What do the countries of Thailand, Uruguay and Ghana have in common? They all could become leading producers of the emerging renewable fuel known as biodiesel.
The ease of manufacturing biodiesel from vegetable oils and animal fats has made it one of the most promising, near-term alternatives to fossil fuels. Seeking to understand which nations are best positioned today to enter the burgeoning biodiesel market, researchers Matt Johnston and Tracey Holloway…ranked 226 countries according to their potential to make large volumes of biodiesel at low cost.
The researchers say the study’s true motivation was to identify developing countries that already export significant amounts of vegetable oil for profit, but may not have considered refining it into biodiesel. By exporting biodiesel – a higher value commodity – these countries could improve their trade balances, says Johnston, or use the fuel to offset their own energy needs.
The idea for the analysis first struck Johnston on a visit to a remote island of Fiji, where people rely primarily on petroleum diesel to run generators for electricity. Transported in by boat, the fuel cost the equivalent of $20 per gallon. Meanwhile, the islanders were growing coconuts and processing them into oil that sold for 50 cents a liter.
“We’re not saying, ‘There’s all this potential out there, go get it,'” says Johnston. “Instead, we’re looking at which vegetable oil feed stocks are most likely to be affected and which countries will most likely be doing this at a large-scale. That way, we can anticipate some of the impacts, as opposed to having to react after the fact.”
Present-day researchers – like these folks – understand the task of balancing the reason of computational analysis versus agribusiness greed, the sophistry of fools doing the bidding of Big Oil and all the other delights of modern politics. In short, the impediments to progress that confront every aspect of redirecting economies to renewable resources.
They’ve turned their statistical methods over to the UN body which assists food and agricultural production around the world.
I just read somewhere that the premier model for biofuel, Brazil, so called energy self-sufficient, only grows 30% of its fuel. Other 70% is drilled and pumped?
So, I’m coming to the conclusion that “bio” anything for fuel is a request for corporate welfare and probably even a net harm to the planet.
Now, exception for this article if you are already exporting veg oil and want to add value?–yes. Or, a very minor contribution from waste bio sources?–yes.
Everything else is fraud and hype.
I don’t know whether to chuckle at your laziness – and light a small flame under your toes – or pass along a really intricate suggestion? Like Google biodiesel and, then, Google ethanol – and see if you comprehend the difference.
Maybe, since you probably live in east Overshoe, America – you have no perception of how much of the world runs on diesel vs. gasoline – there’s a built-in excuse.
Of course, that doesn’t excuse the logical fallacies and incongruities in your 1st two paragraphs.
By signing the Bio Fuel deal with the U.S., Brazil ensured it’ll never be energy self-sufficient.
We live in rural Idaho and have a small farm with horses, goats, etc. We make our own biodiesel. We run one vehicle and a generator. It’s great. Building the equipment takes some effort but it pays off in the end.
Bio diesel may pollute less, but then you have to import more food.
In small island countries, it’s cheaper to make & use bio-diesel for producing electricity than it is to import it.
The small island countries can’t afford to buy massive wind, solar and wave generators to compensate.
Bio-diesel pollutes the same (or nearly the same) as regular diesel. You are exploding under high pressure, which changes the chemical composition.
Instead of pumping it out of underground, the plants used to make the bio-diesel have removed some CO2 from the air.
However, not the CO,NOX and particulates, which are much worse than the CO2. In any case, growing plants require manure, nitrogen fixing, harvesting, etc.
So using oil to produce electricity, like coal, is just about the worse way to do it.
the problem with BioDiesel is that the countries more inclined to produce it are also the ones that still have some important patches of rainforest, and also the ones that are among the poorest of the world.
For them to ditch biodiversity for BioDollars it’s a decision they’ll make in a heartbeat.
Sorry folks, BioDiesel and Ethanol might be the future, but it will need more than the open market to do it. Without sense, we will loose more than we gain.
5,
BUT, you dont need to use FOOD crops.
They have a method to take Methanol and convert it now, to use in engines.
I’m all for biodiesel. Beans in the teens!
The methanol thing is an avenue worth pursuing, also. A local meat packing plant has captured methane from their waste ponds and uses it as fuel for heating water used in the plant. It smells better now, too.
9 you are correct all the bio diesel right now is made form mostly food grade vegetable oils but were not gonna eat it so why. We need to find a plant that produces much more oil per acre than now used and start a production system for it
I have read about the algae and it really looks promising
I also read about an engineer in Idaho that has developed a single step process for oil to bio diesel instead of the multi stage process used now
#7, Mark. There is little, if any, CO produced in diesel combustion. NOx isn’t the evil pollutant the EPA would like you to believe. In fact, NOx can help control ground-level ozone. We shouldn’t spew it indiscriminately… but it’s effect is not always net-negative. Particulates can be virtually eliminated (in fact, every ’07 on-highway engine is so-equipped) by the use of Diesel Particulate Filters.
Finally, if you’re talking biodiesel that is created using organic methanol, there is virtually 0 net CO2 created through combustion. It all came from organic matter, and will once again be consumed by plants.
Sadly, most methanol is created from fossil fuels, and not all farmers run their equipment on 100% biodiesel. So, there is a gain in atmospheric CO2.
I guess after its all said and done – Alvero was right
Biodiesel is the future that the oil companies are trying to supress
Oh baloney (referring to the article’s text). The pacific rim islands and nations would probably be better off developing Geothermal energy. As they’re close to the tectonic plate boundary, and wouldn’t have to drill as deep to hit hot rock strata. And NOT striping their plant ecology bare to product enough Bio-fuel to satisfy some despot leader’s greed for more riches. In their case, biofuels would be a Paradise killer.
The same could be said for the central and south american nations. We’ve already given them too much of a reason to ruin their rain forest systems. Providing cheap beef for the fast food industry (last time I heard). Not it could be completely striping and farm what’s left for biofuel production. Not only f-ing up local environment. But probably effecting the global weather and oxygen replenishment. The scientists and government experts who don’t take this serious, are courting long term suicide in the name of short term riches. Are they simply insane?
It is really too bad that virtually all of you have no understanding of SCOPE. Try running the numbers. Figure out how much land needs to be converted to fuel production to meet our demand. Estimate the amount of water needed to grow and process a billion gallons of fuel.
And as for algae, try converting a half-million acres of wetlands into algae production and see how far you get. You would have better luck getting permission to drill in Alaska. Don’t want to use wetlands? Use the ocean you say? Right . . . until you get your first storm.
And Mr. Water, NOx is not only toxic, but is regulated as an ozone precursor.
@#1 “I’m coming to the conclusion that “bio” anything for fuel is a request for corporate welfare”
Sounds like it.
Seen that new advertisement for the General Motors Hybrid SUV that gets a gas guzzling 20 miles per gallon?
General Motors Slogan: Think hybrids get good fuel economy, just wait ’til we make one!
15,
WELL, there are a few crops that could be grown, that supply ALOT of materials for the making of Bio goods….IF they let us grow them..AND let us terrace a few mountains.
1. is Marijuana, you could get 6 crops a year…EASY.
2. is called Kudzu…Which grows like water running down hill, in many places in the south. Which can grow 60′ per year.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kudzu
#9 & #11
It’s not using food crops to produce biodiesel. It’s the BioDiesel crops competition for land. In Italy already they had a 30% price increase in pasta (spaghetti and the like) products, because of the subsidies the government made available to produce biodiesel. A lot of farmers ditched their wheat fields to farm corn for biodiesel. Also biodiesel suitable crops do use a lot of water and require class A farm land to be profitable.
I guess it all boils down to price and competition, but one thing’s for sure:
Food will be more expensive!
I’m unclear on the technology. Isn’t use of biodiesel essentially taking things that would go in the ground, and using that to produce energy? How is this ‘better’ in terms of global warming?
#19
“Isn’t use of biodiesel essentially taking things that would go in the ground, and using that to produce energy? How is this ‘better’ in terms of global warming?”
It isn’t but at least you won’t fill the coffers of an islamist nutjob.
19,20
There are alternatives…
BUT as the corps keep telling us…”THIS IS CHEAPER”, which only means they can make a Killer profit.
Like placing OIL in the commodity market, WHICH means the highest bidder gets the product. Insted of shipping the goods over here THEMSELVES(they do anyway) they THEN place it on the market, to See who will PAY MORE for it. Thats the STOCK price, NOT the wholesale price. Wholesale price is around $25.
this is what Walmart BYPASSED…To make a profit they went DIRECT, insted of all the distributors, they Force other companies to Lower prices, so they can make MORE profit and sell that product.
Oil corps bring it to the USA, place it on the market, to raise the price, SELL to the highest bidder (even themselves, its a NO loss situation) MAKE MEGA profits, and do it again. In the end, 1-4 groups are getting MEGA BUCKS…
NOW, if you REALLy want to IMPRESS them, get the GOV, to TAKE oil off the commodities market, and FORCE the price, DOWN. So the profit margins ARE EQUAL to the profits they would make from ALCOHOL, HYDROGEN, and other alternatives.
Well Angel, in that case you can just switch to coal.
#21 & #22
Naw, I’ll stick to biodiesel because this tiny country already has palm tree plantations and it’s only a matter of time before biodiesel is produced in here.
There are alot of people looking into useing, AND useing Fry oil, from all the restaurants… they say it works pretty good.
The only problems come when the STATE finds out, and they want the ROAD tax, they you havnt been paying.
#15, guess what, Smith? They don’t want to convert wetlands for algae production…. it works better in the desert. Yes, you have to pump water in, but the environment is perfect, and there’s a smaller chance that any spills would corrupt the ecosystem.
And Mr. Water, NOx is not only toxic, but is improperly regulated as an ozone precursor.
There, fixed that for you. http://www.oar.noaa.gov/spotlite/archive/spot_ozone.html
Excessive regulation of NOx in this country is killing our fuel economy.
Finding better ways to reduce VOC emissions will do much more for air quality. NOx is just a catalyst….. remove the reactants and solve the problem. (VOC or O2, your choice!)