Fueled for Thought

(click pic to be magically transported)



There's a collection of good info there, that will only get better. For instance, under feedstocks, there's actually a pretty good write-up on the Chinese Tallow Tree.

Jan Sluizer at Voice of America just did a nice article and audio piece on Yokayo and Biofuel Oasis.

(click picture to go to the website)

This movie keeps coming up in conversations with people, kind of the way that the book, The Omnivore's Dilemma, did a while back.

I strongly recommend you see it. If your internet connection is fast, you can watch the whole thing as streaming video at the website linked to behind the picture (above). If your internet connection is slow, you can download it at that site and watch it later.

You may know a lot of the "stuff" in this movie already, but it's a good educational tool all the same, and I for one found it quite inspiring.

I love foraging for mushrooms. And obviously, I love biodiesel. Among mushroom-hunters, the Morel is a variety that everyone loves, but few forage, because they are very hard to find. The general rule is that, unless you happen to stumble upon them somewhere, you should be looking in the Sierras in the rainy season following a wildfire. As far as cultivation goes, they've been impossible.

Until now? It seems that biodieselers are starting to see a pattern of Morels growing in the places where they do their homebrewing. KOH and NaOH, the two catalysts that people use to make biodiesel, are chemically very similar to white wood ash. There could be something here...

Click on the pic to see the thread about this over at infopop...



(tip of the cap to wv matt at Infopop)

UPDATE: In the words of my friend Ben, "Best. Waste product. Ever."

Seems like every time I turn on the radio or look at news sites, I'm getting bombarded with the idea that biofuels are responsible for historic high food prices and corresponding world food shortages.

Somehow, all these journalists always conveniently forget that the #1 driver in all of this (pun intended) is petroleum, and high fossil fuel energy prices. THAT is what is driving up the value of biofuels. THAT is what is driving up the cost of fertilizer, the value of ag land, and the price of food.

Don't you forget it!

I try not to get political here, but this is something I know a decent amount about, and felt I had to comment on. Heard on NPR this morning:

Hillary Clinton: "I would immediately lower gas prices by temporarily suspending the gas tax for consumers and businesses. We will pay for it by imposing a windfall profits tax on the big oil companies."

NPR Commentary: "Barack Obama opposes the gas tax holiday saying it would be ineffective and that it would ultimately raise demand and gas prices."
Obama is right on this. There's no two ways about it.

I have some experience with this type of issue in my own industry. When the whiz kids at the NBB decided that they could lower the price of biodiesel by creating a tax incentive, they were falling for the same flawed logic. Time proved them wrong, as biodiesel prices never went anywhere but up, and the windfall that came with the incentives created a "dot-palm bubble" (thank Lyle for that excellent phrase) in which our industry became focused on dividing and plundering. We are still trying to recover from the fallout from that.

Supply and demand are what dictate prices (i.e. what the market will pay), and incentives are not going to change that ultimate price. Therefore, companies just end up charging the same thing and pocketing the portion that would have (one could argue should have) gone to Uncle Sam. In the case of the gas tax, we're talking about the money that maintains highways, among other services that people would generally agree are essential. Would you rather that money go to Exxon, Chevron, Shell, etc.?

Leaving aside the nice dream of windfall profits taxes (no- today's politicians will never let something like that happen in a meaningful way), Clinton should understand this. Supply and demand is pretty simple, and Clinton has enough business experience to know how it works. Which is why I believe this is a sad example of desperate pandering.

Unfortunately, people will probably get all excited about someone who wants to "immediately lower gas prices". It's a crock of shit, but people will buy it.

The worst part about this, which I've commented on before, is that it encourages consumption, in a time when we really need to be, have to be, must be encouraging conservation.

If high fuel prices are to be the #1 issue in America, as the media is blaring loudly at the moment, then how long before we drill ANWR, the California coast, and everywhere else, for the piddly amounts of atmosphere destroyer that can be found there?

I had an interesting experience yesterday. I gave a production plant tour to two gentlemen from Nigeria, one of whom works for Chevron. It was part of Rotary International's Group Study Exchange program, which sends 25-35 year-old business people around the world to gain insights on foreign business.

Both men kept asking me why people would use biodiesel? I tried to explain all the reasons. Whenever I got to anything that we would call an "environmental" reason, they were at a loss. One of them suggested that people in the West have gotten lazy and want to just enjoy the world around them, without working. Why not just drill the California coast, and ANWR, they asked.

I'm fond of telling people how biodiesel cuts across party lines, because it makes sense on economic, security, and environmental grounds. I generally expect Republicans to be on board, just as much as Democrats. It was weird to be talking to folks who didn't conform with my expectations. It was also humbling.

I did give them a lot of info, and to be fair, they enjoyed the tour, and asked a lot of good questions. Perhaps they were more impressed with the concept of biodiesel than I realize.

I can't help imagining that if I gave the same tour to Hillary Clinton, she would, as she's done before, extol the virtues of biodiesel right along with me, and then go back on the campaign trail spouting the garbage I've referred to. These things are all connected, but people like her profit on never making those connections.

I can forgive the Nigerians, because it was clear that I was up against a different worldview, and I respect that. An ongoing conversation with them would educate me and them both.

But I can't forgive Senator Clinton.

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UPDATE: Much, much more conversation on this over at this Daily Kos thread. Looks like the pundits agree with me. There's also this great Obama quote:

"This isn't an idea designed to get you through the summer, it's an idea designed to get them through an election."

Over at Daily Kos...

Analysts say that without Iran and Iraq — where nearly 30 years of wars and sanctions have crippled oil production — reaching that level will be impossible.

This is why we are not going to leave Iraq.  The country that controls the future of Iraq and Iran, controls the world for the next 40 or so years.

The issue is not that Iraq and Iran might not be pumping oil in 2030.  One way or another, they will.  The issue is: which military power gets to hold the world at gunpoint in this final fossil-fuel thrill-ride to the edge?  Unless, that is, anyone thinks that the major military powers are going to let Iraq and Iran themselves hold that petrochemical pistol?

According to the New York Times article, world supply of oil is not increasing as it should, in accordance to standard laws of supply and demand, as prices rise to 118 dollars a barrel.  The reason is that supply is simply not available.  OPEC is building infrastructure to keep up, but it's not enough.  OPEC controls 40% of the world output.  The other 60% is not keeping pace, due to both dwindling fields and lack of pumping infrastructure.

An analyst describes non-OPEC supply as "dead in the water."

Anyway, there's more. Compelling stuff.

Men in Black <3 Biofuels

This from Ben, of Pod Chocolates, in L.A.:

So I'm filling up this morning at Conserv Fuel ($70.40 to top off the tank at 4.599/gallon for B99—eep!) when this glistening brand new black Chevy Tahoe pulls up to a neighboring pump. These two well-coiffed blond lads hop out, black slacks, creased white business shirts, military-grade haircuts never sagging in the 90 degree heat. They were both wearing bulletproof vests under their shirts, both packing well oiled semi-automatic pistols, and even extra clips of ammo on their belts! No visible ID of any kind. I looked closer at the Tahoe. It had no plates, no numbers, no markings of any kind. It DID have a shotgun mounted up front and a cage in back for locking up, well... who knows? That's the point I guess. There was absolutely no way to determine what agency they worked for, what they were doing or why they were so ammo'd up.

But the moral of the story is your (shadow) government cares. The Tahoe was a flex-fuel, and they were filling it up with E85. But you can't prove it, I didn't send this email, and they were never there.

A friend of mine in Rotary, past-district-governor Charlie Kelly, e-mailed me this picture from his recent trip to Argentina:

Heard this on NPR this morning:

The price gauges on some mechanical fuel pumps don't go higher than $3.99, but the price of diesel has soared way past that, forcing some gas stations to shut down diesel pumps while they figure out what to do. Washington state has a solution: Stations can sell diesel by the half-gallon, as long as they post big signs.

Funny, we had the same problem with our biodiesel pump at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland. Solution? We paid a few hundred bucks to have the "computer" (an intricate assembly of gears) replaced with one that can go a lot higher. Quick, easy, effective. Why gas stations would shut down, or ask for the ability to sell half-gallons, doesn't make any sense to me.

We plan on using this on filter bags, oil-adsorbent pads, rags, you name it! This thing's great!

Sunny and I were at an Earth Day even on Saturday. Here's a pic of our booth, taken by Chris:



Sandy also came by and helped out. Our friend Adam's band, Venus and Mars, played a set. They are awesome!

The event, which we co-sponsored with a bunch of other really cool local businesses and organizations, was well-attended, but our booth didn't get that much traffic. I think that has to do largely with the "preaching to the choir" aspect of it all. These people were mostly already "our people". Oh well. It was fun.

Last week, in the span of a couple days, three Yokayo trucks all had performance problems. Our 2002 Ford F450 flatbed was having intermittent power problems and was dying at times, our 1996 Freightliner FL 70 biodiesel delivery rig was having similar issues, and Cesar's 1983 Toyota pickup was acting very strange and getting horrible fuel economy. In light of this, it seemed quite apparent that there must be a problem with our fuel.

Sunny and I were racking our brains on what could be up- no complaints from customers, and all the test results were showing that our fuel was better than ever. We had used the fuel in our own car and my parents' Jetta, with no problems (I even drove both cars like race cars a little bit just to test the power). Also, the fuel sampled from the pump where all these trucks fill up was perfect. But there would have to be something wrong, very wrong, to cause all this...

Amazingly enough, it was just a bunch of coincidences designed by some galactic Puck who wanted to have some fun with us:

• The flatbed had a leaking fuel filter gasket, and was sucking air. No big deal.
• The FL 70 had a problem with a solenoid. I don't know the details, but apparently Art was able to fix a mechanical part with JB Weld.
• The Toyota had a rag in the air filter.

So it goes. As an addendum to this whole thing, when I got to work today, Cesar showed me a sample of fuel taken from our evaporator tank, which is the final processing step before polish filtering and storage prior to fuel delivery. The sample had a tiny amount of what looked exactly like glycerin at the bottom. This seemed absolutely impossible, after our wash process and the fact that we have never, ever, failed an ASTM test on free glycerin. I was getting that feeling again in the pit of my stomach. Then we found the culprit- some rubber gaskets in our supposedly-biodiesel-proof evaporator were melting, and coincidentally, that black rubber becomes a brown liquid the exact color of glycerin. It never got into our fuel supply, as the production guys were draining it off while scratching their heads. I ordered some viton to make new gaskets. Another problem (and weird coincidence) solved.

It's worth noting that the typical high-water mark seems to be late summer/fall.

When faced with a challenge as big as worldwide pollution and climate change, there are a number of possible responses. For simplicity's sake, I'll focus on three:

1) You can tackle it head on, assigning lots of resources to the problem, to understand it, and remedy it. This is the ambitious, creative, and difficult option. Think of Sweden's pledge to be fossil fuel free by 2020.

2) You can make a less full-hearted attempt, just to make yourself feel good- a good example of this, in my opinion, is the whole idea of carbon credits. Even the Kyoto Protocol is unambitious in a number of ways, considering the actual limits of existing and projected future technologies.

3) You can do nothing, but that really means just keep things how they are, which is actually quite actively less than nothing.

Unfortunately, in this country, when it comes to unselfish, gargantuan causes to champion, the most popular option for the organizations with the most resources at their disposal (e.g. government, large corporations, even large non-profit organizations) is #3. They can sometimes be pushed against their will into #2, but you will rarely, if ever, see option #1 as the choice of these powerful bodies.

What makes this so criminal is that large corporations and other organizations will often-times marshall ridiculous amounts of resources to fight for smaller issues, or ones which they can selfishly twist to their will. I know it's possible to do the same thing with the big, unselfish issues. Think of the New Deal, a big inspiration for me of what's possible.

Here's an example of how this all plays out, that never ceases to amaze me: Is it possible for cars to get better than 75 MPG now without sacrificing comfort? Yes- I've ridden in a plug-in hybrid that got 80 MPG on biodiesel! Has the automotive industry convinced government that it is not possible? Yes, with help from government's existing deep well of apathy. Would tripling our passenger car fuel economy do a lot to combat pollution and climate change? Absolutely!

So, you get the gist. Kind of a d'uh type of thing. Well, here's three more examples that are stuck in my craw as of late:

- All of this focus on biofuels as the enemy right now. It's asinine. The enemy is pollution and climate change, and properly manufactured and utilized biofuels are a key component to an action plan. But here's the thing: why the f*ck aren't people going nuts about the problems with using fossil fuels? It's like everyone has skipped over the initial, biggest problem, to focus on all the nitty gritty devils in the details of the solution. The reasons to use sustainable biofuels are many, and for the life of me, I cannot think of more than one reason to use fossil fuel (it used to be "the only thing around"). So, priorities, people!

- Calling recycled fryer oil biodiesel "2nd Generation" is particularly stupid and disingenuous, considering that the Fat of the Land people, not to mention Josh Tickell and company (and many, many homebrewers) were honing that craft over a decade ago. Everybody saying that we need to find 2nd generation technologies and feedstocks is simply trying to deflect criticism from the fact that they should have focused on this stuff in the first place, instead of low-yield food crops. Yes, we are dealing with a bunch of morons, and they have controlled the public debate so far, and continue to influence policy.

- John McCain is evil, and here's why: he is proposing that the federal fuel tax be eliminated, to battle high fuel prices. This is the biggest example of a lose-lose, do less than nothing approach that I have ever seen. Starve the government of a HUGE funding source, while at the same time not lowering pricing at all (because there is absolutely NO WAY that oil companies don't just raise their margin thanks to this regulatory windfall- they already know "what the market will bear"). The only people this helps is the oil execs and their companies' shareholders. AND, IT ENCOURAGES MORE CONSUMPTION! Somebody follow the money on McCain.

There's been a lot of stuff lately that I've wanted to talk about, but I've been caught up in other things. A few quickies:

- Potential new biofuel, although Kumar warns: beware of fancy press releases.

- Our grease collection program seems to indicate that people are eating out less, or that restaurants are stretching their grease longer. Either way, it jives with the idea of an economic recession.

- The ever-increasing price of petroleum diesel poses an interesting question for Yokayo: if the "right" price for our fuel is below that of diesel, then how do we protect the supply for the customers that we've already invested time and energy in? In other words, how do we make sure that new, largely uninformed opportunists don't swoop in and buy it all up? One theory is that our price should never be below that of petroleum diesel, but that's a tough one to swallow. We think about this a lot these days.

- Finally, a question for you: Petrosun- greenwashing corporate scam artist, or leader of the algae pack? I would lean toward the former, but that might just be because I'm jaded.

Today's gold star goes to Cesar and his production team of Christopher, Steven, and occasionally my dad and myself. We made biodiesel every day last month, something that this company had previously not accomplished.

Today, I attended a lunch meeting with U.S. Congressman Mike Thompson. Marty Lombardi, from the Savings Bank of Mendocino County, coordinated the affair, which was attended by a small coterie of sustainability stakeholders. I have to say, Congressman Thompson seems very accessible, and conservative in the appropriate sense of the word, not the twisted evil parody that the Neo-cons promote.

Wow. I thought that was mostly a local phenomenon.

diesel prices rose to a new record above $4 a gallon, and gas prices remained high. Diesel, used to transport the vast majority of the nation's goods, rose 1.3 cents to a national average of $4.002 a gallon Monday, according to AAA and the Oil Price Information Service.

Link. Diesel is currently averaging about .70 higher than gasoline, which is also fairly new terrain. A lot of things changing very quickly. Hard to tell how it affects our business- it's definitely not all roses around here, as the race to develop and claim feedstock is hot and heavy.