NYT -- Biodiesel fuel (soybean oil and recycled restaurant grease).
May 12, 2002
Biodiesel: A Fuel That Starts Low on the Food Chain
By ERIK BAARD
RON CASCIO, a professional builder of solar-heated homes, had long been looking for ways to reduce
his own reliance on gasoline. He resented the unpredictable price, the pollution and the dependence on
foreign oil. "The whole petroleum system is nasty, and I wanted out," he said.
Two years ago, Mr. Cascio replaced his gasoline-powered cars with two 1997 Volkswagen Passat wagons
and a 1989 Ford F250 pickup truck, all diesel powered. But it wasn't the diesel engines that freed him from
the grip of the petroleum industry, he said; it was the fuel — a refined concoction of soybean oil and
recycled restaurant grease, more scientifically known as biodiesel — that he buys from a local distributor.
"I remember feeling so liberated and like a true patriot," said Mr. Cascio, 48, of Ocean City, Md. His vehicles
didn't belch toxic black diesel smoke, Mr. Cascio said, but instead created a relatively harmless exhaust that
"smelled like popcorn."
In recent years, far bigger customers have also embraced biodiesel, including the United States armed
forces, Postal Service, big utilities like Florida Power and Light and dozens of public transit units from the
bus system in Boise, Idaho, to the Staten Island Ferry. All use diesel fuel that includes at least 20 percent
biodiesel.
Petroleum companies like BP, Gulf Oil and Koch Industries are starting to market biodiesel, a sharp shift in
an industry that once considered biodiesel a fringe fuel. Archer Daniels Midland, a leading soybean
processor, announced last month that it might build a biodiesel refinery in Minnesota. And the Senate is
considering an energy bill that would grant tax breaks to biodiesel makers and lower the fuel's price, now
$1.25 to $1.75 a gallon, compared with the standard diesel price of roughly $1.30 a gallon.
As Middle East turmoil again casts doubt on the reliability of America's foreign oil supplies, biodiesel is
getting more attention — and use — as a domestically produced alternative fuel. While it is a long way from
reducing dependence on oil, it is slowly changing the diesel engine's reputation as the gasoline engine's dirty
cousin.
Marguerite Downey, the alternative-fuels manager for the Postal Service, said biodiesel was "our most
successful new fuel program, and we have more experience than any other fleet with alternative fuel." It
used 671,000 gallons of biodiesel blend last year, 418,000 in 2000 and 90,000 in 1999.
Biodiesel is a return, of sorts, to the original concept of Rudolf Diesel, the German engineer who in 1893
published a description of the engine that would bear his name. He fueled his prototype engine with peanut
oil, an idea that never took off because petroleum-based fuel quickly became cheaper and more plentiful.
The smell of pure biodiesel fuel is a big selling point: a common industry catch phrase is that it smells like a
kitchen, not a garage. In many engines, it can be used in pure form or as a blend with petroleum diesel.
Sulfur-free, pure biodiesel meets the antipollution requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency for
2006.
Compared with standard diesel fuel, pure biodiesel reduces emissions of small particles by 40 percent; the
residue is nontoxic and biodegradable. Biodiesel is also safer to handle and transport because it ignites at a
much higher temperature than standard diesel or gasoline.
Still, advocates face obstacles. Biodiesel-powered engines can be difficult to start in cold weather. And
American consumers can have trouble finding the fuel: the first retail biodiesel pumps in the United States
opened a year ago in San Francisco and Reno, Nev., and there are now just 21 retail pumps scattered
throughout the country.
Domestically produced biodiesel may never replace diesel — there are not enough American-grown soybeans
and other ingredients to produce anything close to the 55 billion gallons of diesel fuel used annually in the
United States. Besides, most vehicles here run on gasoline, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon.
The auto industry has little incentive to promote biodiesel. "Is it something we'd like to see?" said Tony
Fouladpour, a spokesman for Volkswagen of America. "Sure. But it's not really our job to market for
biodiesel."
Biodiesel production is expected to grow to 20 million to 25 million gallons this year and to 30 million to 40
million in 2003, according to the National Biodiesel Board, a trade group in Jefferson City, Mo., of soybean
organizations. Soybean oil accounted for 90 percent of the raw material used in the estimated 15 million
gallons produced in 2001; the remaining ingredients were other oil-bearing crops and waste grease.
But some biodiesel advocates say production could be vastly higher if other oil-bearing plants were used
more. A study financed by the Energy Department, published last November, suggested that expanded
production of mustard seeds, combined with current soybean production and waste grease, could produce at
least six billion gallons of biodiesel annually.
But Dr. K. Shaine Tyson, the manager of the renewable-diesel project at the National Renewable Energy
Laboratory in Golden, Colo., who wrote the study, said the soybean lobby, which dominates the biodiesel
industry, fears that other raw material could compete with soybeans.
Joe Jobe, the Biodiesel Board's executive director, denied Dr. Tyson's assertion and said the board was
neutral over biodiesel's ingredients.
World Energy Alternatives, based in Chelsea, Mass., is by far the largest domestic producer of biodiesel,
with 75 percent of the market. Its president, Gene Gebolys, agreed that soybeans were the most practical
source of ingredients for now. But the company also buys rapeseed oil, waste oil from landfills and recycled
grease to produce biodiesel at plants in Ohio, Texas, Florida, California and Hawaii.
Dr. Tyson's study also suggested that the food industry's waste grease, like the yellow grease from deep
fryers and restaurants' "trap greases," now waste material, could be used for biodiesel. The United States
produces enough waste greases a year to make 500 million gallons of biodiesel.
New York City alone could produce 53 million gallons of biodiesel annually from its waste greases, Dr.
Tyson estimated. That is about five times the annual diesel fuel consumption of the city public transit
system.
Biodiesel critics, including some environmentalists, say it will never be produced in large-enough quantities to
reduce air pollution or oil consumption. Advocates of natural gas, meanwhile, point out that their fuel is
already plentiful, easily available and cleaner than the popular 20 percent biodiesel blend. "The question is: Do
you want to bunt a single or go for a home run in terms of emissions reductions?" asked Richard R.
Kolodziej, president of the Natural Gas Vehicle Coalition, a Washington lobbying group.
A different drawback of biodiesel worries some diesel engine makers: It may go bad if it sits too long, as
cooking oil does. John Deere, the farm equipment and marine engine maker, limits its warranty to blends of
5 percent biodiesel or less.
Barry Nelson, a spokesman for John Deere, said it had found that a small amount of biodiesel in diesel blends
improved the fuel. "But we're not comfortable yet with higher blends until we do more testing and have
guidelines for safe storing," he said.
And there is one final hurdle for biodiesel advocates: What can be done with glycerin, a goopy byproduct of
biodiesel refining? Although glycerin is often used in food, soap and cosmetics, it already is cheap and widely
available, and the market for an additional supply is unclear at best.
"The biodiesel industry is just starting to sit down and think about what we can do with all that glycerin," Dr.
Tyson said.
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company |
