The use of the fuel known as biodiesel is growing in America--quite literally. Biodiesel is produced by combining organic oils, from any of a number of sources, with alcohol or petroleum diesel fuel. The organic oil is most often obtained from soybeans, but many other plants have shown potential, including canola and rapeseed.
Biodiesel can even be made at home. In fact, Biodiesel America tells its members that they can make biodiesel for as little as 50 cents a gallon using recycled cooking oil, assuming the oil if free. That may seem unrealistic, but there are many vehicles on the road today that use biodiesel fuel based on free oil from restaurants. Since restaurants generally have to pay to dispose of their used grease, they're often willing to give it to a vehicle owner who wants to take it off their hands. Otherwise, they often have to pay as much as $150 per 50-gallon drum to have used grease hauled away.
Biodiesel America has a lofty goal of converting 100,000 school buses to run on biodiesel by the year 2010. The purpose of their project is not only to significantly lessen America's fuel dependence on foreign countries, but they also are determined to lessen greenhouse gas emission, as well. According to the National Biodiesel Board, the amount of carbon monoxide emitted from a biodiesel engine averages 48 percent less than a similar engine running of "regular" diesel. Therefore, converting 100,000 school buses would represent a significant reduction in pollution.
Much of the raw material for biodiesel comes from Midwestern soybeans. It's not uncommon in the Midwest to see pumps that sell biodiesel right alongside other fossil fuels. Renewable fuel has proven to be a newfound way for farmers to sell their crops, which will allow more farmers to stay on the land, which is an important side benefit to the overall biodiesel production process.
Tip! Although hydrogen fuel cells appear to be the most promising source of alternative fuel, other sources are being researched and tested. Alternative transportation fuels provide economic advantages while also offering significant environmental benefits.
However, soybeans aren't the only crops that may have important uses in the creation of biodiesel. Scientists at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks have been experimenting with the use of canola oil in creating biodiesel, and have had promising success. An important added benefit to using canola is that the plant will not only grow in Alaska, but the added amount of daylight available during Alaska summers creates a canola that contains a significantly higher oil content than when its grown on the mainland of the United States. That means Alaska could grow its own biodiesel plant components, lowering shipping costs and increasing efficiency.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, author of interior design and real estate books helps home owners makeover their homes with "green design." For more home environmental issue articles, visit Environmental Psychology
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Alternative Fuel - American Cars Ready for E85?
Many people wonder about the ethanol/gas mixture known as E85, named for the 85% ethanol that mixture contains, and whether or not their vehicles will run on it. You may be surprised to learn that there have already been some two million vehicles sold in America that can run on E85 with no modification at all. Check your vehicle's owners manual or contact your dealer to find out if yours is a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV).
The key is fuel injection. When vehicles had carburetors, engines needed to be modified to run on E85. However, most modern vehicles are fuel injected, using an oxygen sensor to control the air/fuel mixture to run the engine most efficiently. That sensor is controlled by a computer chip, and even if your particular vehicle doesn't currently have the chip necessary to allow it to run on E85, it can often be changed to the chip that will make that possible. Again, first check with your dealer to see if your own vehicle's chip can be changed--if it isn't already able to use E85.
If your vehicle can run on E85, you can thank the Brazilians, because way back in the early 1980s, the Brazilian government mandated that all new vehicles in that country be able to run on 180-proof alcohol. That legislation forced automakers like Ford and GM to begin making vehicles that would meet that criteria if they wanted to continue selling to consumers in Brazil.
Since then, worldwide consumer demand for vehicles that can run on E85 has continued to increase. For example, in 2005, the demand in Sweden for FFVs outstripped the demand for standard fuel vehicles by more than four to one, according to Ford statistics. As is the case in America, worldwide demand is driven by whatever is cheapest, and E85 is often as much as $1.00/gallon less at the pump, which is a significant savings--no matter what country you live in.
Tip! Finding solutions to the transportation element in our daily lives is very important. There's much confidence that with the attention level rather high that a better solution(s) with soon be found regarding alternative fuel.
Since 1997, Swedish drivers have been able to choose the amount of ethanol they want to mix with their gasoline--right at the pump. They can choose the exact percentage of ethanol they want at the moment, depending upon their engine, and even upon the weather conditions, since E85 has some issues when it comes to extreme cold, which Sweden has plenty of during their long Scandinavian winters. They simply dial in whatever mixture they want at the moment, and then pump it into their vehicles. As more tax incentives are introduced in the rest of the European Economic Union (EU), such mixing options will become increasingly available in other countries, as well.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, author of interior design and real estate books helps home owners makeover their homes with "green design." For more home environmental issue articles, visit Environmental Psychology
The key is fuel injection. When vehicles had carburetors, engines needed to be modified to run on E85. However, most modern vehicles are fuel injected, using an oxygen sensor to control the air/fuel mixture to run the engine most efficiently. That sensor is controlled by a computer chip, and even if your particular vehicle doesn't currently have the chip necessary to allow it to run on E85, it can often be changed to the chip that will make that possible. Again, first check with your dealer to see if your own vehicle's chip can be changed--if it isn't already able to use E85.
If your vehicle can run on E85, you can thank the Brazilians, because way back in the early 1980s, the Brazilian government mandated that all new vehicles in that country be able to run on 180-proof alcohol. That legislation forced automakers like Ford and GM to begin making vehicles that would meet that criteria if they wanted to continue selling to consumers in Brazil.
Since then, worldwide consumer demand for vehicles that can run on E85 has continued to increase. For example, in 2005, the demand in Sweden for FFVs outstripped the demand for standard fuel vehicles by more than four to one, according to Ford statistics. As is the case in America, worldwide demand is driven by whatever is cheapest, and E85 is often as much as $1.00/gallon less at the pump, which is a significant savings--no matter what country you live in.
Tip! Finding solutions to the transportation element in our daily lives is very important. There's much confidence that with the attention level rather high that a better solution(s) with soon be found regarding alternative fuel.
Since 1997, Swedish drivers have been able to choose the amount of ethanol they want to mix with their gasoline--right at the pump. They can choose the exact percentage of ethanol they want at the moment, depending upon their engine, and even upon the weather conditions, since E85 has some issues when it comes to extreme cold, which Sweden has plenty of during their long Scandinavian winters. They simply dial in whatever mixture they want at the moment, and then pump it into their vehicles. As more tax incentives are introduced in the rest of the European Economic Union (EU), such mixing options will become increasingly available in other countries, as well.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, author of interior design and real estate books helps home owners makeover their homes with "green design." For more home environmental issue articles, visit Environmental Psychology
Alternative Fuel - What Is E85?
If you watched the Olympics, you probably noticed that General Motors launched a major advertising campaign, touting the fact that 1.5 million GM vehicles are able to run on E85, made from corn. If you're new to the alternative fuel concept, perhaps you were left wondering exactly what E85 is.
The term E85 is derived from the blend of two different fuels, comprised of 85% ethanol (where the term E85 comes from) and 15% petroleum. E85 is able to be used by vehicles that are known as flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). So what's the big deal, and why is GM willing to spending many millions of dollars to let people know their vehicles will run on E85?
Ethanol is an exciting concept, since it can be made from virtually any type of starchy plant, including sugar cane, wheat, canola, or milo. However, most American ethanol is produced from corn, which is grown in huge abundance in the Midwest. It could represent a perfect union between farmers and consumers, since it will give farmers a steady, reliable outlet for their corn and it will provide motorists with a cleaner, less expensive fuel that doesn't rely on foreign suppliers.
But that's just the beginning. E85 also helps reduce a vehicle's exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions, since it has a higher oxygen content. That means it's burned more completely than conventional gas, making it more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based fuels. In fact, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statistics suggest that E85 produces some 40% less carbon monoxide and 15% less production of other pollutants that contribute to smog.
Those figures should be enough to get people excited about E85's prospects. It's also promising that a huge automaker like GM has chosen to spend large amounts of its advertising dollars to bring the concept of green vehicles and fuel into the mainstream consciousness, and they're to be commended. It represents a major first step toward freeing America from dependence upon foreign oil, as well as lowering greenhouse pollutants and providing American farmers with a new, profitable, stable avenue for selling their crops. It seems to be a winning proposition for everyone involved.
Not surprisingly, E85 is most readily available in the Upper Midwest, where the majority of the corn to make it is grown. Some 400 of the 600 locations nationally are located in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, author of interior design and real estate books helps home owners makeover their homes with "green design." For more home environmental issue articles, visit Environmental Psychology
The term E85 is derived from the blend of two different fuels, comprised of 85% ethanol (where the term E85 comes from) and 15% petroleum. E85 is able to be used by vehicles that are known as flexible fuel vehicles (FFVs). So what's the big deal, and why is GM willing to spending many millions of dollars to let people know their vehicles will run on E85?
Ethanol is an exciting concept, since it can be made from virtually any type of starchy plant, including sugar cane, wheat, canola, or milo. However, most American ethanol is produced from corn, which is grown in huge abundance in the Midwest. It could represent a perfect union between farmers and consumers, since it will give farmers a steady, reliable outlet for their corn and it will provide motorists with a cleaner, less expensive fuel that doesn't rely on foreign suppliers.
But that's just the beginning. E85 also helps reduce a vehicle's exhaust and greenhouse gas emissions, since it has a higher oxygen content. That means it's burned more completely than conventional gas, making it more environmentally friendly than petroleum-based fuels. In fact, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) statistics suggest that E85 produces some 40% less carbon monoxide and 15% less production of other pollutants that contribute to smog.
Those figures should be enough to get people excited about E85's prospects. It's also promising that a huge automaker like GM has chosen to spend large amounts of its advertising dollars to bring the concept of green vehicles and fuel into the mainstream consciousness, and they're to be commended. It represents a major first step toward freeing America from dependence upon foreign oil, as well as lowering greenhouse pollutants and providing American farmers with a new, profitable, stable avenue for selling their crops. It seems to be a winning proposition for everyone involved.
Not surprisingly, E85 is most readily available in the Upper Midwest, where the majority of the corn to make it is grown. Some 400 of the 600 locations nationally are located in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin, and South Dakota.
Copyright © 2006 Jeanette J. Fisher
Jeanette Fisher, author of interior design and real estate books helps home owners makeover their homes with "green design." For more home environmental issue articles, visit Environmental Psychology
Finally, Alternative Fuel Engines Are Gaining Respect
In order for all of us to understand what is going on in the world about the high price of gasoline. Let us look at one mans quest to make the engine a better and cheaper running machine, a quick history lesson if you will.
A lot of people think of the diesel engine with the black soot soaring upwards from large semi-trucks on the highways and byways of America. We have all smelled the odor when they idle in a parking lot. If you have ever been in the Army you can remember the deuce and half trucks and their smell.
This is how the diesel engine has developed but was this the way its inventor imaged it, as an engine running on petroleum? The diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel and ran with success on its fuel of choice - PEANUT OIL !
Diesel also tried out successfully with using whale oil but neither fuel was as prevailing or as easily available as petroleum. At this time petroleum based oils were the most economically obtainable. So the engine took the route of easy oil and you now know the rest of the story.
Rudolf Diesel had stated "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it"
And later predicted that "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time."
You might be asking why hasn't someone done something about this in the past 100 years? Well, it has come full circle and we are now doing something.
Tip! From fat or vegetable oil through a chemical process called transesterification comes biodiesel an alternative fuel. This process breaks apart the glycerin from the fat or vegetable oil, creating two new products, glycerin and biodiesel.
Keeping the above mentioned history in mind and looking to our future, our affiliation with the oil industries and our addiction on foreign oil, hopefully, will motivate us to explore options with a more open mind. The many experiments that have lately come alive attest to what is possible if we are willing to change in a positive direction or maybe to go back to the primary vision of Rudolph Diesel and his engine.
Here a several of new advances moving full steam ahead:
1. From fat or vegetable oil through a chemical process called transesterification comes biodiesel an alternative fuel. This process breaks apart the glycerin from the fat or vegetable oil, creating two new products, glycerin and biodiesel. The most popular source for biodiesel is soybean oil, but poultry fats can also be used.
Tip! Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel that is produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars. Feed stocks for this fuel include corn, barley, and wheat.
2. Ethanol, another clean-burning fuel has sparked interest in biodiesel which is being helped by new government standards and rising gas prices. A number of ethanol projects developing from corn, soft wood and other sources also are under way.
3. Also, today May 20, 2006 in the news, there is research being done in an early 1900s red brick armory at the Kossuth County fairgrounds in Iowa. The engine can run on a number of fuels including hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, propane or digester gas from landfills. The company is initially focusing on making more efficient, environmentally friendlier engines to replace those used in generators and in forklift trucks, airline ground equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors and buses.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 commands an increase in renewable fuel usage to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 from 4 billion gallons in 2006. The bill also supports the alternative fuel industry with production incentives such as tax credits.
A lot of people think of the diesel engine with the black soot soaring upwards from large semi-trucks on the highways and byways of America. We have all smelled the odor when they idle in a parking lot. If you have ever been in the Army you can remember the deuce and half trucks and their smell.
This is how the diesel engine has developed but was this the way its inventor imaged it, as an engine running on petroleum? The diesel engine was invented by Rudolf Diesel and ran with success on its fuel of choice - PEANUT OIL !
Diesel also tried out successfully with using whale oil but neither fuel was as prevailing or as easily available as petroleum. At this time petroleum based oils were the most economically obtainable. So the engine took the route of easy oil and you now know the rest of the story.
Rudolf Diesel had stated "The diesel engine can be fed with vegetable oils and would help considerably in the development of agriculture of the countries which use it"
And later predicted that "The use of vegetable oils for engine fuels may seem insignificant today. But such oils may become in course of time as important as petroleum and the coal tar products of the present time."
You might be asking why hasn't someone done something about this in the past 100 years? Well, it has come full circle and we are now doing something.
Tip! From fat or vegetable oil through a chemical process called transesterification comes biodiesel an alternative fuel. This process breaks apart the glycerin from the fat or vegetable oil, creating two new products, glycerin and biodiesel.
Keeping the above mentioned history in mind and looking to our future, our affiliation with the oil industries and our addiction on foreign oil, hopefully, will motivate us to explore options with a more open mind. The many experiments that have lately come alive attest to what is possible if we are willing to change in a positive direction or maybe to go back to the primary vision of Rudolph Diesel and his engine.
Here a several of new advances moving full steam ahead:
1. From fat or vegetable oil through a chemical process called transesterification comes biodiesel an alternative fuel. This process breaks apart the glycerin from the fat or vegetable oil, creating two new products, glycerin and biodiesel. The most popular source for biodiesel is soybean oil, but poultry fats can also be used.
Tip! Ethanol is an alcohol-based alternative fuel that is produced by fermenting and distilling starch crops that have been converted into simple sugars. Feed stocks for this fuel include corn, barley, and wheat.
2. Ethanol, another clean-burning fuel has sparked interest in biodiesel which is being helped by new government standards and rising gas prices. A number of ethanol projects developing from corn, soft wood and other sources also are under way.
3. Also, today May 20, 2006 in the news, there is research being done in an early 1900s red brick armory at the Kossuth County fairgrounds in Iowa. The engine can run on a number of fuels including hydrogen, ethanol, natural gas, propane or digester gas from landfills. The company is initially focusing on making more efficient, environmentally friendlier engines to replace those used in generators and in forklift trucks, airline ground equipment, irrigation pumps, tractors and buses.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 commands an increase in renewable fuel usage to 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 from 4 billion gallons in 2006. The bill also supports the alternative fuel industry with production incentives such as tax credits.
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