News Digest Dec 29

A small California town gets Biodiesel.
This is not a major story, really. But this is how Biodiesel is happening. A station here, a station there. A town that once didn't have it now does. Another dot on the map!

Fuelmeister gains publicity.
The Fuelmeister is a mini in-home biodiesel plant. Capable of making 40 gallons per batch, and with the extension, one batch per day, this little unit could put out roughly 14,000 gallons per year! This unit will have a market niche as long as biodiesel is hard to find at the corner filling station. The best thing I like is that it demonstrates the "low-tech" aspect of biodiesel. C'mon! Everyone's heard the story about the millions that the US put into a pen that could write in space while the Russians used a damn pencil! No in-home hydrogen making unit yet available!

Renewable Energy Standards go into effect.
The Energy Bill passed last year mandates that 2.78 percent of auto fuel sales be made from renewable sources such as ethonal or biodiesel. This is going to be measured at an aggregate level, and forecast indicate that this standard will be easily met.

Pick up today, No News Digest

I'm in Phoenix today picking up the 1978 Black on Black 300D. So, There will be no news digest. I have some stories bookmarked though. I hope my next stop will be Twentynine Palms, CA just outside of Joshua Tree National Park. That's if all goes well. I have to deal with the Arizona DMV. Other than that, this should go fairly smooth. And who knows, sometimes the DMV (or the MVD as the call it in Arizona) can go smooth. There's a biodiesel filling station Phoenix that I hope to visit as well.

Get Your Mind out of the Dumpster

I had one of those moments last night after I had woken suddenly at 3:30 a.m. suffering from indigestion. I grabbed a Tums and on the way back from the bathroom it hit me. Background: I've been bothered by website after website which talk up biodiesel or veggie-oil fuel and say that its free fuel -- just go dumpster diving behind your local Chinese restaurant and with a wink and a nod to the restaurant owner you have your fuel source. I don't know whether it was the in-elegance of this model or my basic sense that nothing is free that bothered me. But I kept thinking about it.

First, collecting a restaurant by-product is not easy and not everyone is equipped to get it, nor process it and store it after they have done so. An East Indian colleague of mine says it best, and you really need his accent to get it, "you know, nuisance has a value." Second, used cooking oil is actually a commodity. Its called yellow grease and it is considered a commodity by the USDA. The current price is 16.25 cents per pound which equates to $1.24 per gallon. Its primary use is in animal feed. So, with an economist's grin, I say that this represents an opportunity cost. Instead of filling your tank, you could fill your wallet. It would be like having a pile of chips at the blackjack table in Vegas. If you fill your tank, its as if you lost your chips to the dealer. If you take your chips to the cashier, you fatten your wallet. The value of the grease is the same no matter how it is obtained.

Why is this important? As I said, there has been too much fanfare about running your car on cheap or free used cooking oil. This notion detracts from the fact that biodiesel or veggie-oil won't take off until the distribution of it is similar to that of petro diesel. Biofuel isn't attractive because of its price. It's attractive because of its environmental, economic, geopolitical, and sustainability profiles are far better than petroleum products. I'm not sure what the commodity price of $1.24 goes to in order to get it to your gas tank, but with gas and diesel north of $2.00, there's room for this to be competitive purely on price. Add the "intangibles" and it becomes an easy sell. Biodiesel enthusiasts, get your mind out of the dumpster!

Biofuel News Digest 26 December

Today's news update includes:

Minnesota suspends B2 Biodiesl Mandate based on consumer complaints.
A Minnesote state law which mandatea that all diesel fuel sold in Minnesota had to be at least two percent biodiesel. Two percent does not sound like a lot, Minnesota is the first state to madate such a standard. On a nationwide basis, 2 percent would mean 1.5 billion gallons of biodiesel. With only 750 million gallons being produced this year, a B2 standard would DOUBLE production of the fuel. However, there are now problems. While the cause is still being investigated, the effect is that truckers and car drivers alike are experiencing clogged fuel filters. The cheif suspect is that the biodiesl does not meet ASTM D6751-02. The mandate passed in March 2002 and did not take effect until September 2005. I hope these problems get sorted out fast. It would be a pity if this mandate had caused a flood of untested product to go on the market at the last minute. A mandate that was aimed to help biodiesel production might give it a black eye. I'm not a fan of production mandates. These are tools of a command economy, not a free one. I would have rather Minnesota passed a law requiring public transportation be converted to a high percentage of Biodiesel in an effort to use the state's purchasing power to spur growth in a new market.

Colorodo Community to test biodiesel on School Bus Fleet.
This is the same type of story as reported in yesterday's digest. I'm interested in it because it refers to Blue Sun Biodiesel which has been in my Bookmarks!

Saab to introduce a Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV).
Flexible Fuel Vehicles are designed to run on pure gasoline, or 85% blends of ethanol (or methanol) and gasoline. Detroit has offered Flexible Fuel Vehichles for some time, but they haven't gained much share in the market. Ethanol's main detraction is that it has an unattractive energy balance -- it takes too much energy to produce a gallon of ethanol compared to other fuels. Estimates vary widely on this but one thing is for sure, it is here to stay. The Iowa caucuses keep it that way.

Biofuel News Digest

Starting today, I will be providing a biofuel news digest. Basically, links to stories with my commentary. I use Google or other news search sites on the terms biodiesel, biofuel, or vegetable oil. Having done this on my own, I have been quite impressed with the quantity of stories, particularly the ones involving state governors, US senators etc. This is a growing phenomena which isn't reserved to concerned environmentalists.

South Carolina considers fueling its school bus fleet with biodiesel.
This is catalouged by AP as "weird news". AP, you're weird. Anyway, Josh Tickell, the Veggie Van pioneer, has a campaign to convert all of America's school buses to biodiesel. With 350 million gallons of diesel used by school buses each year, this is a good target market. But its not just the fuel, its educating the kids who ride the buses about the fuel.

Washington's governor Gregorie is pushing a biofules investment initiative.
Public officials see what everyone else sees. Money that is currently flowing out of the country into Sheik's bank accounts could be flowing into their constituents pockets. Biodiesel is a way to mitigate that by keeping money here at home. The pollution characteristics are not lost on them either. Gregorie's statment, "This is the economy of the future and I think we should lead the world." is a bold one but just what is needed. I wish California would adopt such an attitude.

The Port of Seattle will start using biodiesel in its operations.
Here, a US senator is named as a "broker" in the deal. The port acknowledges that they will pay more for gallon. I suspect that they know that the price we pay at the pump isn't the total cost of fuel. Biodiesel has the chance to help avert the next war, not start it.

Winnipeg Buses to run on Biodiesel Year-round.
City bus programs are turning to biodiesel around the country. Here, our friends to the north are busy making it happen as well. The article mentions a fuel additive that will help keep the buses running through cold weather. This is a big deal. One of biodiesel's main drawbacks right now is it's gel point. Biodiesel gels at around 32 degrees F while petrodiesel gels at around 5 degrees F.

Interstellar Overdrive -- The Business!

It is with great pleasure and even greater humility that I announce the formation of Interstellar Overdrive -- the business! Many of you have wondered what became of my ambition to blog my way through the country with my new 1976 Mercedes 300D. Well, I wonder too to be quite honest. Three main difficulties arose: 1) difficulty to finding internet access at the the overnight lodging. LaQuinta and Hampton Inns are pretty good here, but they are a bit pricey too. 2) difficulty to find the time and energy when the day has been spent driving or checking out cool sites. 3) difficulty due to sudden formation of a business! I guess it was in Hattiesburg, MS where I got a phone call telling me I had won another Ebay auction for a Mercedes 300D. This one is a 1978 black on black model located in Phoenix, AZ. I had little expectation to win this car, but I couldn't help myself in bidding on it. Now the mental machinery had to engage and I sketched out a vague business model. The basic plan is to create a biofuel filling station with a small showroom for recycled diesels capable of running biodiesel or vegetable oil. I have no idea if this will be a profitable enterprise. I'm more concerned with whether I can pay my bills while doing it. I love the concept of a business that can both be successful and help solve some real problems in the world. A great challenge lies ahead of me. Except for some classic cars that I'm trying to refurbish and resell, this thing is just a dream. I will keep you posted on my progress.





This is the Phoenix car. I expect to have this under my wing by
December 29th.



This is a car I picked up in LA. It needs new paint but the price
I paid easily leaves budget for that.



This car will be shipped from Pittsburg. You should see the
immacualte interior! This is showroom only - not for resale!

Beyond Petroleum? Part 2 of 2.

I singled out BP in the last article because they're talking the talk. Exxon-Mobile is too. I need someone to walk a walk that makes a difference for me now. Only small co-ops and some start-ups are getting into the game thus far. Oil companies are not the monoliths we would think they are. Behind the neighborhood corner Exxon sign is just an average Joe trying to make a living. The Exxon logo comes at a high price for Joe and many Joes or Yusefs scrape by no matter what the price of gas is. The local station owner decides when it is a good idea to carry diesel, or convert existing diesel to biodiesel. The corporate headquarters can help only by honoring an order for biodiesel. So how would a gas station owner make a decision to add biodiesel? The answer is that each one of us needs to demand it. Each one of us needs to first get off of gasoline and second make alternative fuels our number one choice. We will probably pay a premium at first. But I do believe in basic economics - supply and demand. Usually, demand for a good or service precedes supply. It is the high price of the good that attracts suppliers. My father was in the disk drive business in the early years when everyone thought they could be in it. He supplied parts to manufactures. In those early days, if you added up all the firms that thought they could get just 5% of the disk drive market, it would have come to 500%! The glut in supply that pursued made disk drives inexpensive for the people like you and me. It took more than academic projections to attract suppliers. Computers started to become a reality in everyday life. Let us strive to make biodiesl a reality in everyday life. If you own a car with a gasoline engine now, get rid of it. Buy a diesel and get going on alternative fuels. Patronize the small co-ops who sell these fuels and dis' the big oil franchises who don't. The big guys will either become the dinosaurs that made them rich or transform into the enterprises we need them to be. Ultimately, we need to change our buying habits before they change their selling habits. It's not hard. Go onto Ebay and get a beautiful Mercedes Diesel like I did!

Beyond Petroleum? Part 1 of 2

I watch TV. I have two or three shows I watch regularly, and other than that I watch its sports or cable news. The off switch has its merits. "It is a custom more honored in the breach than the observance" Hamlet would say. Television shows are just filler in between advertisements. British Petroleum runs ads frequently trying to use its advertising to cast itself as the energy company that is moving "beyond petroleum". Their ad campaign has been top notch. It makes the viewer feel comfortable that an enrgy company is thinking ahead. I'll give them credit, it looks like they are thinking ahead. But advertisements and small scale alternative enery projects don't move the needle.

I drove from Bradenton Florida on US41 and then US19. I must have seen dozens of BP stations. I would wage that fewer than ten percent of them offered diesel fuel. And of course none of the stations that do carry diesel have biodiesel. Diesel is better than gas because it is more efficient and biodiesel is better than diesesl because it burns cleaner and is sustainable. Oh, sustainable. BP has a "Sustainability Report" that they publish annually. Cool. Some good stuff in there. But I have to say if you are going to move beyond petroluem, move beyond it or at least get started on your way. What good do these advertisements do if the customer can't have a different experience at BP? Jack Welch asked GE early in his tenure as CEO - do you want to make and sell toasters or CAT Scan machines? It seems like BP has already addressed this same type of question for itself. I want to see action. Biodiesel doesn't need BP in order to thrive. But BP needs biodiesel.

Welcome and Hello

Welcome to Interstellar Overdrive. I am using this blog to

• capture my trip across the country


• celebrate my new 1976 MBZ 300D


• tell all of you about alternative fuels
  
  

This last goal is by far the most important. I bought my 1976 Mercedes Diesel to use as my gateway to the burgeoning alternative fuel market. There is a real trend developing in the use of biodiesel and different forms of vegetable oil for powering diesel automobiles. The goal is straightforward: produce a fuel domestically that burns cleaner than imported petroleum for a similar price. The science is simple: almost any vegetable oil can be converted to biodiesel using a method called transesterification. Or, with a simple modification, diesel engines can run on pure vegetable oil instead. Finally, the energy and enthusiam is there: I know I have caught the bug and I can tell from the websites, blogs, news articles etc., that others like me want to make these alternative fuels happen.

In the coming weeks I will be mixing a travel log with whatever I can find on this alternative fuel market across the country. I will put links to some of the blogs and sites on my sidebar. I hope it is as informative to you the reader as it will be for me the writer-traveller. I leave from Bradenton, FL tomorrow morning. The name is Interstellar Overdrive: Your Ride to the Future.