The EPA’s new rules are enforceable under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (EISA) which established the second phase of the Renewable Fuel Standards program. The EISA already specifies a one billion gallon minimum volume requirement for the biomass-based diesel category for 2012 and beyond, so the EPA’s slight requirement increase shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise to the diesel industry.

Biodiesel is a non-petroleum fuel typically made from fats or oils such as soybean oil, but it can also be derived from waste vegetable oils. According to the National Biodiesel Board, it can be blended at any level with petroleum diesel to create a biodiesel blend, and can be used in existing vehicles with diesel engines with little or no modifications.

The move is good news for states like Iowa that depend on the biodiesel industry to buy up their soybean crops. Currently Iowa is the country’s largest producer of biodisel with 13 dedicated facilities and the capacity to produce 320 million gallons on its own every year. Yet, some are still doubtful that using food crops for fuel production is a good use of America’s agricultural capabilities, and there have been questions about whether or not biodiesel is really a cleaner-burning fuel. And, of course, the petroleum industry is unhappy, having previously claimed that the EPA’s mandate makes it more expensive to produce diesel, a cost that’s ultimately passed on to the consumer.

Still, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack seems optimistic that the move will be good for the economy: ”Over the past three years, we have doubled generation from renewable energy and [this] announcement by the EPA will ensure that we are continuing to utilize biodiesel to help meet our energy needs, create jobs and strengthen the rural economy,” he said.

Photo credit: Frontpage/Shutterstock

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In a move sure to gain the appreciation of at least some hunger activists, EU Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard and Energy Commissioner Guenther Oettinger announced that The European Commission will be limiting crop-based biofuels to just 5 percent of transport fuel until at least the year 2020. Activists have been railing against the use of crops and other food sources for fuel as millions go hungry around the world.

“Finally the European commissioners have come to their senses,” said Clare Coffey, policy adviser at ActionAid. “They are firmly acknowledging that using precious food and agricultural land to fuel our cars is bad for people and bad for the environment. In a world where a billion go to bed hungry every night, that is immoral.”

While the limits will be put in place for crop-based fuels once passed by EU governments and lawmakers, development of other biofuels will move forward towards a goal of having at least 10 percent of the fuel mix be from renewable sources by 2020. According to a statement by Oettinger at a recent meeting of EU energy ministers, the difficulty in that will be finding sources that are as cheap to produce as crop-based ones currently used.

The United Nation’s food agency recently called for the U.S. to change its policies on crop-based biofuels because of the danger of a worldwide food crisis, but it seems the European Union is the only one taking that advice to heart. “We cannot continue to burn food in our petrol tanks while poor families go hungry,” said Natalia Alonso from Oxfam. Truer words aren’t spoken too often and we definitely need to speed up the development and production of non-food-based biofuel sources.

[via The Guardian]

Image Credit: Frapestaartje/Flickr

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The Iceni Grand Tourer will be introduced September 5 at Salon Privé 2012 in London and it is sure to garner much attention from auto and green enthusiasts alike. The Tourer has a biodiesel, palm oil, linseed oil, or regular diesel fuel-powered 6.6-litre twin-turbo diesel engine which capable of powering the car from 0 to 60 miles per hour in just 3.7 seconds. Put the pedal to the metal and you would see the speedometer top out at nearly 200 MPH. Prices start at £75 000, about US $118,000.

As for some eco-friendly details, Trident states that the engine turns at only 980 RPM at regular highway speeds and averages 70 miles per gallon while doing so, hardily beating the 50 MPG average of the fuel-efficient Toyota Prius.

Just for comparison sake, a 2013 petroleum-powered Ferrari California which also reaches 60 in 3.7 seconds and tops out at 193 MPH costs over $200,000 – and averages just 15 MPG.

The Iceni Grand Tourer is named after the ancient British tribe Iceni, which fought against the Romans around 60 A.D.

The sports car of the future may be arriving as soon as September of this year should the Iceni Grand Tourer meet expectations. Trident, we here at Revmodo would be more than happy to test the car and make sure it does all you say it can do!

[via iol Motoring]

Image Credit: Trident

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For the last few years, Professor Richard Parnas has been converting the school’s used cooking oils into biodiesel to be used by on-campus buses. But because of the rising price and lack of supply of yellow greases, Parnas and his company RPM Sustainable Technologies is now researching ways to turn brown grease – the thick, gunky stuff that collects at the bottom of traps in fryers and waste treatment facilities – into biodiesel, a monumental task given the makeup of the grease.

“Brown grease is the next frontier in the race to the bottom,” he said. “Brown grease is just like it sounds, a fairly disgusting thing.”

Parnas and company are setting up a prototype system to split the collected brown grease into oils and biosolids, converting the oils into biodiesel fuel and the solids into synthetic natural gas to produce methanol. The company is seeking public and private funds for further development, and local waste treatment centers have expressed interest in the system.

Right now, brown waste grease is sent off to incinerators to be disposed of, as no one has ever had a use for it. Where Professor Parnas lives, for example, almost 900,000 gallons of a brown grease & water mix are burned each year. RPM’s system aims to convert the 95,000 gallons of solid grease in that mixture into 45,000 gallons of biodiesel. If successful, brown grease biodiesel could be the next gold rush in biofuels.

[via Hartford Courant]

Image Credit: Sustainable sanitation/Flickr

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Liquid wastewater is discharged on a constant basis by cities and towns the world over, coming from any residential, commercial, and industrial sources utilizing fresh water. Depending on its use further upstream, the water can be made up of a wide assortment of contaminants such as feces, cooking oils, chemicals, or highway rain runoff. In most places, wastewater is treated at an expensive water treatment plant before being released into the wild, reducing or eliminating many of its pollutants. Assistant professor Belinda Sturm at the University of Kansas saw a use for the oft-nutrient rich wastewater and she has been growing algae in it to manufacture biodiesel fuel with.

Sturm is utilizing the post-treatment nitrogen and phosphorus-filled wastewater coming from the city of Lawrence to grow the algae, which she then mixes into a slurry and processes to capture the oily lipids used in biodiesel. In addition to making the oils needed for the fuel, the process helps to further reduce wastewater contaminants prior to it being discharged into the river. In talking to the DodgeGlobe, KU engineering professor Dennis Lane stated that this approach could help communities comply with federal environmental regulations for dealing with wastewater.

Due to her research, Sturm recently won the Excellence in Environmental Engineering Award from the Academy of Environmental Engineers for her work. If every community was able to reuse wastewater to make biodiesel from, we could not only produce a lot of fuel but also reduce the use of freshwater to do so. Let’s hope her research pays off and we can start building algae plants right alongside our wastewater treatment facilities.

[via DodgeGlobe]

Image Credit: mmmavocado/Flickr

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Jatropha seeds come from inside a golf-ball-sized fruit which, after being pressed, releases an oil quite similar to palm oil. This oil can be used as biodiesel and the leftover mush from the plant and stems can be used in anaerobic digesters to create biogas. The plant is called the “bellyache bush” due to how toxic the seeds are: consuming as little as three of them can be fatal. In tiny doses, they have traditionally been used in Cuba to combat intestinal bugs and to lower fevers, reports Yahoo News.

The use of an inedible, toxic plant to create biofuels could aleve concerns that some have about burning food to create fuel. In addition, jatropha can be grown just about anywhere, requiring little water or fertilization, and can be intermixed with other crops such as coffee. “It’s a major change to the widespread paradigm in global biofuel production,” said Jose Sotolongo, director of the Center for Applied Technology for Sustainable Development in Cuba. The country’s biodiesel plant is capable of producing over 100 tons of fuel from its 130 acres of plantings per year.

In 2007, Goldman Sachs claimed that the jatropha plant would be one of the best sources for future biodiesel production and several airlines must have taken note. In 2008 Air New Zealand completed a test flight using a 50/50 mix of jatropha-oil-derived biofuel and conventional jet fuel, followed by Continental Airlines in 2009 and Air China in 2011.

Brazil and the Phillippines are already using the seeds to make biodiesel, and several countries in Africa are planting fields of jatropha in preparation for converting the seeds into fuel as well. Cuba already uses sugar cane and wood from trees to produce electricity, and it aims to generate one-sixth of its needs from renewable sources by 2020. The “bellyache bush” should help them achieve that goal.

Image Credit: Wikipedia

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