Renew News » Bio-Diesel

Myco-Diesel: Fuel Made By A Fungus

Mark — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:56:29 +0000

A scientist at Montana State University discovered a fungus in the rainforest that makes Diesel. Boom. That’s it. You feed the fungus, it poops, then you drive your truck with it.

Of course this is still in the early stages, and it will take years to set up a project to see if this is commercially viable and practical, but it’s stil very exciting. Especially if we could feed the fungus with stuff we don’t want anymore, like garbage.

Hear the full story here on NPR.

University of Wisconsin, Madison to Lead National Bioenergy Initiative

Mark — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 15:40:41 +0000

Wisconsin will soon light the way to energy independence, thanks to a $125 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy. UW-Madison announced plans for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, where UW scientists will work in partnership with two other universities to develop methods of converting plants into renewable liquid fuels.

Read the full story here.

Indianapolis Using Biodiesel Hybrid Buses

Mark — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 20:07:16 +0000

Being a top soy bean producer, it is in Indiana’s economic as well as environmental interest to use soy-derived bio diesel. Indygo, Indianapolis’ mass transit company has recently introduced hybrid buses that burn fuel produced right here in Inidana.

Read about Indianapolis’ first winter Ozone Action Day here.

Biobutanol is the Next Big Thing in Renewable Energy

Mark — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 04:51:57 +0000

As excited as I am about Biodiesel and SVO (Straight Vegetable Oil) as fuel for vehicles, I don’t have a diesel car and don’t see one in my near future. If you are like me there is new hope: Biobutanol.

Biobutanol is a form of alcohol that can replace gasoline. It is similar to ethanol but has more favorable characteristics as auto fuel.

the “bio” in biobutanol refers to the fact that butanol can be made from biological sources including a wide variety of crops, which leads to all kinds of environmental, economic and societal benefits (like less dependency on foreign oil)
butanol has a higher energy content than ethanol
it is less corrosive than ethanol so it can be transported through existing infrastructure (trucks, pipelines, etc)
requires little or no modification to work in your car
can be a 1:1 replacement for gasoline (unlike ethanol that can be up to only 10% in most vehicles)
it may even be able to be used in diesel engines

So if it’s so great why can’t you buy it right now? It seems as though the new technology to produce biobutanol efficiently is so new that it is not yet scaled up to an industrial level, and very little testing has been done on how cars will react to the fuel. The good news is that several groups are working on it, like a fairly new partnership between BP and DuPont, and it seems like a very promising fuel. You can find a whole lot more information at butanol.com

Myth Busters Tries Biodiesel… sort of.

Mark — Thu, 25 May 2006 05:33:09 +0000

The Discovery Channel’s Myth Busters, one of the best shows ever made, recently used Straight Vegetable Oil (SVO) in episode #53 “Exploding Pants”. It’s a great episode where in addition to trying to replicate the myth of the exploding pants from 1930s New Zealand, they investigate the spectacular claims of mile-per-gallon boosters that they find on the internet. They filter used vegetable oil from a restaurant and use it straight with no modifications to a diesel car to see how it fares against the other (often crazy) methods of getting more bang for your buck when you drive. Considering that the vegetable oil was free, and had about the same mpg as regular diesel, they do pretty well.
It’s a great episode, and a great show. Try to watch it if you can.

More info on using Straight Vegetable Oil and Biodiesel here.

BioTown, USA

Mark — Thu, 04 May 2006 03:15:20 +0000

I would not have thought of Indiana as being a leader on the frontier of environmentalism. But lo and behold, Govenor Mitch Daniels declared Reynolds IN as BioTown, USA on Sept 13th 2005.

The newspaper INtake published an article last week that seems almost too good to be true. Not only is it about trying to make a small Indiana town produce almost all it’s own fuel, but they make it sound like it might not be that hard, and maybe it would even be profitable.

Check it out here:

http://www.intakeweekly.com/articles/5/024302-8225-154.html

I certainly hope that this experiment works out, because it could be a model for communities all over farming areas. Incredible.

Anything Into Oil… Even Turkey Guts

Mark — Wed, 03 May 2006 05:52:26 +0000

I have to admit that I was skeptical when I first heard about people running their cars on french fry grease. Run your car on a waste product, and have it smell good at the same time? Too good to be true.

Now though, it seems that quite a few people are actually doing it. I’m not sure I have the patience to make my own bidiesel at home, and now it appears that we may not have to. Discover Magazine had an article a few years ago about making biodiesel from slaughter-house offal on a mass scale. I have been waiting with baited breath for a follow-up article… and here it is:

http://www.discover.com/issues/jul-04/features/anything-into-oil/