switch from your start-up fuel (diesel or biodiesel) to the SVO once it’s hot (then you have to switch back before you stop, or the cold SVO will not allow your engine to start later). One of the great things about biodiesel is that there is no conversion required- it can go directly into the fuel tank, just like diesel fuel, as long as your vehicle has a diesel engine. It can also be mixed with petrodiesel in any percentage, so when you are on a long trip, and there is no biodiesel stations around, you can just fill ‘er up with diesel (unless you are a real purest and you just can not stand the thought of any petroleum product going in your car, and you just have to bring gobs of biodiesel along or map out your route to follow the biodiesel stations).
Why use biodiesel?
Sociopolitical- “No War Required” I confess that I started using biodiesel right around the time of the US invasion of Iraq. I was so angry that it seemed like we were going to war for oil. I saw biodiesel as something I could do that would unplug me (at least in good part) from the petroleum system. Dr. Dan of Dr. Dan’s Alternative Fuelwerks, who has been selling biodiesel in Seattle for several years, has told me that many of his customers have told him they use biodiesel for similar reasons.
Global warming reduction
Then there is the global warming issue. Because those leafy solar panels are pulling their carbon out of the air (instead of from stored underground petroleum), biodiesel combustion contributes 78% less carbon to the atmosphere (over its life cycle) than petrodiesel. Biodiesel also produces over 3 times as much energy as the amount that is required to produce it. Compare that to petrodiesel which requires slightly more energy to produce it, and hydrogen which requires about 3 times as much energy to produce as you get out of it. Some of these figures are controversial, but the majority of reputable studies show that biodiesel is definitely energy positive. Much of this depends on the type of crop the oil is being made from, and it’s growing conditions, and a lot of other factors. If you make it from waste restaurant oil the figure is really going to be energy positive!
Pollution reduction
A couple of years ago I learned that kids riding school buses may be breathing significant amounts of toxic diesel exhaust- anywhere from 4 – 70 times the amount in the air outside the bus. Scientists have shown that there are 15 chemicals in diesel exhaust that are known carcinogens! Diesel is a dirty fuel, containing as much as 30% benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, the burning of which produces those carcinogens. Biodiesel by comparison is quite a pure fuel, containing none of those nasty chemicals, less toxic than table salt! Biodiesel also contains about 11% oxygen by weight, and thus burns more completely and produces less carbon monoxide and particulates (which essentially deliver the carcinogens stuck to them deep into your lungs!), and other partial combustion products. Biodiesel is the only alternative fuel that has passed the EPA’s strict Tier 1 and Tier II health effects testing required by the Clean Air Act of 1990. So we really need to be trying to get school buses, trucks, ships and other dirty diesel burners to start using biodiesel! To this end, I helped found the Breathable Bus Coalition, which is working with school districts to help them transition to biodiesel. Many school districts have already made the switch and report happier children, drivers, and mechanics and cleaner buses. The Seattle School district is about to jump into the fray, joining King County Metro, and the cities of Seattle, Lacey, Port Townsend, and many others already using biodiesel in their diesel vehicles.
Safety
Another advantage of biodiesel is that not only is it non-toxic, but in it’s liquid form it is almost not flammable! The fuel has to be heated up to over 300 degrees F before it will combust. The only reason it works in the diesel engine is because diesels compress the vaporized fuel and air mixture so much that it combusts (without the need for spark plugs). Thus, if a biodiesel powered car, truck or boat is in an accident, the resulting spill won’t require a hazmat team to clean up, and will very likely not result in a fire.
Equipment benefits
Biodiesel has much more lubricity than diesel fuel, and thus allows the engine to wear less and last longer. Because of its solvent and lubricating properties, mechanics have reported that engines running biodiesel look like new! The lubricating properties of biodiesel may play an important role. When diesel fuel has its sulfur removed (scheduled for this summer and fall- see below), the diesel fuel becomes very dry and that lubricity must be restored with an additive (like biodiesel!).
Why it’s taken so long:
One of the reasons diesels have a bad reputation is because people see them as smelly smoky vehicles that are very polluting. That has been the case until recently. We now have much cleaner-burning turbodiesel engines in modern Volkswagens and Mercedes and other vehicles. But even those old smoky diesels can be cleaned up significantly simply by adding even a small percentage of biodiesel. I have spoken to people who use B99 (meaning 99% biodiesel) in their old Mercedes who report that their cars have gone through emissions tests showing ZERO emissions! OK, this actually does not mean that their cars are not producing any emissions- it is just that the instruments used for emissions testing are not calibrated low enough to detect the much lower pollution levels emitted by vehicles using pure biodiesel! The emissions folks usually are puzzled and check their instruments, until they are told that the car uses biodiesel.
The other problem is that until this summer, the diesel sold in this country has had a relatively high amount of sulfur in it (300 – 500 parts per million or ppm). The reason this is a problem is because the sulfur kills the catalyst that is used in the catalytic converters installed on cars sold in Europe for years, where they have had ultra-low sulfur diesel (only about 15 ppm). So that has been the catch-22- people did not want diesels (eg California does not allow the sale of new ones) because they are more polluting, but the reason they are so polluting is because the available fuel is “dirty” with high sulfur content that poisons the catalyst and has not allowed car manufacturers to put catalytic converters on diesels in this country. This is all about to change, because the EPA has mandated that all on-road diesel fuel contain no more than 15 ppm (making it ULSD or ultra-low sulfur diesel) starting this summer and fall. So hopefully, more diesel models will become available in the U.S. soon. Biodiesel, by the way, is an ULSD, containing less than 15 ppm sulfur, so it will work fine with the new vehicles.
Precautions
There are a couple things to be aware of when starting to use biodiesel. Biodiesel is a good solvent and will clean out the soot and other gunk left in your engine and lines by regular diesel fuel. This junk will eventually clog up your vehicle’s fuel filter. So it is routinely suggested that you change the fuel filter of your vehicle after running a couple of tankfulls of biodiesel. Also, biodiesel tends to degrade rubber. This usually isn’t a problem in newer vehicles because they use synthetics instead of rubber, but in pre-1993 vehicles, some of the hoses and seals may be made out of rubber, and should be watched for signs of swelling or degrading. If so, they can be replaced with the synthetic lines, made out of a material called Viton. The final thing to be aware of is that biodiesel will begin to cloud up and gel (crystallize) at higher temperatures than petrodiesel. It depends on the type of oil the biodiesel was made from, but most commercial biodiesel is made from soybean oil, and begins to crystallize and cloud up at around freezing (32 deg F).
If you are driving your vehicle every day, the fuel should stay warm enough that it won’t gel up even if temps are a little below freezing. But when we get a “hard freeze” with temps in the 20’s for several days, then you should add some petrodiesel to your tank. The colder it is, the higher the percentage of petrodiesel you will need to add to keep your fuel from gelling. It might be a good idea to keep a clear plastic container of your biodiesel on the front seat of your car, so you can see if it is starting to gel. If so, it is time to let go of your purist ethics a little and add some petrodiesel. Unfortunately, the anti-gel additives made for diesel do not really work for B100; they only work well for mixtures containing petrodiesel. (One additive known as Arctic Express is supposed to reduce the gel point of B100 by a few degrees). Of course if you are only using B50 or B20, this won’t even be an issue in the northwest, given our relatively mild climate.
Washington biodiesel
Biodiesel is emerging from its infancy, and there are now a couple of companies manufacturing it in WA state, with several more coming online soon. The volume of biodiesel produced in the US tripled from 2004 – 2005 (25 to 75 million gallons per year (mgy), and is expected to at least double again this year. Most companies use virgin soybean oil imported from the mid-West, but some use waste restaurant oil that would ordinarily be made into animal feed or cosmetics. Manufacturers in WA state are also working with farmers in Eastern WA to see if oil from a variety of crops can be produced in an economically feasible way. Some of these crops, which are already grown for other products, include rapeseed, canola, mustard seed, sunflower, safflower, crambe, and soy. Many of these plants, particularly rape and mustard, produce a higher quality biodiesel than is now produced from soybeans (higher cetane value, lower gel points). Much depends on finding markets for the “crush”- the remains after the oil is squeezed out. Mustard seed pulp has been made into an excellent natural pesticide, and rapeseed plants have traditionally been plowed into the ground to enrich the soil for growing wheat. Political incentives will hopefully help to get things going. A bevy of biodiesel incentive bills was passed in 2003. Last year a bill was passed that would require 2% of the volume of diesel fuel produced in WA state to be biodiesel, to go up to 5% when it is shown that in-state production can rise to that level. The governor also signed a sizable loan package to create incentives for WA state farmers to produce oil (including crucial crushing facilities) for conversion to biodiesel.
Local availability
http://www.nbb.org/buyingbiodiesel/retailfuelingsites/
This list is quite up-to-date!
More and more biodiesel stations (or gas stations that also sell biodiesel) are cropping up around WA state and the US. A list of these sources can be found at the following page of the website of the National Biodiesel Board:
Home Made BioDiesel Fuel
If you’re a do-it-yourselfer like me, you can make your own fuel from waste restaurant oil for about 70 cents per gallon! I’ve been making all my own fuel for my ’02 Jetta TDI Wagon for over three years! There is a lot of information available on the internet- my favorite sites include
http://biodieselcommunity.org and http://utahbiodieselsupply.com
It is really fun to make your own fuel! And very satisfying to just go to your garage to fill up. There are some safety issues to keep in mind, since you will be handling chemicals such as methanol and lye. But these materials can be handled safely and responsibly. I encourage anyone interested to thoroughly research their methods before starting. Many restaurants, especially small privately owned ones, will be glad to give you their own (as long as you are dependable), because it will save them the $40 or so per month that they pay the rendering company to take away their oil.
Finally…
It is way past time that we face the global warming issue, and growing pollution and begin to put much more of our resources into renewable forms of energy such as solar and biodiesel. Right now there is not enough waste restaurant oil or crop land available to meet our diesel fuel needs. But other technologies show promise, eg some species of algae are composed of half their weight in oil, and a major study by the National Renewable Energy Lab and others have shown that if we cultivated such algae in large algae ponds using sewage waste and/or smokestack emissions to feed them, that we could potentially produce enough biodiesel to meet the entire diesel fuel need of the US! Although conservation and riding your bike are still preferable, if you are going to drive, and if our country is going to continue to use trucks, buses, ships, trains, and tractorspretty likely! – then it is time we started to add some biodiesel to the mix. These vehicles could begin using biodiesel TODAY and reap immediate benefits in terms of reduced pollution, health, and a contribution to the sustainability of our planet.
Lyle Rudensey, M.Ed., aka “BioLyle” consults, and gives classes, workshops, and school assemblies about biodiesel and provides more information on his website http://biolyle.com, email biolyle@gmail.com. He is an active member of the NW Biodiesel Network, http://nwbiodiesel.org, and is also co-founder of the Breathable Bus Coalition, http://breathablebus.org which provides advice and assistance to individuals and school districts working toward the use of biodiesel in school buses. He and his life-partner Bob Allen will be showing their PV, solar hot water heater, and biodiesel systems as part of the Solar Home tour on October 7.
