Biodiesel Trivia Challenge
In our last post titled “Biodiesel Back to the Future”, we ended with a question about making your own biodiesel.
Q: Which substance is the worst for making biodiesel?
A.) Chocolate
B.) Pig Poop
C.) Pond Scum
D.) Palm Oil
If you answered letter “A”, you would be wrong!
Chocolate is a guilty pleasure for some, but could soon prove highly nutritious — for your car! Thanks to a process created by British company Ecotec, it is now possible to take waste chocolate from confectionery companies and turn it into biodiesel. And to prove that it works, two British adventurers just completed a trek on a chocolate powered truck that went all the way from Europe to Timbuktu!
For those of you choosing letter “B”, you too would be wrong!
Another promising source for oils and greases that can be used for biodiesel is skimming the surface of sewage settling ponds. Apparently you can find a lot of grease and oil floating there.
If you thought that letter “C”, pond scum is the worst substance for making biodiesel, well, you probably shouldn’t be reading this blog.
Of course we all know that pond scum (Algae) is an excellent source for making your own biodiesel.
So, that brings us to our winner, letter “D”: Palm Oil.
A year ago we complained that rainforests were being cleared to grow palm oil, for use as biodiesel and in as a cheap and devious replacement in fryers for transfats, even though palm oil is high in saturated fats and not much healthier. In August we noted that the first boatload of Malaysian palm oil was being shipped to Germany. Today we learn that Germany and Britain may not want it after all. There were big plans for a German utility to convert a British power station to biofuel, but they were scrapped, because “the company was unable to guarantee that enough palm oil could be bought from sustainable plantations. “There wasn’t enough palm oil that we could demonstrate was sustainable,” the spokesman said. “The bottom line is: are you contributing to global warming by chopping down rainforest?”
So there you have it, if you’re making your own biodiesel, using chocolate, pig poop, and of course pond scum are going to be your best sources of biodiesel.
I basically agree with the points raised. It is a common misconception that the deforestation is being driven mostly by the demand for biofuel. Less than 7% of ALL vegetable oil was used for biofuel last year and only a fraction of that is palm. Although it’s that true demand is growing most palm oil isn’t suitable for european EN14214 or US ASTM grade biodiesel as it is too viscous and has a low CFPP. In warm climates that wont matter as much though.
The main driving force for palm oil is the food industry caused by changing attitudes in China, and India and also for pharmaceuticals, cosmetics etc.. Deforestation is also supported by sales of hardwood and the western world seems happy enough to buy cheap garden furniture made from imported hardwoods. They will continue while we maintain the demand.
Algae is probably the most promising feedstock for large scale biofuel production but there is a lot of R&D required before it will be commercially viable. Many reckon it will take at least 5 years.
Re deforestation. We accuse Brazil and Borneo etc, of causing massive deforestation but this is occurring for the same reasions we did it in the past. Europe and USA are great hypocrits having deforested most of Europe to create farmland which we all benefit from. The UK cant even protect the tiny pockets of wildlife it has left and green belt is being erroded to house immigrants. Frequently farmers overproduce and have to cut back. The public should lobby for partial re-forestation of Europe and USA, restore natural habit, let the trees do what they do naturally and improve our air quality. Some of the wood can be used as a renewable biofuel crop. Also to lobby for increased investment in algae technology. Algae has the potential to be used to make (refined) high grade food oil and high value protein animal/fish feeds. By lowering our demand for imported fuel and food oil we lower the demand for overseas deforestation. Preserving the rainforest by paying a carbon tax to offset europes fossil fuel emission is another approach. i.e. give the live carbon sequestering forests a value in their own right and pay landowners/farmers to preserve and restore them.
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