Eco Maniac: Takes Scum to Know Scum
The practical-minded, renewable energy source more recently tagged as biodiesel has been around for a very long time, yet we seem to be perpetually caught unawares of its utility in this petrol-fueled age in which we find ourselves. Indeed, Dr. Rudolph Diesel invented the eponymous engine to run on peanut oil. I've long been a fan of biofuels — as a concept. Due to many forces, our implementation of the simple brilliance is yet another matter entirely.
Because corn and soybean subsidies are such a huge part of our industrial farming economy, those crops have most recently been the main sources for the production of ethanol and biodiesel. However, as I've written on in the past, other non-food crops produce far greater yields, though the mass production of some are now causing environmental devastation around the world.
Ever since I attended Green Festival in San Francisco three years ago, my eye has been on algae as a fantastic source for biodiesel what with its 10,000 gallons of oil per acre yield which is 15 times the output of corn and switchgrass. These little biological workhorses can grow in pretty much any water — salted, fresh, or contaminated, whether in the ocean, in a pond, or on non-arable land. Furthermore, the industrial ecology angle of the theory goes that algae should grow even faster when munching on sewage or extra carbon dioxide — two things we'd love to be lessening.
Algae has garnered small bits of interest in this arena since the 1950s, and the U.S. Department of Energy actually undertook fairly hardcore research on it from 1978 to 1996. However, this wonderscum is now once again front and center in the race for a solution as ExxonMobil has announced it is ponying up $600 million for research through a partnership with Synthetic Genomics. That's a big step for a company whose head once referred to ethanol as “moonshine.”
The trick is mass production and nationwide transportation. Exxon's vice president for research and development, Dr. Emil Jacobs, framed their approach: “We literally looked at every option we could think of, with several key parameters in mind. Scale was the first. For transportation fuels, if you can’t see whether you can scale a technology up, then you have to question whether you need to be involved at all. I am not going to sugarcoat this — this is not going to be easy.” The good doctor claims that large-scale production of algae-based fuels are “at least 5 to 10 years away.”
Why so long?
We've known of algae's potential for decades and there are many, many diesel vehicles on the road that need no conversion at all to run on biodiesel (my Jeep Liberty included). Plus, lots of companies are working on algae-generated biofuels. So, again, I ask, why so long? Or maybe the better question is, why did it take so long for them to even show up. Chevron and Shell are already knee deep in their research on this front, and still we're “5 to 10 years away?”
Despite the government's algae-centric research that began over 30 years ago, we are, yet again, being forced to rely on industry and the free market to solve our problems. And we all know how keen Big Oil is on non-petroleum-based ideas. I guess, in this case, it takes scum to know scum.
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Comments [22]
Interesting
Have you heard about this? http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/09/ap/asia/main5145995.shtml Pretty cool. Now if only they could do something more environmentally friendly in regard to other beverages on the market....
Oh yeah
I've been seeing articles about that. We need to go back to the cool glass bottles for soda. That would be a big step.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
In France
They sell both. In stores, the glass ones tend to be more expensive. In restaurants and bars, where the prices are ridiculous anyway (wine is generally cheaper than soda and bottled water here) sodas almost always come in glass bottles. They'd have to go back to different vending machines for glass bottles, too....
OMG!!!
I kept some from my childhood!!! I remember lugging them back to the store for the deposit money.....it was a great system......Def need to go back to it!!
Lake
From a diesel consumer point
From a diesel consumer point of view, I'm not a huge fan of biofuels. I drive a big rig for a living, and biofuels seem to cause more problems than they solve. Every time I use B10 or higher, I end up with problems keeping the engine running. Part of this is that biofuels, it turns out, are corrosive to seals, fuel lines, and injectors. Another is that it appears, at least from my observations, to have a high water content in biodiesel.
The mechanical issues are of special concern to me, not because I lose income when the rig breaks down or needs more frequent servicing, but because I'm transgender. Let's face it, I don't want to end up breaking down somewhere like, for instance, Memphis TN, where it appears hunting season on trans-women is open, with no bag limit.
From an environmental point of view, it also now appears biodiesel has twice the CO2 output as regular diesel. My modern engine already puts out a high amount of CO2 (a byproduct of removing particulates and NOx from the exhaust, as well as converting CO to CO2), and biodiesel seriously cranks this up. I thought the goal was to cut carbon emissions, not compete with regular petro-fuels. More than a few environmental groups are waking up to this, and having a change of heart regarding biofuels.
But, my biggest concern isn't mechanical, personal safety, or environmental. I have had, and always will have, huge problems with converting food (or potential food sources) into diesel or any other kind of motor fuel. I've gone hungry before, for extended periods, and more than once in my life. It's not fun, by any stretch. With at least 20% of the planet currently facing "food insecurity" issues, a cute euphemism for starvation and famine, shouldn't we be working on that, instead of how to power SUV's and luxury sports cars so people can just drive for the sake of driving?
Just a few thoughts from the peanut gallery (pun intended).
Fuel vs Food
Saw an episode of "Dirty Jobs" where Mike Rowe was helping a guy create biodiesel out of used vegetable oil he got from a local taco shop. The guy mentioned that he had to retrofit his old Toyota diesel pickup to use the biodiesel because of the hose rotting problem.
Now, if you're talking about a waste product or the article I read somewhere several months ago about this super-invasive weed that covers the sides of the highways all over the south that can be turned into biofuel then I'd be all for it. I agree on the negatives of using food or even agricultural land to create fuel, doesn't make any sense.
You don't eat algae
That was the whole point of my post: algae is a non-food-based source with a high yield and rapid turnover.
Switchgrass is the other source you're talking about. It makes ethanol and also has a pretty rapid turnover.
As for the hoses, yes, older vehicles need to change their hoses to accommodate biodiesel. Newer vehicles don't. I've run B99 as often as I can get it for over three years in my Jeep and have never had any mechanical issues.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
oh, and on a tangent.
kelly,
i'd love to hear your thoughts on the walmart eco-label announcement.
it's got my skin crawling and, while i've got a few hunches, i can't pin down just why.
namaste
Hmmm
It seems like a cool idea, on the surface, though I never fully trust anything that comes out of Wal-mart. If they want to be embraced on any of these new, green frontiers, it seems like they should correct the problems that have been previously pointed out with their workers. I also don't really trust their backing of the health care mandate.
What are your hunches?
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
must stop avoiding job.
will post my thoughts when i'm through work for the day (if that happens).
sigh.
i hate to do it...
i'll admit cynicism on this front. for now, at least, the fact that exxon, chevron, shell, and the rest of the big oil gang isn't rushing toward greener (or blue-greener!) alternatives doesn't surprise me.
perhaps as your d.o.e. continues rolling out more substantial financial incentives for change (and disincentives for inaction), we'll see the pace pick up. i know of smaller companies that put off releasing innovations during the bush years, holding out for the cash that might come with doing so under a new democratic admin to good avail.
a hope is that while players from the old school rest on their laurels and stall progress, smaller, fresher, less profit-oriented souls will find room to step with game-changing innovations. texas-based stealth-mode company eestor is one i'm keeping my eye on. if they have the technology they claim, their energy storage systems will have a real democratising potential.
~wee one
Incentives
Maybe I'm not a smart business person, but it seems that cornering the market on the fuel of the future would hold a lot of profit.
And you're right about the smaller companies -- that's just what Exxon did with this partnership.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
waiting it out?
years ago, i campaigned actively against child labour and other exploitative labour practices. meeting with companies engaged in such practices, there was often a sense that they knew they could do better by their workers, but were choosing to wait out making changes until the point when doing so became an inescapable standard for operating in their industry.
i guess i don't have a hard time seeing that businesses who are turning a rich profit just the way things are might feel inclined to milk their current set-up for what it's worth, making transitions only as doing so somehow becomes a (financial) imperative. even, if only, because change entails risk. at this point, simply showing signs of 'green' research or green-washing marketing efforts, is often enough to look greener than the next guy and (i expect) to cash in.
it wouldn't shock me to learn that companies with the capacity to make change today are leaving their ability to do so hushed, awaiting a time when 'going green' will come with the biggest pay off. i just keep my fingers crossed that they'll be beat to the chase by people motivated by humbler goals.
thoughts?
Change of fools
I long for the day when people/companies do the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not for any gain. And yet, you're right. I think that same rule can be applied to people, as well. Most folks will only opt toward change when they've run out of fixes on the old system. It's sad. I thrive on change.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
i'm with you...
although, lately i have been playing with thinking in terms of flow, rather than change.
i wonder whether the word 'change' is one used too readily in our language, whether the concept is one invoked too often to be healthful in societies as consumerist as the ones we live in. we celebrate, strive for 'change.' aim to 'change' oursleves, each other, the world.
to me, 'change' connotes a break between what was and what is or will be. where 'change' occurs what was is replaced by what is and in the process something is inevitably lost. where 'change' occurs the risk of rendering something irretrievable is run.
at a time when so many of the patterns in our daily lives involve disposable trappings, we are quite good at 'change.' we practice out with the old as we move the contents of bin to curb and in with new as we justify the nine to five with what we buy. we trade ways of being slowly crafted by our ancestors for ways of spending already obsolete that none among us has genuinely 'chosen.' many of us do it with religious fervour. yet, when probed, i doubt even the most devout would claim to feel good about all this 'change.' what we feel, largely, is powerless.
maybe it is out of misrust for 'change' that we hang on to what we think we can, sometimes, even though it feels so terrible it tears us apart. maybe what we long for is to remember or learn how to be, to flow... transcending but including our yesterdays as we live in the present moment of our experience.
so that we might let go of oil, without doing so only to cling to algae. so we might act from that place beyond right or wrong that is where we all are. always.
you've got me distracted again... love it.
Distractions
That was quite a distraction. Thanks! I think I'll have to delve into that idea more and turn it into a post. I love the idea of flow instead of change. As you describe it, that is certainly how I approach my life even though I haven't termed it that. Can't wait to unpack it more.
Now get back to work!
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
ok! ok!
will try to get back at it.
needed that kick in the pants.
much love.
i actually
used to drink the stuff.
blue-green algae supposed to be wonder food.
tweet tweet @gracemoon
you look like a french
you look like a french auteur? on purpose? or is that the algae effect?
She can't help it.
She's just plain artsy no matter what.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword
now i know were you got your
now i know were you got your drive
-Do not follow me, I'M LOST-
It is.
Although the blue-green one might be different than the fuel-producing one. Not sure.
Won't you be my neighbor? @theKELword