Fuel Farming

Several times in the last century, there have been fuel shortages in the U. S. Although a solution is found, the problem continues to reoccur which in turn makes our country vulnerable. Currently the United States imports 53% of its petroleum. This number is predicted by the U.S. Department of Energy to skyrocket to 75% by the year 2010. Congress saw the danger of relying on foreign oil and in 1990 decided that a dependence of more than 50% on foreign oil should be considered a peril point for the U.S. We are currently above the peril point and there is no decrease in dependence on the horizon.

Another point of interest: oil imports account for nearly half of the United States trade deficit. Not only is this nation dependent on foreign oil but we are vulnerable to dramatic price increases such as those that have occurred in the last several years. As oil prices continue to rise many people are looking for another form of fuel. Ongoing efforts to find alternative sources of fuel have paid off.. enter biodiesel.

The idea of using vegetable oil as a fuel was hatched in 1895 by Dr. Rudolf Diesel. Dr. Diesel made the first engine that ran on vegetable oil and showed his engine at the 1900 World Exhibition. Peanut oil was Diesel's initial choice of vegetable oil. The research and development of using vegetable oil as a fuel has faded in and out of the energy scene over the last century. The U.S. was extremely interested in this alternative to petroleum oil during the 1970's oil crisis and during World War I and World War II. The need for an alternative to petroleum oil has risen again and this time biodiesel is being seriously considered and used all across the nation. This need for cheaper fuel may be a window of opportunity for farmers to raise crops that can be used for biodiesel.

What is Biodiesel?

Biodiesel is the term used to describe a variety of ester-based oxygenated fuels made from any fat or vegetable oil, with soybean oil being the most common. Biodiesel is an extremely broad term. It can be made from soybeans, peanuts, cotton, corn, sunflower seed, tallow, lard and yellow grease. (Yellow grease is basically recycled cooking grease from restaurants that has been refined.) Each type of biodiesel has slightly different properties but the same end result... less harmful emissions.

Diesel engines will run on pure vegetable oil fuel, but tests done in the 1930's showed there would be problems in the long-term use of pure vegetable oil fuels. Biodiesel today is vegetable oil that has been put through a process called transesterfication. This process eliminates earlier problems associated with using vegetable oil as a fuel.

The amounts of oxygen and sulfur are two main composition differences between diesel and biodiesel. Biodiesel has between 10-12% oxygen by weight and No.2 diesel has no oxygen content. The presence of oxygen lowers emissions and energy density. Biodiesel basically does not contain sulfur. Diesel No. 2 is allowed to have up to 500 parts per million. In January 2001 the Environmental Protection Agency completed a rule that would further restrict sulfur levels in petroleum diesel from 500 ppm to 15 ppm by 2006. In order to meet these new requirements of lowering sulfur levels in diesel the lubricity will also be drastically reduced. This is where biodiesel may come to the diesel industry's rescue. Industry tests show that lubricity is improved when biodiesel is added to conventional diesel which means less engine wear. Even biodiesel levels of 1% can provide a lubricity increase of 65%.

"When Stanadyne Automotive, Inc., the largest manufacturer of fuel injection equipment in the nation gave comments to the EPA's rulemaking process it stated that:
1) Lubricity testing has shown that up to 2% biodiesel is sufficient to make any distillate fuel fully lubricious 2) since biodiesel is a fuel itself, there are no technical issues related to overdosing which are present with conventional lubricity additives."
-www.biodiesel.org/fuelfactsheet

Biodiesel is beginning to be viewed as a clean and safe alternative to regular diesel. It can be burned in its pure form or in various blends such as 20% biodiesel and 80 % diesel. Currently biodiesel is most widely used as an additive to petroleum diesel due to the cost and availability of biodiesel at this time.

Initial arguments against biodiesel are that it will cause the vehicles to run with less power. More than 30 million road miles have shown biodiesel to have similar power, haulage rates and torque as petroleum diesel. Biodiesel produces 128,000 BTU and regular diesel produces 130,500 BTU.

In a day and age when recycling is becoming more prevalent, one U.S. company will produce 5 million gallons of biodiesel using used vegetable waste oil & greases from major fast food companies like McDonalds. Not only are we using waste oil, but also we do not have to dispose of it in landfills. Another company, which produces biodiesel in Hawaii, used 50 million gallons of waste oil.

An advantage to using this alternative form of fuel is that it reduces tailpipe emissions. When the 20/80 biodiesel mixture is used, hydrocarbons are reduced by 47%, carbon monoxide is reduced by 21% and particle matter is reduced by 31% compared to normal diesel emissions. The percentages are even higher when pure biodiesel is used. University of California at Davis did tests that showed biodiesel particulate matter has 80% less cancer-causing potential that petroleum diesel.

There are several forms of alternative energy in the market that are not cost efficient, meaning it takes more energy to make the fuel than the fuel can produce. This is not true for biodiesel. For every one unit of energy needed to produce it there are 3.24 units of energy gained in its use.

Who Uses It?

There are both pros and cons to the use of biodiesel, but more than 60 major fleets are using it today including:
- U.S. Department of Agriculture
- U.S. Postal Service
- U.S. military
- U.S. Department of Energy
- State fleets like Iowa, Ohio, Delaware, New Jersey, and Virginia
- Public utility fleets like Duke Energy, Alabama Power and Commonwealth Edison
- National Parks
More than 100 cities have test projects or have run demonstrations of more than 1,000 buses and over a million miles using biodiesel. European countries have been using biodiesel for the last 20 years in equipment, vehicles, and heating.

Biodiesel can also be used for vehicle credits under the Energy Policy Act of 1992. The Energy Policy Act is the alternative-fuel motor-fleet program that is being implemented by the U.S. Department of Energy. This program requires Federal, State and alternative-fuel providers to increase their buying of alternative-fueled vehicles.

Currently biodiesel legislation is being looked at in 9 different states. Some of this legislation would have 2% biodiesel in all diesel sold in those states. Also U.S. Congress is considering legislation on biodiesel to help with the technical problems with low-sulfur diesel and to improve energy goals.

Cost

Biodiesel does cost more than diesel, but as the price per barrel of oil rises the cost difference margin shrinks. The cost of biodiesel depends on the amount bought, where it is bought and what feedstock is used to make it. Currently vegetable oil and animal fat cost more than diesel but with genetic engineering and a continued increase in the crop yield per acre this may soon change. A 20/80 biodiesel/diesel mixture typically cost 15 to 25 cents per gallon more than No.2 diesel.

Safety

Biodiesel has drastically different health effects than petroleum diesel. Repeated or prolonged contact will not likely cause skin irritation. (Soap and water mixtures create greater irritation than biodiesel.) It is considered nontoxic.

Biodiesel has a flash point of 300°F compared to diesel's flash point of 125°F. It is much safer to store, use and handle biodiesel. Biodiesel also degrades about 4 times faster than diesel. In 28 days pure biodiesel will degrade 85-88% in water. A test sugar called dextrose degraded at the same rate as biodiesel. "A blend of 20/80 biodiesel/diesel will degrade twice as fast as No.2 diesel."
- www.biodiesel.org/fuelfactsheet.htm

If need for biodiesel increases as many predict, it will open the fuel market to the farming community. An economic study done by the USDA Office of Energy predicted that a sustained annual usage of 100 million gallons of biodiesel in the U.S. would add about 7 cents to the price of each bushel of soybeans. Not only do farmers feed America; they will fuel us also...

Advantages of biodiesel

- Has higher lubricity than diesel (reduces engine wear)
- Degrades about four times faster than diesel
- Has a flash point of 300 degrees Fahrenheit (compared to diesel's 125 degrees Fahrenheit)
- After combustion it smells like popcorn or french fries
- Can be used in equipment, vehicles, and heaters
- Can be used in most diesel engines with no modifications
- Creates U.S. jobs
- Does not require special storage
- Can be used as an additive or in its pure form
- Reduces our reliance on petroleum
- Nontoxic (table salt is about 10 times more toxic than biodiesel)
- Has a higher cetane level than regular diesel which means less engine knocking (Cetane is a measure of the fuel's ignition delay.)
- Causes less skin irritation than a 4% soap and water solution
- Has 80% less cancer-causing potential particulate matter than petroleum diesel according to tests done by the University of California-Davis
- Increases value and demand for soybean, corn, safflower, sunflower, peanuts and cotton crops
- Helps to clean injectors, fuel pumps and fuel lines

Disadvantages of biodiesel

- Costs more per gallon (depending on the blend with diesel)
- Is a good solvent. (will dissolve paint.)
- Gels faster than petroleum in cold weather in its pure form
- Has higher iodine numbers and gum numbers, which can shorten the storage life of fuel and lead to deposit formation in the fuel storage tanks
- Currently not as readily available as diesel

The information in this article came from the following sources:

www.biodiesel.org
www.nopec.com/biodiesel
www.pipeline.to/biodiesel
www.uidaho.edu/bae/biodiesel
www.greenfuels.org/bioindex
www.biodiesel.com
www.ott.doe.gov/biofuels
SAE Off Highway Engineering (December 2000) "The Biodiesel Choice"
U.S. Biodiesel Development: New Markets for Conventional and Genetically Modified Agricultural Products