Triangle Biofuels Blog

I just finished watching “Modern Marvels” on the History channel, where they did a special on truck stops and truckers.  They finished the show talking about biodiesel and Willy Nelson.  “Great,” I thought, “some good press about biodiesel in the media”.  Except, once again as happens way too many times, the reporter equates straight vegetable oil with biodiesel.

To the layman, I can see why it’s easy to confuse.  Rudolf Diesel first invented his engine to run on Peanut oil, as the reporter accurately claimed.  However, for a reporter, who is suppose to research things before he reports them, even an extra 10 minutes using Google or Wikipedia in his investigation would have told him that the modern engine looks almost nothing like Rudolf Diesel’s engine, and that while it’s true that they can run straight vegetable oil, almost none do because it’s harmful for the engine. 

The other thing he would have found, as posted other places on this blog and our corporate website, is that straight vegetable oil (SVO) and Biodiesel are not the same thing. 

I’ll say it once more in more simple format: “Vegetable Oil Is Not Biodiesel“. 

So, what do biodiesel and straight vegetable oil have in common?  Biodiesel is usually made from vegetable oil.  But, in truth, biodiesel can be made from animal fats too, or people fat, for that matter.  Through a process called transesterification, vegetable oil is stripped and converted into Biodiesel (which is technically called a mono-alkyl ester).  This new chemical, trade named “Biodiesel”, is now more chemically similar to petroleum diesel, and has many of the same characteristics of it’s petroleum cousin.  It is even accepted by the EPA as an approved fuel and fuel addative, and has an ASTM standard (D-6751).  Vegetable Oil doesn’t have any of that.

See, Vegetable Oil is food, Biodiesel is fuel.

So, get it right next time, Mr. Reporter.  I bet I’ve heard this mistake five or six times in the media over the last two years.  You’re not helping our industry by adding to the confusion that the average consumer already has about biofuels.  

Need proof that greedy government can kill biodiesel even as it says it’s promoting it?  Read the article from Reuters that talks about how Germany’s government decided to increase taxes on biodiesel to the point where plants are shutting down and being dismantled and sold overseas.   Nice going Ms. Merkel.  Germany was among the first countries to really start producing large amounts of biodiesel and distribute it to the retail pump. 

Think it can’t happen here?  Don’t under-estimate Big Oil.  

There’s a big push in the U.S. right now for going green, but sooner or later, the few bad apples are going to tarnish that “going green” idea and sour it for the public to where it becomes a bad name.  Watch.  If it does happen, then pressure from the wrong types might persuade government to stop subsidies for biofuels and the whole system will collapse.  We depend on tax subsidies and government endorsements.  Oh, yeah, just like petroleum products do too…

It’s sheer stupidity that we keep having to remind people that we’re running out of petroleum, and that biofuels aren’t a cute idea as an “alternative fuel”.  I wish people would stop calling it that.  They should be called “Next Fuels”, because quite simply, we’re running out of petroleum.  And like the stupid upright walking monkeys we are, we’re burning it instead of using it to make plastics, medicine, fertilizer, lubricants and other useful things like that.  

Want to tax something? Then put a $500 tax on every barrel of oil and treat it as a chemical resource rather than something you’re going to burn.  You can call it “petroleum hydrocarbon foundation chemicals” (or something more clever like that) instead of just “oil”. 

You can read the whole article about Germany’s legislative stupidity here on Reuter’s website: http://www.reuters.com/article/ConsumerandRetail08/idUSL1589672020080115

Bioheat appears to be gaining some acceptance with the heating and air
conditioning industry as a suitable additive and replacement for fuel
oil in oil heated homes. We’re using it to heat our production
facility, and so far, a 20% blend this winter has worked fine. Some
care must be taken to ensure your tank, tubing, and seals are Biodiesel
compatible if you’re going to run any higher blends. But staying at B20
or below should be tolerated in most any system.